Kurt Kuenne - Validation

Today’s post I would like to dedicate to something new. Other than presenting and ranting about the crappy art out there I would also like to show some of the good and rather unappreciated creations. 

So let’s talk about Kurt Kuenne. Who is Kurt Kuenne you ask? (Unless you’re part of the filmmaking, or movie admiring societies out there.) Well he’s a filmmaker, a director, editor, producer and writer of films. He works in various genres from documentary to narrative fiction. He began filming the moment he could hold a camera, his biography in IMDB tells and is no doubt a very talented artist.

For a small budget and 15, or less, minutes runtime he accomplishes what big budgeted Hollywood productions claim to be doing in their hours long movies - create engaging stories with meaning and food for thought and present them in beautiful and artistic way. Of course, no doubt, his shorts won numerous awards from various movie festivals, but other than that he is not very well known to the masses. Which is a pity. His style and presentation are no doubt unique: the use of black and white video or pictures, the clever narration, the profound stories. But let’s allow his work to speak for itself. Validation a beautiful story about a simple parking attendant:

Sak Noel - Loca People

Sak Noel is a Spanish DJ, music video director and music producer. He is the one who we must thank for the existence of this... rather extraordinary song – Loca People…

This song and artist were first brought to my attention when one Sunday afternoon I happened to hitch a ride in my dad’s car. Now my mother’s car radio is broken in some mysterious and inexplicable way so it catches only AM stations. You know news stations, sport station, religious stations, in short no music, just talk.

So for quite a while I haven’t heard any of the FM (popular) music stations, and therefore no new rising songs, as my tastes exclude the mainstream pop music and I am unlikely to find them, listen to them or even less buy them. So this particular Sunday I was in my dad’s car, and he was listening to one of the three most popular stations in town, which names elude me, but that’s beside the point.

The song that was playing was Black Eyed Peas – The Time (Dirty Bit), a song I absolutely detest not only because of its nonsensical lyrics (the bits that weren’t stolen from Dirty Dancing) but most important because of its horrific melody (again the bits that weren’t stolen from the movie). The moment it came on I turned the volume down just to be reprimanded by my father’s disapproving stare.

“You really like this?” I asked, “Yes why.” He answered. Defeated I let the music play, praying it would end before my brain turned to mush. Then after what felt like ages it finally did, and I was happy because there couldn’t possibly be a song currently in air worse than this. But, like many times in my life, I was proven horribly wrong.

Sak Noel – Loca People enters the stage.

This is an actual shot from the music video.

Is there any new and great art trend or innovation of which I do not know of? Or am I simply stupid and I can't comprehend its allure? Because the monotonous almost Rebecca Black voice and melody instantly struck me as unbearable.

But still I listened; I actually listened to what was sung. And the singer took the words right out of my mouth: “What the FUCK!”

And so is this.

So I turn to my dad, the disgust plainly written on my face and I ask “And this? You like this?” He turns to me innocently oblivious and says: “Why yes I do. It has a nice tune.” Tune? What tune? Speechless I turn away and embrace the wonderful meaning and musical sounding of “I couldn't believe what I was living so I called my friend Johnny.”

Now I am not a fan of crazy parties, but my playlist does include quite a few dance, house, techno, and electro style songs. I know what party music is like and damn right I know it doesn’t have to sound like a drill making its way into your head. Because that’s exactly how Sak Noel is like. I can safely say all of his songs are like that, or at least I am yet to find an exception. But it was precisely Loca People that made it to the top of many European charts. All I can say is – Why? Why,

But let us back off a few steps here. What does a song consist of? Minus the music video, we will return to later, a song has two things that make it what it is: music or the melody of it, and lyrics or its story. For me the music has to be beautiful, it has to have meaning, it has to evoke certain pleasant feelings, or soothe any negativity and distress. Remember Mozart and those guys from the classical period. Go to YouTube find Chopin’s Raindrop or Nocturne for example, (I was even good enough to supply the links) and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Music that flows, that changes the mood, beautiful music.

