The Best/Worst of Times...
*Ron Perlman narrator voice in a post-apocoplytic retelling of The Tale of Two Cities: “That Dickens bastard had it right: it was best of times and it was the worst of fuckin’ times…”
~
If you are unfortunate enough to know me you’ve probably heard my bit by now about this classic literature intro that’s even more true now than it was at the dawn of the industrial revolution. We live in an age where a small device in my pocket can play me a seemingly infinite amount of recorded music instantaneously. Yet the same companies that make that technological miracle happen are also doing vast harm to a huge number of human beings, not to mention our planet. From the ecologically destructive and human-devouring enterprise that is rare-earth mineral extraction used to create our phones, to the exploitation of musicians with ludicrously low payouts, to the industry embracing and pushing AI slop, to the investments made into nefarious privacy and humanity destroying efforts by the corporations running the streaming services, the cost of that miracle is unbelievably high. Irresponsibly high. Unforgivably high. And certainly, it’s unsustainably high.
And the worst part of this, as with so many modern ills, is that it doesn’t have to be like this.
I mean, there always seems to be money for CEO bonuses and golden parachutes, always money for lavish lobbying to fascist governments (like my own), but somehow there’s never enough money to pay artists and there’s never enough money to pay their share of taxes. It’s gut-wrenching to realize it, but by now it’s a very tired canard: there’s always somehow money for bombs, but never enough money for food.
Another old canard to trot out here: no ethical consumption under capitalism. And, yeah, my little leftist heart knows it’s “true,” technically, but dammit, it feels like consumption is the only power you have under capitalism (well, obviously there are other powers but that’s not talk I put out publicly). And with that little power we have, we still gotta do our best, right? So, yeah, I also got off the Spotify train, but there’s so much more that we need to do. Ethical listening shouldn’t be something that we have to work for but here we are.
So what’s the point of all this hand-wringing and navel-gazing? I’m not really sure, just that, especially at this time that the music industry has deemed “the end of the year” (with 4 weeks left to go) and all the year-end lists that have already dropped this week, I feel kind of adrift, caught between wanting to be excited to what usually is a favorite hobby at this time of the year (I just love reading as many lists and wrap-ups as possible: finding music I’ve missed, seeing others articulate similar thoughts to mine, etc.) and realizing how harmful the current music industry ecosystem is to the very artists who make it amazing.
I hate to end it on that extremely long run-on sentence but there aren’t any simple answers. Especially since I didn’t really pose any actionable questions. But, I guess, as a start, let’s keep our heads in the game, keep engaging with art in ways that are meaningful, supporting those creators as much as is possible with and without the constraints of the current system.
As is also my annual habit, I’m going to hold off publishing my own year-end lists until, you know, the year is actually over. Not only to give me time to find what I’ve missed so far, but to give those poor December releases a shot too! So I’ll be posting normal recommendations for the remainder of the year and hopefully roll out all sorts of fun lists come early January.
That said, and I don’t think it’s a secret around here, but I already have my number one song of the year. Back in January I wrote about “COMBAT” from electronic artist Ela Minus, but let me post the link to the video here one more time and, as a bit of inspiration for what to do about waves arms “all this,” I think it’s not just apt, but revelatory. Revolutionary even.
~
Los pájaros nacidos en jaula
no le tenemos miedo a nada.
We're all birds born in a cage
but we aren't afraid of anything
creyeron que no nos íbamos
a acordar de volar…
They thought we wouldn't remember
we could fly
creyeron que no nos íbamos
a atrever a saltar.
they thought we wouldn't dare to leap
Entre más se acerquen las paredes
más fuertes las ganas de tumbarlas,
The closer the walls get
the stronger the will to break them
de no parar hasta quemarlo todo...
and to not stop until it's all been burned...
No parar.
Never stop.
“COMBAT” by Ela Minus
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