Is your music a service or an art?

[Jim Dedrick]

I was talking with my kids (16, 18, 21, & 23) today about fusing different genres and different styles of music. They told me I am more like an abstract artists (which I took as a compliment). Conversation then turned to the car radio, xm pop station, and I thought that must was more background for theatrical entertainment. The music really, in my opinion, was not an art form. My kids agreed.

On the pole I intentionally did not offer both as most of us would say both. I'm curios about the amount of TBers that view their playing as more of a service they provide or more of an art.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

My tagline is straightforward. (See below)

 

[Killed_by_Death]

What do you call a Polish person who votes in a poll?
What about a poll at the North Pole?


Carrots for me, because no one else has to hear my "art".

I'm getting more serious about practicing, but I have no intention of exposing the public to my work.

Even when I play out on the back porch the parking lot next door is bare empty.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

I was talking with my kids (16, 18, 21, & 23) today about fusing different genres and different styles of music. They told me I am more like an abstract artists (which I took as a compliment). Conversation then turned to the car radio, xm pop station, and I thought that must was more background for theatrical entertainment. The music really, in my opinion, was not an art form. My kids agreed.

On the pole I intentionally did not offer both as most of us would say both. I'm curios about the amount of TBers that view their playing as more of a service they provide or more of an art.

If they are telling you what to play, it's a service.

 

[fdeck]

Art. With that said, when someone hires me, I'm committed to doing a professional job for them, but I've never felt that I had to compromise the artistic side of music, even when playing commercial gigs.

 

[RustyAxe]

It's not always (or usually) one or the other. Depends on the situation. Sometimes I just do what I'm getting paid to do. Not much creativity in that (having the chops to do it might be considered an "art"), and sometimes my creative input is what I hired was for. Other times I do what I want to do, where, when, and with whom I want. Call it a service or call it art or just "music" ... I call it engaging and fulfilling.

 

[buldog5151bass]

It should be both. Artists can provide a service.

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

Art. With that said, when someone hires me, I'm committed to doing a professional job for them, but I've never felt that I had to compromise the artistic side of music, even when playing commercial gigs.

And when they scream "play Mustang Sally"?

 

[buldog5151bass]

You play the #_--_$@@$&- out of it.

 

[40Hz]

And when they scream "play Mustang Sally"?

You play it correctly.

Listen to the original. Most bands don't get it right.

 

[kodiakblair]

If drunk ladies can dance to "art" then I'm playing art.

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

I said "Art" because a group of ladies around here have an Arts Somethingorother organization and they say we are.

 

[Bunk McNulty]

Art. With that said, when someone hires me, I'm committed to doing a professional job for them, but I've never felt that I had to compromise the artistic side of music, even when playing commercial gigs.

This is...interesting. Anyone who hires me expects me to do a professional job for them. If they want me to be creative, I'll be creative. But what I expect, and usually find, is that they want me to play something a certain way. Which I do, with enthusiasm. As I have often said, some of the recordings I've worked on, a monkey in a people suit could do. That's not the point. If there is art involved, it is the art of going into a situation and playing what I've been asked to play with a positive attitude. And believe me, that is work!

 

[fdeck]

This is...interesting. Anyone who hires me expects me to do a professional job for them. If they want me to be creative, I'll be creative. But what I expect, and usually find, is that they want me to play something a certain way. Which I do, with enthusiasm. As I have often said, some of the recordings I've worked on, a monkey in a people suit could do. That's not the point. If there is art involved, it is the art of going into a situation and playing what I've been asked to play with a positive attitude. And believe me, that is work!

I'm not saying your approach is wrong, but even within the space that you're given, there may still be room for creative interpretation. A lot of people think classical music is robotic, but don't appreciate that while the artistry is subtle, it's definitely there.

Also, the degree of control that a bandleader wants can be genre dependent. Now, there are occasions where I know that the person leading the effort is pursuing a specific artistic vision, that needs cooperation in order to be expressed. In those cases, I'm willing to sign on to their effort and help them test their own ideas. Then it's still art, but of a collaborative nature.

 

[glocke1]

non pro here and for me it is art...

that said, if Im packing up all my stuff with the intention of being gone for 4-5 hours to play a show, I better be getting compensated for my time and driving.

 

[AndyPanda]

If you are paid well it's a service, if you're struggling then you're an artist.

If you play Mustang Sally with great musicianship then I guess you are artistically providing your service.

 

[smogg]

If you are paid well it's a service, if you're struggling then you're an artist.

If you play Mustang Sally with great musicianship then I guess you are artistically providing your service.

I have difficulty digesting this concept. Take bands like Yes or Rush or Aerosmith (or many others), since they made truckloads of money off their music it could not be considered art? Why?

 

[Ross W. Lovell]

I have difficulty digesting this concept. Take bands like Yes or Rush or Aerosmith (or many others), since they made truckloads of money off their music it could not be considered art? Why?

And now we get to that age old argument.....art for money is somehow less pure

 

[Clef_de_fa]

Difficult question ...

I have a hard time calling Art when it is cover and they get money to play someone else creation.

"Art" is just one of those words which the meaning evolved so much that it means almost nothing.

 

[Tommyc]

If it's not being sold to someone obviously it's not a service. The writer, Franz Kafka, author of The Metamorphosis instructed his survivors to destroy all his writings. Luckily they didn't obey. Had they done so and no one knew about him, could he be an artist if no one read him? if a tree falls.....? My take is if you express yourself through a fine art medium i.e., sculpture, painting, drawing, music or literature, you're an artist. Whether you're a good artist or dreadful one doesn't matter. Hitchcock vs. Ed Wood.