 

No, I’m not saying every song has to have a Chopin worthy melody, no, all I say is that the melody, which supports the lyrics or the dancing, as it is with many techno and electro songs, has to at least be pleasing to the ear. And every time I hear a song such as Loca People, I can feel my brain cells dying while wriggling and screaming in pain. Listen, listen very carefully and you can hear yours suffering, provided you decided to hear Loca People, or I'm Sexy and I Know It by Lmfao, another great example of brain torture.

But the melody is not all that determines good music, we also have one very peculiar element – the voice. Ignoring the fact that the majority of popular entertainers can't really sing, what beauty is there in the monotonic, rhyme-less melody and voice such as that of Rebecca Black for example. But forget Rebecca Black, she was just some poor teenage girl whose dreams of greatness were exploited by a studio attempting to make another one of the hot selling shallow teen singers. Her song was just cheap, yes it had some fancy editing, fancy clip, but it was cheap and her lyrics were rather innocently foolish than offensively ignorant. Or at least that’s the way I want to think of her so I can keep at least some faith in humanity and the new generation.

Now Loca People… To be fair Loca People did have a beat and a rhythm or at least half a beat and a rhythm repeated to infinity. That’s what I hear, a single beat and a single rhythm grinding against my eardrums. And the singer… I don’t know whether Esthera Sarita, the vocal of the song can actually sing, since she just kind of talks over the “music” here.Her awfully monotonic voice just keeps reminding me of that literature teacher I had in high school. It took her 10 seconds, exactly 10 seconds to put me to sleep.

And that’s what the song does, make me want to fall asleep and escape the horror or my brain will simply walk away on its own.

But enough of that, I think I was clear enough its music and voice suck to such an extent I can barely listen to it.

Off to the second element that makes a song a song. The beauty of true musical lyrics I find is that much like in poetry everyone can draw their own meaning from the words. Here I want to give my favourite example – Kansas, Dust in the Wind. (It’s actually funny how when I tried to open it the ad for Justin Bieber played. I really hope the guys from Kansas don’t see it.) Now that song has some lyrics, you must agree even if it’s not your type of music. And Sak Noel…. As it is with many if not all of the pop chart songs… well… yeah… deep…

I understand, people want simple lyrics to party. Well here, this is how it’s done:

[Groove Coverage – Summer Rain]

Simple and yes rather repetitive but still much more meaningful and deep than:

“When I came to Spain

and I saw people partying

I thought to myself:

'What the fuck!'

All Day, all Night

All Day, all Night”

Actually the whole Summer Rain song is a much better club song than Loca People. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

I would understand if Loca People was some home-made YouTube video, (and oh the video I watched, believe me it’s just as bad as the song) but this, this played on the radio. Not the most popular radio station, but still one of them. My first and foremost question was – how in the world, did this thing get on the radio? So as soon as I got home I googled the song. It was on YouTube, and believe it or not 31 980 (at the time) people who actually liked it. Over 11 million watched it and out of them 32 thousand listened to this and thought of pressing the like button. Out of all these millions only 7 thousand recognized it for the cheap, unoriginal, unintelligent piece of failed art it really is. One of them is me, and I encourage you go and hate on it some more, it needs it.

But I’m not done ranting. I’d like to discuss its visual art as well. First the cover of the single… Yeah, I honestly don’t feel comfortable attaching it to my blog. I find it detestable, ugly, offensive and lacking any visual qualities.

Actually, it would be perfect for one of those, cheap exploitation porn shorts or whatever they are called. Then the video… Well we’re dealing with a visionary here… I have seen few music videos as tedious and boring and I ran out of synonyms for uninteresting. Don’t even get me started on the faded colours. It’s a party song video, yeah totally. (Just for the record this is how a song, to which you party, video should look like Magic Pad or Auriga , or In and Out of Love and Just Be if my choice of anime related montages is not suited for your taste.)

