Wu-Tang Clan and Art

I can listen to the radio at work or wherever I am (although, outside of being forced to listen to the radio, I avoid it), and it hardly ever registers as art. There are varied sounds, ranging from the abhorrent twang of Country Tuesday to the retro vibes of Classic Rock Thursday. The is a span of genres and time that covers a large portion of western pop culture, except I can’t ever recall a time when I looked at all and thought art.

Now that isn’t to say that I don’t see music as art. Some Trevor Gordon Hall? You can’t deny the artistry in that. You can’t deny the talent and the intention behind every note. You can’t deny a mewithoutYou lyric. You can’t deny art in so much of what is not mainstream.

But within the mainstream, we have been conditioned to not think of it as art. Music isn’t valued as art or seen as some commodity; it’s valued as background, a notch above the hum of the AC unit in your office building. And so we have grown to be a culture that precipitously undervalues music. While paintings and sculptures are being auctioned off for thousands upon thousands of dollars, music is streamed for free. It has segued from being viewed as art to being viewed as a right.

And maybe that’s because of the implications of art. Art, in physical form, is so often viewed as some hoity-toity pastime, where the rich can wave around their wealth while seeking some greater existential enlightenment. Physical media has physical value. Whereas music can’t be seen or felt; it has no mass or color.

The idea of owning sound waves, or that which produces them, seems asinine when sound is all around us. The market has been flooded. People will [sometimes] pay for live performances, but they rarely see the value in paying for something nice to listen to. And, realistically, it makes sense when everything in music is as easily reproduced as it is. That’s the difference between physical art and music – repeatability and accessibility. For my first album, Deconstructing the Temporal Lobe, I had 1000 copies made. The difference in price between 500 and 1000 was something like $200. And if you want it now, you can stream it through Spotify right on your phone. Producing and reproducing music has transitioned to something so easy that everyone who wants in can be in.

Enter Wu-Tang Clan.

Read the article below:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2014/03/26/why-wu-tang-will-release-just-one-copy-of-its-secret-album/

They are making one single copy of their new album, Once Upon A Time In Shaolin. Amidst a time when an amateur can make 1000 copies (or even 100,000!) for relatively cheap, they’re making this as exclusive as possible. And they’re wrapping it in a silver and nickel hand-engraved box; a piece of art in and of itself. This isn’t another “collectors box set” where you are one of 10,000 lucky fans to own a cheaply made tin and a few relatively rare CDs; there is literally only ONE.

And it’s traveling around to art galleries, as an exhibit.

This won’t be music that is there for ambiance in the gallery. This won’t be music that is there to compliment a reception. It is there as an exhibit, in the foreground of the gallery.

And in glorified listening parties, this will be played and listened to. Very intentionally. Everything about this is intentional. If you want to be a part of this, the action has to be intentional.

Then the single copy, in the one-off engraved box, will be sold. My hope would be that it would go to a private collector or to some museum to either be reproduced and released for free or left as a listening party only exclusive. I’d like to see it not immediately flipped to make profit, like if a big company would buy it.

Yes, it makes it exclusive. I’m sure that will upset some people who are used to being part of the crowd. But, realistically, is having access to anyone’s musical catalog a right? If it is, where did the right come from; at what point in history did things change? Because music used to be a commodity. There was mystique behind a new release.

You weren’t just a fan of a song; you were a fan of an artist. And that’s what Wu-Tang is doing. And I’m not even a fan. I just find it so refreshing and potentially revitalizing for a music industry that has forgotten what art is.

This is creative; this is innovative; this is visionary. And this is art.