Is your music a service or an art?

[Mugre]

The only thing being proven here is how imprecise words are. Call it how you want; just understand that it looks different from over here.

Whatever it is you do, do it with a pure heart and happiness follows.

Whatever it is that you do, do it with malice or resentment and unhappiness follows like a dark shadow that never leaves you.

Mugre

 

[Josh Gone]

Carrots.
The difference between an art gig, and a service gig were explained to me a bit differently. When I'm hired to play the notes as they are written, I'm playing a service gig.
When I'm hired because of my style and approach, and the music is open to my own interpretation... I'm playing an art gig.
I always figured this was true as I was told this by a very well respected, local jazz guitarist that has way more experience, and knowledge than I do.
In the end... probably art.

 

[Dogbertday]

Sort of a hard distinction, but the term "creative economy" comes to mind. I like to think my "working" gigs are a service, but my value to my employer is based on how artful my delivery is. Same as a graphic designer or a tattoo artist. Follow the guidlines and make it awesome.

If you're creating music for yourself and not selling it, then it may not be a service. If you are selling it, it becomes a service becauae you are serving your customers. They chose you becauae they like your art.

 

[Mugre]

Another take:

Some of the most "artistic" music ever, the collected works of Bach was done in service to patrons and moreover, He said that EVERYTHING he did was in service to god. He wrote SDG, initials for Soli Deo Gloria or In the Glory of God Alone at the bottom of his manuscripts when he considered the composition finished.

Mugre

 

[logicman69]

I'm going with a service... I play in a cover band so that is more accurate than "art" would be.

 

[jamro217]

Being an artist sometimes means being a creative chameleon.

 

[skwee]

This is not an either-or situation. My playing is both art and service in varying degrees at all times.

 

[Gaolee]

I play because it's what I do for fun. Sometimes people pay to hear me play. I don't write music, just play stuff other people wrote with friends who also play stuff other people wrote. Mostly, we play the same stuff all at the same time. Mostly. Is that art? Is it a train wreck that we just got away with? Is it a service to test psychological wellness because people dance to it? I dunno. It's pretty great to get paid to do something I would do anyway.

 

[MCS4]

I don't think we get to determine whether or not someone else's music (or any other form of expression) is or isn't "art." However, individual musicians can certainly have their own opinion as to what extent they conceive of their own music as art, service, or (probably in most cases) some combination of both. The balance of opinions from original vs. cover musicians does appear to be somewhat different, on the average.

 

[3bc]

I have a healthy disliking of anyone walking around calling themselves an artist. Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. You are a musician, painter, sculptor, whatever. If people think there's enough "artistry" to your music, paintings or sculptures to consider them artistic, or art, that's great. I almost vomit in my mouth when I hear the likes of Taylor Swift, etc. call themselves artists. Pretentious buttholes. When one someone spends $100M+ on a hard drive of your raw tracks the way the would on a Monet or Picasso, then you can call yourself an artist. The rest let's leave to history for judgement.

 

[Big Hoss]

I have a healthy disliking of anyone walking around calling themselves an artist. Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. You are a musician, painter, sculptor, whatever. If people think there's enough "artistry" to your music, paintings or sculptures to consider them artistic, or art, that's great. I almost vomit in my mouth when I hear the likes of Taylor Swift, etc. call themselves artists. Pretentious buttholes. When one someone spends $100M+ on a hard drive of your raw tracks the way the would on a Monet or Picasso, then you can call yourself an artist. The rest let's leave to history for judgement.

Interesting take on it.... I am a bit opposite, but I get your point. I think most everyone that goes at least a shave beyond rote memorization, and applies any sort of personal touches would classify as an artist. Thus The 16 year old Ricer is an artist.

As has been previously noted, not all art is good art, and the pompous buffoons that think they are some kind of special because they call themselves an artist are no more special than the plumber or mechanic that has that special touch to get things fixed and going different from everyone else...

Heck, the kid at McD's that actually bothers to put the hamburger together neatly is an artist in the field they are in...

