I consider myself an artist. Yet every time I hear someone say that line, or something similiar, i despise them. I think much of this problem that is highlighted in this thread lies within this.
I am a young man from Norway, or a european if you will, and I can relate to people declining the western civilization. I see how American trends completely swallows us whole. People around me in this city's got that "the south will rise again!"-flag in their homes, they wear bandanas that have the US-flag on them, they dress up like housewives straight out of Mad Men, they wear rockabilly-uniforms etc. Even I make music that is heavily inspired by American music. At the same time, in some ways, I am a hypocrite. I tend to make excuses when people say that we sound like an American band and ask myself later on why the fuck I do that. Then all these existential questions comes lurking at the back of my throat. Insecurity, I guess. When I talk with foreigners I speak with a heavy american accent. It's all stupid. It frustrates me, and thus drives me forth to try and make something unique that stands alone in it's own universe, without any direct links to any nationality, language, culture and so forth. But it will always end up sounding like something I've been inspired by, and so the snake bites it's own tail. All the paradoxes that is lined up in my head about society makes me want to just finally and completely give up. Where does one draw the line between making simply good music, and making music that comes straight from your inner depths and shrines?
I believe unconfused when he says that many people today are bored. I do believe many people don't know what, who, why they are. They're blank sheets of paper, suddenly realising they need an identity, and so they build one, and some use the bricks that so-called alternative medias serve them. So they become yet another brick in that hipster- hiphop- metal- or whatever wall. But then again, it's all relative and my perspective is as true as any others.. or is it? Aren't we all going for that one goal to make the world a better place? Even Hitler had good intentions, but it was his perspective of it all. So many systems and so many ways to figure them out.
It struck me as I walked outside today, crossing the road. A woman in a car honked manically at me, and I stopped for a second as a instinctive reflex. Was it fear? Would that woman honk if she knew me? And if I did not think at all in that moment, and was not lost in my thoughts as I usually am, and I were totally present, would I stop for that little second? Would I be afraid? There is some kind of pollution that clouds everything.. minds and intentions. I am not used to writing long passages while trying to make a point.. I might have lost myself in here somewhere, yet I stand by it.
But my final question is this; Are we that different, you and I?
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