Taylor Swift, Spotify and the current state of the music product and consumer
I try to stay up to date with the current trends in music, so when I heard Tay Swizzle and billie Eilish were dropping records without any singles, to say I was intrigued was an understatement. Why were they going against the tradition of releasing a single song before a record? My question was soon answered with varied results. Taylor swift's record despite being praised by swifties everywhere was lackluster and catered to an audience that already loves her. Eilish’s on the other hand was a well thought out, and produced record that came straight from her lips. There seemed to be a great disparity between creating music for creations sake and the idea that the product could be put out without much heart put into it. A disparity between the personal art that moves and the product released to be consumed.
Not a month later, I got the privilege of working as one of the Audio Engineers for one of the biggest festival lineups during CMA Fest: Spotify House! While it was a blast and incredibly tiring(about 16 hours a day), I started to notice another disparity as I witnessed the interactions between Spotify and the artist. There was a certain amount of cynicism where they focused on the content and clicks they could get through an interaction instead of the connection of a face to face interaction. This cynicism driven by a consumerist tiktok culture cared more about the five seconds of attention rather than the human interaction right in front of them. They cared more for the plastic instead of the flesh and blood.
With the trend of the music industry and songwriters' paychecks continuing to lean towards calamity rather than humility and care, we are left with the price tag for a piece of art reaching towards the number close to zero. But how do we return this art form to a place of sanctity?
I was running audio for a youth camp when I saw a glimpse of what might just be an answer. It was night four and everything was seemingly going wrong. The background music was going to the mixing console, the lights were on the fritz, and the projector had its own poltergeist flashing the static from an ancient television set. The only thing that was running fine was the sound from the band and the mics for that night's preacher. The entire crew was in a panic yet I sat there in peace(this wasn’t my first rodeo and definitely wouldn’t be my last). The show could go on. The songs were sung, the message was preached and almost no one knew of any of the technical difficulties behind the scenes.
After we wrapped up, the bass player and I talked about everything that went wrong.
“Maybe it was Satan. Maybe he didn’t want us to worship tonight.” He said laughing a little bit.
“Perhaps…” I replied, “But I think I could also make a case for God”
After some time of reflection, God could have very well been saying to us, “You don’t need any of these lights, the smoke, the words. These people still worshipped!” He found the very act of being personal sacred. We’ve become too dependent on content and whether or not it will be consumed. Too Dependant on the clicks and likes of this day. But maybe God intended for us to be personal and care about the one across from us. Maybe that’s why he came down to Earth as Jesus, so that even he can be tangibly personal and care for us. And maybe in the process of being personal, music is still sacred too.
