think piece – Artistic Apathy

Upcoming Artist Shares Emotional Experience With Fans

Deko is an artist out of the new wave that is seeing a meteoric rise thanks in part to his really successful song Phantasy Star Online. While Deko has been grinding for a minute, (working as a producer with credits to his name) his hit has put him on a lot of people’s radars including my own.

What caught my attention about this guy is his use of aesthetic appeal while still churning out infectious danceable beats and catchy melodies and bars. No wonder as Deko is a big fan of the very popular sub-genre of music: Nightcore (amongst other genres of dance music.)

His music videos are colorful, and filled with references to geek culture including many references to anime and Japanese culture.

It’s safe to say that he is at the forefront of a new sound that’s emerging in the underground. One filled with danceable beats, melodic flows, and many references to popular nerd culture.

That’s why last night was especially memorable. Deko was streaming on Twitch to about 100 viewers at the time. The stream felt especially intimate. The vibes were chill and everyone was having a good time. Deko took us through some of the projects he’s been working on. Which I won’t go into detail about to protect his privacy. He previewed one song in particular that absolutely stunned me.

Deko samples popular Japanese pop group Perfume for a banger that’s sure to be a hit.

Perfume (pictured above)
A-chan (far left), Kashiyuka (center), Nocchi (far right)

This blend of genres is something new and unfamiliar and somehow Deko manages to make it all work.

He later took us through some of his favorite music, featuring acts such as Perfume, Mondo Grosso, Porter Robinson, and an artist I’ve never heard before: VIRTUAL SELF. Fans in the stream got particularly emotional when Deko played some of the more sentimental songs amongst his favorites. Many fans recognized the music because they had already heard it and for those who hadn’t, they felt like they had stumbled onto something new.

Truly it was a magical moment for many, leading to many inspiring talks and rants. That is why Deko gets my seal of approval. The artist that knows how to genuinely connect with their fans can’t ever lose. This is the essence of a die hard fan base.

I for one can’t wait to see what’s next for him.

Artistic Apathy ©

The Deal With Posthumous Releases

In a day and age where late rappers are becoming a norm, we are seeing more and more of the release of posthumous work (i.e. work released after death.) A few prolific rappers stand out in this conversation, including Lil Peep, XXXTENTACION and Mac Miller.

All at the height of their success when they passed. It’s truly unfortunate we couldn’t see the further development of these artists especially when they were so ambiguous in their work and so promising.

Often when these artists die there is still a plethora of music left behind, yet to be released. In the case of Lil Peep, the rising emo rap star, there was an immense amount of work unreleased. The label partnered with frequent collaborators of Lil Peep to bring about projects that the fans could accept. Following the release of the polished Come Over When You’re Sober collection, label heads, with input from Peep’s mom decided to release the more raw and authentic Everybody’s Everything. Which doubled as a soundtrack to the documentary on his life.

A lot of controversy was stirred when the label continued to release music under Peep’s name but rest assured his mother Liza was behind it every step of the way. Saying:

“What do you do when a young artist dies long before his time, leaving behind a legacy of finished and unfinished work, and a legion of heartbroken fans?”
– Liza Womack

It seems like the honorable thing to do to honor the late artist and put out a body of work that most closely emulates what the artist in mention would have wanted.

Like stated before, this isn’t without its controversy as the bodies that distribute this late work are often met with backlash. Like when the BMW that XXXTENTACION died in was on display at an album event.

This begs the question of if an artists’ legacy is best left alone. Of course the family and friends of the artist have an idea of what the artists would have wanted in a project, single releases, etc. but the artist isn’t there to provide input.

Prior to his death, Mac Miller was busy at work on a follow up to his album Swimming. The album featured production from one producer named Jon Briar who later went on to finish the album keeping in mind the vision Miller had for it.

Again, it is nice to still get new material from an artist after their death but it often spurs a slew of questions about how exactly these releases are being handled. It seems that the ones in charge of these releases put immense thought into the given project before releasing but without the touch of the artists in question something is somewhat lacking.

That being said, you can’t please everyone. Especially on the internet. Someone will always have an opinion. Admittedly it is nice to see songs that didn’t have a proper release get one finally and for unfinished projects to see the light of day but the motives of the people at hand are often in question.

Sorry to say, these artists are gone and all we have left of them is the music. If we can continue their legacy going even for a short time, then maybe the details don’t matter so much.

I Miss: Music Video Countdowns

Do you remember waking up early Saturday morning and flipping to VH1 or MTV to maybe catch a glimpse of your favorite music video? Remember coming home from school and catching the “Top 20 Countdown”?

