Soundcloud, Digital Freedom, & New Music Favorites

Recently, I have discovered a whole new world of music found on Soundcloud, a site that allows just about anyone to upload and share their original music. I think there is a lot of hidden talent in the less famous and well-known music scenes. With the internet, these artists are much easier to discover, especially with sites like Soundcloud. Although there is huge debate over the ethicality of free downloads and a more free source music scene, I believe that much of this comes from older generations and people out to support blatant capitalism. These opponents argue that not paying for your music somehow robs the artist of money for their hard work and time. In a way, I do agree with this side of the argument---the starving artist syndrome should not be as widespread as it is, and society puts far too much value on a stamped-out version of "progress," an antiquated ideal of practicality, and a warped sense that STEM jobs are the only professions worth pursuing.

In response to both of these arguments, I would like to pose two questions: 1) Isn't there more to being human than being merely practical? Surely, though an artist may not directly impact the furthering of humanity to the same scale as perhaps a scientist, aren't the indirect impacts of an artist's pursuits highly important to mental well-being, seeing from a different perspective, and expressing emotions? 2) Do we really want art, music, and creativity to be capitalized upon? This idea and others are discussed in the 2009 documentary "RIP: A Remix Manifesto," which is available on vimeo and well worth watching: http://vimeo.com/8040182. "Girl Talk," a mash-up, remix artist featured in the documentary argues against the commoditization of pop artists by corporate labels and works against this in his remix songs, which take from this already existing wealth of creativity and twist it to make something wholly new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDQMp26-kdY. 

Of course, this is not an easy topic but I don't think it's meant to be. All of the smaller music labels are eaten up and owned by a few large corporations. What we hear and see of popular music is all controlled by a larger mechanism of capitalism. Do you really think that Miley Cyrus decided one day to shave off her hair and begin throwing in explicit drug and sexual references to her once tame Disney music? No. This “transformation” is diligently and strategically planned in order to make more money. Remix artists fight against the overt capitalist drive to make music and art for the sake of getting ahead. Many artists share this music on Soundcloud where anyone with internet can access it. I really think that this is the way digital natives are starting to express themselves. Now anyone with a laptop and some music software can create original works of music and share them with the world. I think this is really freeing. Sure, you might not make a big buck off it, but your ideas are put out there in the mix of things.

Now, about the new music I discovered via Soundcloud: the first song of the genre that I heard is one of the most transformational, emotional pieces of new music I'd heard in a while. The song is called "Beautiful" by Tajan and fwdslxsh and is a collaborative mix by two young, aspiring electronic music artists. 

Link to the song: https://soundcloud.com/soulection/tajan-fwdslxsh-beautiful

The song features vocal samples from an older JT classic "My Love" but repeats one line from this song's lyrics: "If I told you you were beautiful...just to say how much you mean to me." These lyrics are manipulated, repeated, and interlaced throughout the song. The music is a luscious blend of deep bass, melodic arpeggeated keyboard “harp” runs, and hip-hop and rap elements.  My favorite part of the song by far is its ending which features rich sustained string chords and an emotional minor key piano melody. “Beautiful” is, to me, the perfect blend of urban roughness and electronic edge with melodic, hyper-emotional, and rich sap. When I listen to it, it seems like it would be the perfect soundtrack to the story of a short, impassioned love affair that you knew would never last. Cliché as I may be, I highly recommend Tajan and fwdslxsh’s sexy collaborative track and I am glad that I found out thanks to Soundcloud.