|
Everybody wants to be the big fish. Everybody wants to be successful. Some of us define success differently. There are those who want fame or money and there are those who just want to be pleased with their work. There are many ways to achieve what you want, but there really aren't any short cuts. What is most important to any goal you may have is to
stay true to yourself. You will never achieve any measure of success by emulating someone else.
The mainstream media often succumbs to some odd need to portray a sort of 'ratrace' mentality within this scene… clusters of people struggling to be the next Prodigy, the next Daft Punk, the next Chemical Brothers… DJs striving hard to be the next Keoki or whoever. It sucks, but I suppose there are some who think that you can get somewhere by writing yet another drumroll or by spinning anthems and broken tracks. I suppose people will respond, but if we resume the fish analogy it becomes evident that all you're doing is needlessly bulking up. You become the big fish in a small pond that doesn't have the skills to make
it in the wide, open sea. It would be very easy to become a local
success, but the thing to remember is that every locale has their own local success… and a lot of them are probably on the same bandwagon.
The roots of this scene and this music are often said to lie in Detroit. The early techno from that city was moody and soulful. It came from the heart, electronic music meant to convey the pressures of being held under in the urban environment. In the pursuit of notoriety and making a name for yourself it would seem that a lot of people have simply forgotten that the best music to be heard comes from a need to express yourself, rather than a desire to be famous.
So forget about trying to 'rock the party' with the latest crowd pleaser… fuck putting together a live set with copycat tracks based on popular anthems… do something that innovates. Let the creativity flow. Despite the inspiring words of Tony Robbins the odds are that you're never going to get rich, but according to Andy Warhol you will get 15 minutes of fame… See to it that people looking back will say "those 15 minutes changed my life."
Ten years from now all these mainstream electronica success stories will probably be about as memorable as Rick Springfield or Donnie Iris… and while Karlheinz Stockhausen, Juan Atkins and Jeff Mills aren't any more likely to be remembered by name, you'll be hearing their influence in music well into the next century. And, when it comes right down to it, is fame being the subject of public accolade? Or is it having fellow artists say "there's no way I could have done any of this if I hadn't
heard their work."
--Fishead |
Activated Online.