Be an Iggy Pop in a World of Ziggy Stardusts: We Are In The Authenticity Crisis Era
The rise of the dream vultures, commercial success vs artistic integrity.
About 10 months back in late Spring of 2023 I was working in The Distillery District here in Toronto at a tiny shop selling coffee, tea and chocolate. Next to me was a middle aged man I became friends with who paints and sells locks at his booth for the ‘Love Locks’. This is equivalent to the famous bridge in Paris “Pont Des Arts,” where you can sign your individual lock, maybe make a wish, take a picture, and either throw away the key or keep it. I wouldn’t say that Toronto is the place for dreamers, hopeless romantics and artists but sometimes you come across them and it's refreshing. I had happened to come across many of these types of people in The Distillery District. Coming from Montreal, a place known for their neo-hippies and artists of all sorts, I noticed that Toronto is quite the opposite: it is the dollar store version of New York City with its own charm and everybody is hustling, grinding, and trying to make it and become a business person of some kind. One day, the man came into my shop and asked me to fill up his bucket of water because somebody puked next to his booth. We have been friends ever since. He told me a week later something I still can’t get out of my head till this day. He told me I reminded him of David Bowie, and as an artist it's my turn to learn the business side of music just like he did.
With all of the best intentions he told me this. However, I don’t think the boomer generation understands that if you are a music artist, getting involved with the business side of music to be successful literally means selling out as per my previous article. Selling out in 2024 means losing your artistry, being woke, and pandering to the government. Things are just not the same and it's hard to explain this to the older generation. Some perceive David Bowie’s 1980’s dance pop phase as him selling out - this is arguable and I don’t want to get into his music history in this article because art and music is subjective and I am not a David Bowie expert. My take is that it was a genius move because I am completely biassed and I think anything from the 1980’s was amazing even the mainstream stuff. He was an innovator and wiz with the music biz for pop culture and I encourage you to do your own research on that if you're interested. Experimenting with a new and current sound is not necessarily selling out. It's very important as a creative person to grow and do new things. I think that for the most part whether we recognize it or not, we are all influenced by, if not the same, very similar things and I think it is completely natural that generations and era’s have their own signature sound as a whole. It creates nostalgia and it also creates unity. It's a vibe. So, why not be an Iggy Pop in a world of Ziggy Stardusts in 2024?
Iggy Pop valued artistic freedom and authenticity. His American-raw salt of the earth style energy is what a lot of people resonated with. Similar to how David Bowie’s flamboyant, alien-like ‘weirdo’ energy resonated with a lot of the black sheeps. Personally, a younger me resonated with that more. Now, I feel like I'm more of an Iggy Pop because I refuse to conform and I am stubborn! David Bowie had the marketing business-man mentality where he understood the manipulation of image and playing with vulnerability to sell. Lady Gaga made use of the same strategy to put it more into context. This comes down to two very different approaches to making music: Commercial success vs artistic integrity. The commercial success part is a lot of hard work, a lot of strategy, and time. The artistic integrity part is more natural, playful, and requires more introspection, and to me is more interesting.
The difference between then and now is that standing out was cool. In today's modern society, I would argue that standing out is not cool. Just like the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s and early to mid 2000’s, today’s music has a signature sound. The difference though, is that back then you were with ease able to point out who’s song that was that was playing: The Rolling Stones vs The Beatles, Madonna vs Cyndi Lauper, Nirvana vs Alice in Chains, Jay-Z vs Kayne West etc. You can easily identify the genre and sound, and most importantly you can identify the personality and voice of the artist(s). I think that today we are currently in an authenticity crisis-era. For some reason, since 2016 it's been hard for me to tell the difference and know who is who anymore when I hear a song on the radio or on a playlist. Not to throw any shade, but Olivia Rodrigo has songs that literally sound like a Billie Eilish or Taylor Swift song for example, and Sabrina Carpenter sounds like Arianna Grande or vice versa. While I would certainly agree that today's music has a vibe, one day we'll look back and easily say “Yep, that was from the 2020’s,” I fully acknowledge that today’s music lacks personality. Perhaps it is because all of the producers and engineers have the same tricks up their sleeves to mock up a tune and polish a tune, and all the song writers have the same cadence and practice mimicking other artists instead of looking deep within, or maybe it is all AI generated. I cannot tell you why everything sounds the same. It just does and nobody can convince me otherwise.
We are currently in an authenticity crisis-era and a part of me blames the dream vultures. The dream vultures are artists and producers in the music business who created a platform off of literally selling ways to grow a fandom and how to blow up. Every other month the tactics switch up alongside an algorithm change and you must keep up to date. It's all about the music business, gaining clicks and views, and nothing about the music and art itself. It's a funnel you can easily get sucked into because they promote very promising and attractive end results if you follow their advice religiously and play by all the rules. This actually benefits labels and the dream vultures don’t even know it. Think about it, these random people are actually working for the record labels for free while promoting how to make it independently and they don’t even know it! The irony is stunning. It's no longer necessary for a record label to invest and find real and raw talent and develop an artist. Instead, the artists are playing on social media and playing the popularity and growth game thanks to the dream vultures who are the middle men here unknowingly (lol). As soon as anyone builds a platform on their own by barely making any good music but by just being trendy and strategic, the record labels snatch them instantly for a very very brief rise in fame and career in music until they get dropped and move on to the next poor unfortunate soul. We are in an authenticity crisis era because the artists do not have time to discover themselves truly, look deep within and make heartfelt, interesting art. They are instead using their time looking perfect, getting the right lighting and aesthetic for TikTok, and beating the algorithm while making 30 second jingles. After trying to do this myself and failing, I am here to tell you that it's extremely time consuming. No wonder everyone has to slap on autotune to make the songs listenable. Imagine telling an athlete to not work out and not practice, but to stare at a phone and become an influencer? I'm sorry but they would be pretty crappy athletes. Well, the same goes for music. I never understood why we treat music and art so differently when it is also a skill that you should be developing, practicing, and not just selling.
The inspiration for this post came about last night when I read the stupidest thing on Twitter that came from a well known producer who essentially built their career and brand off of being a dream vulture:
This tweet is very confusing and black and white thinking. I will let you interpret this as you see fit. Also, a lot of us “indie artists” are tired of being gaslit and told that we don’t need money to be ‘’successful’’ in music.
I would place bets overall that if David Bowie were a young 21 year old in 2024 trying to make it in music with todays standards and methods he would without hesitation say, Fuck this!