Last night I went along to watch my friend's band compete in the semi-final Sydney band competition. Initially the band known as Seekae had entered themselves described as "electronica/shoegaze", shoegaze being a relatively non-official genre of music where by the musicians don't really have a specific sound or image but tend to gaze at their shoes so to speak whilst performing and play to themselves with an anti-stage-presence-like quality.
It seems as though bands today aspire to mimmic/create a certain image rather then focusing on music as an art form, which it is. Now it's all about what appeals to the general public (dancy electro pop anyone?) as one solid unit, not to one's individual response to the sound itself. It's not cool to be cool!
I may be a little bias being friends with the band members and all, yet the outcome of the competition managed to bring out some fiery emotions in me, one thought being that musicians/artists like Seekae are pushing boundaries and the general public aren't willing to embrace them. I guess that this issue has always been the case amongst society and if I may contradict myself I think I actually like it better that way in some cases as it becomes more exclusive. Sometimes grand exposure can be a bad thing.
I have always interpreted music and visual art as tying strongly together, in both a commercial and non-commercial sense. Like when people like "nice" looking art, that is essentially the same thing as liking "nice" sounding music. It just sucks when at the end of the day there's a $5000 prize up for grabs and who takes the money home? Some boring skinny jean wearing boy band that sound like every other boring skinny jean wearing boy band that's already playing on the radio.
And now for some good old-fashioned ADVERTISEMENT! Check em out (Seekae, that is) at:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=178148406
1 comment:
I tend to agree with this focus on entertainment vs good music/art. For example Tracy Emin. I love her art work, this aside I feel that alot of the general public know of her because of her antics and lifestyle. She as a person is different, interesting, controversial and very different to the most of the public who sit at home and watch our experiences on tv. Also Picasso very controversial and eccentric lifestyle and very popular and entertaining as a character and then maybe as an artist.
So maybe this competition should be called Sydney Entertainment Comp and not Band Comp?
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