How does one define art and who gets to say what is art? Art is very subjective, we all know that and people use in defense of some "questionable" taste. That brings up the question: Does bad art exist? I literally have no idea. Yes, there are some things that i find absolutely horrendous, that some people adore. Music is an art form and I strongly believe that it should be treated at such.
In our era, I see that very few artists make a comprehensive piece of work. It's all about sales, now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing (we do live in a capitalist economy after all). But to pretend that these albums should get awards meant for the best of the best *cough* Grammys *cough*, would be a disservice to the meaning of art. While one could argue that lyrics about drugs, money do evoke a certain feeling of happiness and enjoyment and the fact that it does evoke emotion makes it art, I would ask "what makes one song about drugs and money better than another song of the same subject?"
I'm not one of those that think "they're born in the wrong generation". The old generations were frankly messed up. There are actually a number of artists putting in the effort and time but I can't ignore the uniformity of mainstream music. We aren't doing it like they used to. Awards mean absolutely nothing in this era because all the music nominated is just because the artist is popular not because the music deserves it.
This also diminishes the magic of music. There's no pressure to create music that will be remembered years to come, nobody's bending the rules, no one's making controversial statements, they just wanna give us 22 track albums of songs that sound exactly the same so they can climb up the chart.
The music videos are underwhelming as well. They usually just involve some idolised lifestyle or an oversexual shock factor (Lil Nas X perfected this this week). And it usually works, they trend and climb up the charts and then the next time they give us exactly the same thing AGAIN. Back then music videos told stories, brought you into an artist's mind and world. They literally made movies for a song.
As much as I want to believe the work ethic of our faves, I'm starting to doubt their capabilities and talent. We can see the difference from back then and now especially in the hip-hop community. Rap back then was about respect and competition, if you didn't write your own songs, you didn't have respect. But now we have ghost writers that keep it safe and don't push boundaries with cynical or shocking lyrics, which in my opinion is ruining the sport of hip-hop.
As more artists emerge, I would hope that they will start making albums that have to be listened to in order to tell a story. I hope for albums that want to assume longevity and shall be remembered by generations to come.
Album:
Athena - Sudan Archives
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