 

[Honch]

.. sigh... these anglosaxians, dividing everything up in black and white world. No, make that not black and white world, it should be black OR white world. Polarize everything. Millennials...

 

[Chicory Blue]

My music is therapy. Any art that comes of it is a pleasant byproduct.

--^@

 

[Korladis]

I have a healthy disliking of anyone walking around calling themselves an artist. Art, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. You are a musician, painter, sculptor, whatever. If people think there's enough "artistry" to your music, paintings or sculptures to consider them artistic, or art, that's great. I almost vomit in my mouth when I hear the likes of Taylor Swift, etc. call themselves artists. Pretentious buttholes. When one someone spends $100M+ on a hard drive of your raw tracks the way the would on a Monet or Picasso, then you can call yourself an artist. The rest let's leave to history for judgement.

Just cause it's art doesn't mean it's good art.

 

[Pops OB]

Just cause it's art doesn't mean it's good art.

I maintain all are artists, and just as you commented: "Just cause it's art doesn't mean it's good art." Some are better than others. Some are the worst, but some are the best!

 

[Honch]

I will take on this with reference to a legendary "artist" or visionary:

Frank Zappa.

Didn't his band just played covers? He changed them out, revolving door policy, and boy could they cut it. But the tunes where rehearsed and recorded by other band members long before the ones that were in it at the moment. Doesn't they play "covers" too? Frank Zappa could've just as well translated all his tunes into his giant computer, sequencer system he Synclavier, which he did in his last years with albums like "Jazz from Hell" and "Civilisation Phase III". In interviews he couldn't care less if his music where performed by machines or human beings. He DID value small "doo-wop" pastiches of his ,like "Love Of My Life" just as equally as his grande large orchestral suites, which even though played by real humans didn't cut it by his standards. I think his band was just playing "covers" of his. Just as Dweezil Zappa and his band does these days. Tribute, cover, whatever you call it. Once it's written, you only have to go out there and nagging, and persuasing others to like it.

He himself considered him just as a mere entertainer, and performer. He wasn't that proficient on guitar even, by his own standards. He said that every musician he hired in the band, was always considerably better than him on the actual craft.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

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.

I am definitely on the art side, but what the years have taught me is to find the art in whatever you are playing, or what you are required to play. The deal is odds are when covering the piece, you don’t have the exact instrumentation of what is on the original which means as a bassist, you have some latitude for creativity. Our job 1 is reconciliation. Make whatever it is, sound logical. You master that, and you will work.

 

[tb4sbp]

First off, great topic. I love a good debate!

But lets not get to misleading here or emotional. There is really no choice.

Music is a part of the performing arts just as an actor or dancer is.

A service is something you do to schlep your wares. In this context your musical ability.

Your musical ability can vary from novice to super pro it doesn't matter because playing music falls under performing arts. Therefore we are all artists.

If you so choose, which many of us do, to play for an audience, cash or free, covers or originals that is a service.

Think about this: Is an actor required to write what they say in a movie or play? Are they not an artist if a director tells them how to act in a certain scene?
Is a painter that only paints as a hobby not an artist?

I know what I thought at the start of this post and at this point my mind has been expanded through reading all of your posts and researching online, thanks everyone!

 

[Robscott]

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.

Only robots think classical music is robotic

 

[jpspradley]

Painters paint.
Sculptors sculpt.
Architects design.
Masons stack.
Welders weld.
Framers frame.
Pavers pave.
Luthiers build.
Musicians perform.

All are artists, in their own right... being compensated is a bonus and perhaps the goal.
Albeit, complex or simplified... if hired, you bring your 'A' game!

Here are a few things that musicians do, in addition...
Accompany, bend, blow, carry, chop, coerce, conduct, fake, fiddle, gig, improvise, interpret, intonate, jam, noodle, mute, muffle, phrase, pinch, play, pluck, pull, punctuate, serenade, sight-read, slide, strain, strike, strum, swell, tap, texture, tickle, transpose, tremolo, tune, vamp, and vibrato.

Eye-to-hand, muscle memory, full-score memorization, making it look easy, and flat-out TEARING IT UP!