A question if not THE one which has been around since the beginning of humanity and inspired so many writers including the late visionnaire Aldous Huxley, best remembered for his Brave New World book. And, in the mean time, an interrogation if not an obsession than we, as Western societies consummers, are confronted with on an almost everyday basis… As if acquiring the latest thing we’ve heard of was an obligation.
Where do we go ? Quite hard to say although many signs would tend to show how the direction we’re collectively taking at the moment isn’t the best around to many of us as individuals when asked about it on an eye to eye conversation. This said, what do we do about it ? Almost like nothing, having some of us either selling their own souls while acting on a reputedly more mainstream field, either ceasing their activities. But if the result is significantly different from the ones to the others, the reason of their choice is often the same for both of them, resulting in the absence if not loss of their faith into what they’re doing. Either because they’ve simply never had the capacity/background to achieve what they initially wanted. either because they’ve never had the chance to be at the right place at the right time. On an other hand, let’s not forget that the criterias of selection have drastically changed over those last 30 years, essentially based on sales potential as opposed to artistry. Not to mention our global environment, where it looks obvious that said neutral people are by far prefered to people with some character by a vaste majority of employers due to the fact that they’re more easily manipulated and quickly replaced.
Nevertheless, I’d like to believe that such a situation can’t last forever, according to the fact that an extreme has always led to another at some time, as I’d like to think that recognition always come one day or another as far as talent is concerned. The only question for those of us living hard times being WHEN.
When having a look back at the past, we may see how music has always been strongly related to the whims of history, be it rock (& roll) as a protesting expression against the VietNam War, disco at the very end of the said 30 glorious (years), punk denouncing a British society considered as too congealed at the time and the list goes on with hip hop, acid, techno, drum & bass. Not to mention forms such as calypso or reggae as reactions facing the colonialism, and I’m not even talking about the national anthems. Differently said, music fully playing its reputed game as an art ! And what do we see today ? Mostly simple reproductions which on most cases, can’t work, simply because applied to an environment which isn’t the same any more. Cycles are made to last for a limited period time and judging by what’s currently around, one might wonder if time hasn’t come for the birth of a new one. In other words, what we’re currently living could well be the calm before a new storm and, as a result, the excitement that such a situation (revolution) suggests in terms of creativity. Is this that we’re up to see the emergence of a new rhytmic system, or could it be that everything has (already been) written like some people would tend to think ? I really don’t know but what I can say is that true soul will never die, as it’s probably easier to have an idea about where do we go when knowing where we are and where we come from. MFSB
INTERVIEW