The point I’m trying to make is: there must be movement, colour, light. And Sak Noel’s video for Loca People just doesn’t cut it. There’s a painful lack of colour throughout almost the whole clip, and all the shots are single camera, point of viewish, wide shots. There are also hardly any between shots and angles cuts, but then again the song is not dynamic enough for that.

And its contents…. Well don’t get me start on the contents – ignorance, alcoholism and prostitution pretty much summarizes it.

But let me elaborate. There seems to be a story in the video. A girl, Esthera Sarita, from I don’t know where, comes to Spain. There, a friend of hers, played by Sak Noel himself, if I’m not mistaken, meets her. He suggests some sightseeing, but she refuses. The great cultural and architectural sights of the city are not good enough for her because… I guess she wants to party. There, ignorance. Then the two walk around a bit and what captures her interest you think? Why of course beer, let’s drink. Alcoholism. And when do colours return to the video, in the shots of a skimpy dressed, I-don’t-know-what, must be females of the human species but I might be mistaken, “dancing…” And then more drinking. Yeah, wonderful.

Still seeing Sak Noel wearing a Family Guy shirt makes me hope: hey, maybe he’s actually a major troll and is trying to point out the ugliness and dirt of our society. But even if that were the case we know it is not why people like this song. And then again I saw his other work… He’s either master troll who got carried away in his trolling, or simply a shallow, narrow minded, ignorant and bad, so very bad, artist. 

 

And, no, I will not be doing his other works it will take me an year and several books worth of writing to point out everything that is wrong with them. Also, I’m not bashing on Loca People in particular, I am bashing on all so called “party” music that's out there at the moment. You know bands like Lmfao (Party Rock Anthem, I’m Sexy and I Know It) or Kesha (Tik Tok,) and many other similarly degrading songs and performers. But then again some of them get at least one part right, they usually have catchy tunes. And Sak Noel… well it fails, badly.

You don’t believe me? You don’t agree even after listening to Loca People? Then tell me, what beauty is there in its repetitive monotonous tune? What depth and meaning are there in the retarded lyrics? Does it make you feel, draw you a picture, present you a story? Does it have any emotional or intellectual effect on you? Because for me it doesn’t. It gives me nothing but crappy lyrics to ask what the hell and an annoying tune stuck in my head. It is shallow, it is empty, and it is hollow. But the most important question remains: why, why was it made, why was it allowed to reach such popularity. Have people really fallen that low, or do they simply not care anymore. Has society gone insane?

No, I don’t stand against the freedom of speech, creation, expression, but why have this many people favoured the tasteless, shallow, ugly music. Do they have no experience of anything else to consider it, but then why have the previous generations allowed it? They certainly saw more and knew better music. All is a plan of the rich and powerful to keep the population stupid, conspiracy theorists would say, but really? The evil overlords aside, what really happened to true art, true music, why this degradation? Just how low can we fall? Even lower than Loca People? Oh I don’t doubt we can, I’m afraid to admit.

This is an issue. If others don’t see it, if you don’t see it, I am telling you, this is a serious issue. This raises all kinds of issues actually. Whether you believe me or not I will continue presenting the lowest of low of the media. It wouldn’t be as shocking if these lowest of low weren’t standing in the brightest spotlight of popularity. That is the issue. People choose crap. What does this all say about our society?

I’d like to be optimistic and say: people are just busy. Most don’t have the time to sit and enjoy a song or relax and pay attention to the lyrics, let themselves be carried away by their meaning. In today’s busy life there simply isn’t enough time to look at the deep layers of a music piece, there’s just a few minutes for a quick shallow song, or a repetitive melody in the background. Similar thing can be said about some of the authors.

Overburdened by endless stream of information and cruel deadlines, they lack the time to create depth, they have no chance to conceive it. A quickly written lyrics, a quickly sang song, some fancy editing with the help of top class software, and there you have it. The typical radio song who everyone listens, but no one stops to really hear, to really enjoy. Here’s the sad thing. Not only is music shallow, but the enjoyment taken from it is shallows as well. 

