The Song You Skip
I’m having a total moment with content creation! Today, I decided I am going to shamelessly push ghetto rap on some of your innocent virgin ears!
Some of you might have noticed the occasional change to posts after they’re published. Well, today I have re-edited and republished the same video 3 different times, trying to make a banger. A banger with a message carried by the song.
Of course, facebook’s not having it, likely because it knows our audience.
Wait. If you know EVEN Facebook knows it’s not what your audience likes, why the flyin’ frisbees are you trying to make it?
I’m trying to play the song over our exploration of this tunnel with a bunch of stunning graffiti that we spotted from the side of the road. The first song I wanted to play was this song called “Free Lunch.”
It’s a reference to the free meal the artist could count on from school lunches. More than anything, it’s a vibe. But lyrically, it’s all these felt snapshots of times in his life that he collected together for that vibe. It’s not everyone’s vibe, but it was this vids vibe! Underground art.
Algorithm flattened it.
Remade it! Still, married to the idea of throwing some solid rap over this. Next, I played Stars by JID. It’s all about the grind as a starving artist and his commitment to vision over money or fame. Probably even more lyrically fitting, and one of my top 10 favorite rap songs, but not quite the vibe.
Algorithm flattened it.
Reposted it, again with Free Lunch, but this time with a few minor adjustments like title, font, and volume.
Flattened it.
Listen, we don’t need people to like everything we like (and rap is not or go-to genre, BTW) but there IS a little intention here!
Not trying to pat ourselves on the back, but perhaps you have noticed that our music is rather eclectic? This isn’t us trying to reel in every kind of person.
It can actually make it harder to bring more people in algorithmically, because neither they nor the algorithm know what to predict. This means that pretty much everyone is going to find something out of sync with their taste on our page. Depending on how egregious the disconnect is, they can quickly (and understandably) unfollow.
Still doin it! We got big picture stuff goin on over here!
Have you ever noticed the way a song grows on you? Some that you hear for the first time might even annoy you. But darn it, if it wasn’t playing at the bar, and Walmart, and the gas station, and over the radio… now you’re playing it in your free time and showing it to other people. Eventually, the newness will wear off, and you might listen to it less or even grow to hate it.
Gradations of this dynamic can be observed in our relationship to music, literature, shows, movies, media, and every other form of art that we consume. The problem is, before we get there, we say to ourselves “That’s ugly” “That’s what’s wrong with the world” “That isn’t art” “I don’t listen to those things.”
And through our narratives we cut ourselves off from understanding, empathizing and relating, sharing those experiences with others, and appreciating so much of what life has to offer.
Opening yourself up to the good in something or the art in something or the heart in something, is not the same as blindly accepting everything it offers because you like the way it feels.
But without ever truly feeling it, absorbing it, or getting as close as you can to resonating with it, cutting yourself off from the forms of expression and creative works certain people gravitate toward most means cutting yourself off from fully understanding the people who want to express themselves that way.
