A misconception about standards that is often mentioned -and it's a good thing that we keep clearing it out, as it is still very embedded-, is that they make you somehow "robotic", that they stifle creativity. In reality it's exactly the opposite; what you standardize are the "sure things", that stuff that you have to always remember; those things that are like "paper cuts" ready to kill you if you just try to hold them all in your mind. And also, once you have all those little bastards in front of you, on a list, diagram or other device, you can start to play with their sequence, find better ways of doing things... It's a bit like composing music, really.
If this misconception is important to clarify in any area of activity, perhaps that's even more so when you take it to music making, at least the music I love and make, that "Triangle" of rock-metal-punk where I live happily. Those three genres were born as different forms of rebellion against the establishment, the status quo, those-who-came-before-us, and a word like "standardization", often hijacked by concreteheads who disguise themselves in a suit of logic to do horrible things, has the potential to cause a visceral repulsion in a lot of people who have a heart and have been misinformed. It doesn't help, either, that rock was born as a rebellion belonging to the young generations; a response against a culture too elder oriented that exploited and gaslit them. Younger generations, it's a simple fact of biology, are not usually very rational or disciplined; at that age in life you're, rather, in kind of a "buffet mode", more interested in gathering all kind of varied experiences, still dazzled with all the joy, the novelty and "superpowers" that come from being a young adult, but not necessarily in an orderly or rational manner. (This is another misunderstanding that I'd also like to mention; as you get older, if you have eyes in your face, your discontentment will follow you, but the way to express that discontentment when you're 40 cannot be the same as when you're 20. What I often see is people who, as they grow older, either 1) give up completely "that rebellion thing", considering it's just something that belongs to an age of human development that they have outgrown -this is lazy, poor quality thinking in my book, but to each their own-, or 2) they stick to their "this sucks" guns but in a "frozen in time" way, still acting in that disorderly way that is a glory to see in 20-something guys, but that starts to feel a bit forced when that guy sticks to it year after year without changing a iota, as sort of a learned pose, or an "ID".) But back to the standards. Discontentment follows you sometimes in your life as you grow, but other changes happen too; getting some sleep starts to become an issue now and then, one day you find out that certain pains stay with you longer than they used, body hair changes locations... Fortunately, those new ages offer room for improvement too. As you learn, as you plan things instead of rushing headlong in all directions as you used to do, you get the "itch" for improvement. You find that, by working deliberately, tasks that used to take 10 energy units and 50 minutes can now take only 8 units and say 28 minutes. And even that is just a new baseline from which you can improve even more. That's the "superpower" of the new vital age, and it applies to rock and the art of rebellion just as any other realm. What's rebellious about starting a concert late and feeling tired because it took you for ever to find the right cable? How about a shadow board, dude, or a checklist, that you do once and you're done with the whole frickin thing, on to a better use of your/our time? For example playing better the song that is going to make somebody's day, or it's going to be the wake up call or the helping hand for someone, or the chill out environment where deals are agreed, or the soothing air for the shy lovers to finally take the first step... And the circumstances have changed. Society -if there's still any point in using that word- is no longer elderly focused. The whole population is getting older, let's not pretend we are what we are not, rock is about being yourself... If you wear out yourself with prep work in the name of how rebel you are, you're just making a fool of yourself. We need a different kind of protest from you. There's a lot at stake here. So standards win the race. They can be a middle finger in the face of those who standardize what shouldn't be done at all. Someone compared standards to the lines on the road. They just pave the way, but you're free to choose which way you take; they will just liberate your time from the silly things so that you can use it for the ones that matter. So that you can be the radiant, creative human being we all need, instead of yet another slave of drudgery.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Nacho Jordi
I have a guitar and I'm gonna use it Archives
September 2018
Categories |