This guy here does.

They were simpler times back then. Times when music videos weren’t ready to stream at a moment’s notice.

I remember watching entire countdowns from number 20 to number one just hoping that my favorite song would be in there somewhere. I remember 106&Park everyday after school. These countdown shows were also a way to discover new music and to find out what was really hot in the music world. Sometimes they would premiere a brand new artist and it would be exciting.

I’ve never gotten over that. I still love music videos. I think most people do. But I pay special attention to them, the direction, use of animations and colors in the video. Sometimes I like to recreate that “countdown feel” by making a playlist on YouTube or letting the algorithm autoplay songs.

Still it’s not the same as watching a countdown anxiously for your favorite videos in between commercial breaks and finding new songs to go and hurriedly download onto your MP3 player.

I guess I’m just feeling nostalgic but I think there was something so pure about how we discovered music in those days. Not to say I’m not thankful for all the advances we’ve made thus far.

Do you have any special memories about watching countdowns on TV? Let us all know, we’d love to hear from you.

Oldboy: Viennese Waltz and the Greek Tragedy

[SPOILER ALERT]

It all started when a friend of mine posted a waltz by Dmitri Shostakovich. I thought it sounded oddly familiar. It reminded me of this track from Oldboy (2003).

I knew that Oldboy used a lot of waltz music for their original soundtrack but it never quite occurred to me why. To understand, we’ll need a little bit more context.

For starters, Oldboy is adapted from a manga for the big screen but it’s also adapted from a greek tragedy called Oedipus Rex. In the story, a king causes a chain of events in the past that regrettably ends up with him fulfilling a prophecy of murdering his father and sleeping with his mother.

We can see direct parallels from this to Oldboy’s story. Oh Dae-su sees Woo-Jin enacting incest with his own sister and that causes a spiraling of events. A cause and effect that was indicative of greek tragedies at the time. Because Oh Dae-su saw them, Woo-Jin’s sister committed suicide. Because of this suicide, Woo-Jin seeks revenge on Oh Dae-su which leads to him being imprisoned for 15 years.

Oh Dae-su is unaware of his captors and in the beginning racks his brain as to who may have imprisoned him and who seeks to do him harm. Woo-Jin warps Oh Dae-su’s mind and when he is released, be it no accident, he searches high and low for his family but he can’t find them. By no accident he meets Mi-Do, who happens to be none other than his daughter (unbeknownst to him). He ends up falling in love and sleeping with her, fulfilling an elaborate plan or a “prophecy” concocted by Woo-Jin.

This is where the part about the waltz comes in. The waltz is a form of traditional classical music that traditionally was meant to be danced to. Later other forms would be birthed but waltz literally means “to turn” in German. Back to the subject of the greek tragedy, it’s almost like Oh Dae-su is dancing with fate. Fate being a common theme in Greek plays.

Waltz music was big during the romantic era and was primarily a couples dance. It was a forbidden dance in the 1800s and was only danced by the few, the bold and the brave in the beginning.

The dance Oh Dae-su is dancing with Mi-Do, his daughter, is incest. Therefore it’s a forbidden dance much like the waltz was in its early days.

Greek tragedies have another theme of “show, don’t tell” and other good directors know this rule is crucial for any good drama. In Oldboy, this is employed a lot.

Mi-Do embracing Oh Dae-su in the ending for Oldboy (2003)

Some scenes in Oldboy are reminiscent of programme music (a form of classical music popular in the romantic era) in the sense that a lot of scenes are carried simply by the music. Programme music was a derivative of classical music where the pieces told of a story or an event. The emotion of the music and the grandiosity of it all was the dialogue. No script needed!

At the end of Oldboy, Oh Dae-su has cut off his own tongue as repentance. He is the only one who knows the secret and has tried a myriad of hypnosis treatments to forget what he has done. Not much is said in this scene and it’s the perfect example of how to do drama right. In the end, nothing is said besides “I love you” as they embrace each other and the track “The Last Waltz” plays tying the whole theme together.

My last post

In the Name Of

There are times in life when we feel like something is missing.

Often times we can’t pin point exactly what it is.

Then we get the thing we’ve been looking for and feel whole, if not only for a while.

Then time drags on and we feel like something is missing again.

See, we’ve come to take everything for granted.

Everything that is so beautiful about this very moment.

We get lost.

It’s at times like this that we becoming soberingly aware of our own existence and start asking what our place in this universe is.

What will make us truly happy?

What if the answer was nothing? Then what would you do…