Owen Gust

Marketable Music vs Authentic Art

oWen Gust Wishes he were in a Rick Astley music video.

In an increasingly saturated market, artists are finding themselves constrained by a need to nuance and brand their sound as their ‘own’. As a band or an artist trying to break into this scene, it can seem daunting; trying to balance the sound that comes naturally to you against your conceptions of the image that you want to try to establish. Of course, no one wants to be labelled as ‘just another’ Australian indie rock band or ‘just another’ American drill artist. So, it begs the question: Should artists really be sacrificing authenticity for this pressure to be ‘unique’?

Your gut response might be: “No! Artists should always be truthful to their own style.” However, on deeper analysis, there is no easy answer to this question. Music lovers want innovation; we want to hear something that makes our mind twist and contort in different ways to everything else that we have heard. If artists had never pushed themselves to create unique sounds – then arguably – the whole of Australia would be getting sloshed in sweaty anticipation as we wait for Beethoven’s second symphony to take out the top spot in Triple J’s Hottest 100. We need innovation ¬¬– whether it comes naturally, or by experimentation.

I think that sometimes a compromise must be made in an artist’s career – a compromise between the kind of music that artists want to make, and the kind of music that they need to make. A compromise involving an adherence to the ‘popular conventions’, as to avoid alienating their audience with completely abstract sounds whilst also becoming a slight permutation on other bands in the same ‘genre’. As an artist you need to perform a Luke Skywalker and weave your X-wing torpedos into the narrow vent of ‘marketability’, whilst avoiding the tie fighter’s ‘overly cliché’ style/blasters, and the steep trench walls of ‘too abstract’ in order to destroy the Deathstar and save the day.

If you’re thinking about becoming Ed Sheeran 2.0, odds are you’re going to fail for a couple of reasons. Ed Sheeran has his sound,

and I do not think you can beat someone at their own game. Plus, you’re trying to fill a place in the market where there is none. DMA’s are a perfect example of an artist making slight permutations on convention and blending genre’s in order to create their ‘own sound’. DMA’s latest album, THE GLOW seems to have found a more ‘pop’ inspired feel than the last 2 studio albums: creating a very accessible but still emotionally resonant album. The track ‘Silver’ on THE GLOW glues their previously established style together with a more melodically driven hook; creating a song that almost sits in a groove between genres’. Although THE GLOW is definitely divisive for some fans, DMA’s haven’t allowed their sound to get stagnate or predictable, epitomising the way that they continue to push themselves to innovate. Inspirational stuff huh!? Now the question comes down to whether the band has sacrificed any authenticity. At this point, I do not think it really matters to the listener. If the music is not painfully contrived and superficial to listen to, then it should only matter to the artist as to whether they are happy with their own product.

Ultimately, an artist’s authenticity in their music is only important to the listener if it is overtly noticeable. While an artist’s creation of a new and interesting sound can be tedious and stressful, I think it is necessary. Some authenticity may need to be sacrificed in the process, but this is the price we pay to be able to live in a world where we listen to music other than the ‘cavemen beating on rocks with stick’s mixtape’. On the flipside, some restraint in the innovation of sound may also be required to ease listeners into a new style that may otherwise be too alienating to be marketable. Abstract and new music is what makes the medium so interesting and constantly provocative; but artistry never exists in isolation from capitalism, and artists need to make a living. It is easy to judge artistic choices when you are on the outside – but artists cannot make everyone happy – and sacrificing personal happiness for others is always a slippery slope.