"So as a producer or songwriter, you won’t succeed simply because you make “dope music.” No, it will be because of **who you are**, why you make the music you make, and what you’re willing to do to accomplish your goals - whatever they may be"
This kinda speaks to something I've been saying for years: most people don't really even like music — they like all the things used to sell it to them. "Dope music" is — at most — secondary to everything else. Especially now that everything is silo'd into "lifestyle" packages with products tailored to specific demos — music is just another one of those products — you buy to consume as a way of "self-expression".
The whole "who you are thing" is kind of joke as being a "successful" musician today is just another facet of Hollywood — they're all actors claiming to be "real".. but in reality, they're playing a role to sell music. They're little more than mascots groomed [including a backstory = the "why"] to sell a product they had almost nothing to do with creating.
Once you acknowledge that music is actually a form of hypnosis, the reasons for it being an industry that markets its product the way it does makes a lot more sense. There's a reason the internet still hasn't produced a truly independent "star" that's known outside their bubble — "fame" is the synthetic result of industry... only they have the infrastructure to create stars, but they need a face to distract consumers from the fact they're merely buying into a formula designed by committee.
Even the "vanity labels" made popular in the 90s were part of this formula... as part of the "who you are" narrative. "Oh, they're independent [with a major label parent and distro, but ignore that part]... they must be a 'real' artist.. take my money!"
"But to be clear, while many people “don’t like music”; just like many athletes “don’t like their sport”, and are doing it for the money, many do like it..."
Just to clarify: when I was talking about "people not actually liking music", I meant the consumers. I do think most people in the biz do like music — at least on the production side of things... once you get one or more departments removed from the core group responsible for the actual product, I imagine it's more of a numbers game than a love of music that's the main driver of how the raw product is molded into the final consumable.
"That’s a societal not music thing."
Yes. That's also kinda my entire point. The industry depends on it... and at the same time is re-enforcing it via a feedback loop exploiting basic human/social group psychology.
"Truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense (But I did five Mil) I ain't been rhyming like Common since"
TBH, I kinda feel like this is just an overused trope used to excuse selling out — blame the audience! It also demonstrates that he has no standards and that he does whatever makes him money... which is the real message he's being used to propagate anyway — make money to spend money on <product placement>. What "hustle" are the vast majority of his audience involved in other than being an employee of a corporation in order to buy stuff from other corporations?
Sure, you can blame the audience for forcing him to "dumb it down", but... there are countless people already doing that and no one cares. The dumbness is obviously only part of a equation that he was hot-swapped into and... it worked! [and it was likely the last time it worked to that scale, but that's a different convo] Truth is: no one would care about Jay-Z if it wasn't for the fame bestowed upon him by industry. In fact, of his top 10 Spotify tracks, there's only one where he's the actual focus instead of his feature (and it's from an album tied to yet another product). Also: when did he ever rhyme "like Common"?
Deep
Thank you
that quincy video tho
"So as a producer or songwriter, you won’t succeed simply because you make “dope music.” No, it will be because of **who you are**, why you make the music you make, and what you’re willing to do to accomplish your goals - whatever they may be"
This kinda speaks to something I've been saying for years: most people don't really even like music — they like all the things used to sell it to them. "Dope music" is — at most — secondary to everything else. Especially now that everything is silo'd into "lifestyle" packages with products tailored to specific demos — music is just another one of those products — you buy to consume as a way of "self-expression".
The whole "who you are thing" is kind of joke as being a "successful" musician today is just another facet of Hollywood — they're all actors claiming to be "real".. but in reality, they're playing a role to sell music. They're little more than mascots groomed [including a backstory = the "why"] to sell a product they had almost nothing to do with creating.
Once you acknowledge that music is actually a form of hypnosis, the reasons for it being an industry that markets its product the way it does makes a lot more sense. There's a reason the internet still hasn't produced a truly independent "star" that's known outside their bubble — "fame" is the synthetic result of industry... only they have the infrastructure to create stars, but they need a face to distract consumers from the fact they're merely buying into a formula designed by committee.
Even the "vanity labels" made popular in the 90s were part of this formula... as part of the "who you are" narrative. "Oh, they're independent [with a major label parent and distro, but ignore that part]... they must be a 'real' artist.. take my money!"
"But to be clear, while many people “don’t like music”; just like many athletes “don’t like their sport”, and are doing it for the money, many do like it..."
Just to clarify: when I was talking about "people not actually liking music", I meant the consumers. I do think most people in the biz do like music — at least on the production side of things... once you get one or more departments removed from the core group responsible for the actual product, I imagine it's more of a numbers game than a love of music that's the main driver of how the raw product is molded into the final consumable.
"That’s a societal not music thing."
Yes. That's also kinda my entire point. The industry depends on it... and at the same time is re-enforcing it via a feedback loop exploiting basic human/social group psychology.
"Truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense (But I did five Mil) I ain't been rhyming like Common since"
TBH, I kinda feel like this is just an overused trope used to excuse selling out — blame the audience! It also demonstrates that he has no standards and that he does whatever makes him money... which is the real message he's being used to propagate anyway — make money to spend money on <product placement>. What "hustle" are the vast majority of his audience involved in other than being an employee of a corporation in order to buy stuff from other corporations?
Sure, you can blame the audience for forcing him to "dumb it down", but... there are countless people already doing that and no one cares. The dumbness is obviously only part of a equation that he was hot-swapped into and... it worked! [and it was likely the last time it worked to that scale, but that's a different convo] Truth is: no one would care about Jay-Z if it wasn't for the fame bestowed upon him by industry. In fact, of his top 10 Spotify tracks, there's only one where he's the actual focus instead of his feature (and it's from an album tied to yet another product). Also: when did he ever rhyme "like Common"?
Deep