One of us missed something here. I'm not saying that my methods are the be all end all, and the rest is inferior, dude. You're totally missing the point here. You're treating this form of music like some packaging for a drug experience that you just throw away after the high is gone and the club is closed. You think it's cool to just create some throw-away piece of shit just for some cheap high and a couple bucks? When did that become cool? What happened to spending a lifetime honing your craft, whatever it may be, always striving to better oneself? Is that just too archaic an ideal for kids in this day and age?
Who said there's no such thing as bad art? Whoever they were, they are full of shit up their eyebrows. There's bad/crap art in any medium, and it's the exact same kind of cheap, effortless, disposable package, that gives you no feeling whatsoever, like background noise, that you seem to be espousing as acceptable and valid. To my understanding, the purpose of art is to convey a feeling, first and foremost. The feeling is up to interpretation by the individual, but if there is no feeling, no reaction, no emotional response to a piece, then it IS BAD ART. It is a failure. It is useless. It is simply wasted energy. The only thing it might succeed in is showing the creator, and others what mistake not to repeat. Even that is a maybe.
I never went to artschool, but I know plenty of pretentious musicians, and most of them are that way cuz deep down inside, they really don't care about the artform; they simply care about the image others hold of them.
Method is not important in art? Have you never seen a piece with accompanying documentation/imagery showing how a piece was made, and seen that the method itself was art?
To use your analogy of chainsaws and axes, it would seem a little more accurate to say that yes, two trees got cut down, and both were made into tables. The one cut down with the chainsaw ended up as particle board and although it held the first round of drinks, it got a little damp and fell apart into something utterly useless in five minutes, while the one cut with the axe was honed into a solid top table and will stand the test of time.
Yeah, great lets make the idiots dance? Nah, lets offer the idiots some intelligence. Instead of continually promoting the idea that you have to be an idiot(do loads of chemicals, wear the pretty clothes, be better than everyone else) and do idiot stuff, why not try to change the philosophy a little? Why not create something with a little depth and complexity, that demands a bit of contemplation, makes the listener think a little, rather than pushing him/her in the other direction (i.e. thoughtlessness, base behavior)? Really, dude, you're saying it's cool to continue programming people to be dumb, and to me that't just wrong and fucked up. I don't feel that way. I think it's cool to make people think, and maybe wake them up a little bit, help them to be a little more aware of what's going on in the world around them. Art/music is the vehicle, because the message isn't something you can just put into words and expect to sink in. I would hope you know this.
I don't know too much, but there are a few things I do know. 1) this world is fucked up right now, and needs help. 2) help requires awareness 3) people need to be deprogrammed out of their torper, and woken up to the fact that it takes everyone, including themselves to make an improvement/change. 4) music is the most effective and benign tool I have to accomplish this goal. 5) ignorance/closedmindedness weakens the effectiveness of the tool.
I could go on for hours. I disagree with your ethics. I find them fundamentally flawed. That's not just some egotistical remark. I find the core values behind your comments to be in conflict with mine. I don't need to convince myself of the importance of the medium. It's import is self evident. I don't need to convince myself of the power of the medium. I can raise thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars with this medium to accomplish a goal or aid in fixing a problem, and see the energy at work.
Have you ever played a benefit for a charity? Pulled hundreds even a thousand paying/donating hedz through a door with your name to help fix what you recognize as a problem (hunger/homelessness)? That's what convinces me of the import of the medium, not some fucking ego boosting interview in some stuffy magazine, or the odd bit of asskissing from the audience, but rather seeing several hundred people eat good healthy food that might otherwise not eat so well, or starve. I'm not bitter, I'm just disappointed in your shortsightedness, and your underestimation of my motives and values. I ain't one of you lost artschool friends. I'm a guy out there in the shit, who's been out there in the shit for a long time now, trying to do the right thing, and maybe show others a bit about how and what while I'm at it. Think.
Ape