A few minutes, an hour at most, and then the song is gone. No pleasant memory of the melody, no remaining thoughts about the lyrics. Just emptiness, and then we’re back to the swirling world around us.

This throws us into a loop, loop where musicians create crap, that crap is chosen, it becomes popular then someone creates even crappier crap and on and on until the Nyan Cat song will be the equivalent of Mozart. Why? Why must it be this way? Because you, yeah you, the people out there, keep allowing it. Stop and think, even for a moment, stop and think what you’re consuming. Something healthy and nice or crap? You’re powerless to change it you think? Well let me wrap up with a quote:

Margaret Mead

“A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.

Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

You are not powerless, you are dictating society, you are society. And you the individuals decide whether to think or to turn your brains off, to look around or wear sunglasses on a moonless night. In the end it is all down to a simple decision “Do you want such music in the top of popularity charts or not?” a simple like or dislike. And for some of the artists out there – for heaven's sake make a god damn effort.

Music

Topic one – Music. Why music? Well because I honestly suck at music. I’m not completely tone deaf but music is definitely my weakest point in art. I listen to it and I enjoy it, I can even go as far as to say I can't live without it, but picking a soundtrack for a video, or creating an AMV drags the soul out of my body. And since I like to start with what gives me most trouble, here it is - the media of music.

To best understand this phenomenon let us quickly look through some of its most notable examples through the ages. Starting from ancient Greece some time BC, we find the myth of a legendary performer, poet, and musician who could enchant the hearts of every creature with pull of a single string of his lyre.

 

 Orpheus was said to be so talented and his music so magical that even Hades, the god of the dead himself, was moved and agreed to let Eurydice, his wife out of the underworld. For those familiar with Greek mythology you know that it just doesn’t happen, you go to the underworld, you stay there. 

Now the fact he screwed up doesn’t really count towards the impacts of his mystical music.

No, I don’t say he actually existed or that his music actually possessed magical qualities. All I want to show is how music was viewed by the ancient Greek, what it meant for them and what their ideal of a musician was. Music was magic. And Orpheus' name survived through the ages as even today everyone must have heard at least once in their lives, or the state of my faith in humanity would be threatened.

But let us move a bit to the east. The exotic India has a rich and ancient culture. There, music is thought to have power. The vibrations produced by the sound of the strings of the sitar (a traditional Indian instrument) are believed to harmonize energy, transfer it from nature to human, or human to nature, and even be able to heal the soul and the body. There’s also a specially designed note system to maximize the vibrations of the sound. 

While I cannot say I’m a fan of such music myself, I can't deny it has its appeal, not to mention its mood influencing qualities. Similar thing can be said about traditional Chinese music. Back in time, there was nothing more soothing, more magical than the sounds of the east.

Now let go back west, to Europe, several hundred years later. Aristocrats in the so called Classical Period were moved to tears by beautiful melodies. They visited concerts, parties, balls, and wherever they went they had, the best known, musicians hired to entertain them. Music accompanied their every social activity or appearence.

Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Vivaldi, the list goes on. Not to mention the many styles and forms that were conceived, which sadly I cannot list and properly explain due to my limitations in musical knowledge.  

Even today these memorable compositions and their composers are prominent. Their music is still played and many modern songs have been influenced or have borrowed tunes from them. A perfect example for the latter is Mozart’s Lacrimosa. You’ll be surprised to see how many songs have been based on it. There are also the countless movies and other creations of the media, which used, and will continue to use, classical tunes as soundtracks and inspiration.

Moving further west and further in time we reach the 1960s which were marked by a rapid evolution and shifts in both art and music. One of the most influential British bands of that age was no doubt The Beatles. They not only changed what rock&roll was really all about, but also had such a huge impact on popular culture we can still feel it today. Don't believe me? Just how many times have they been reissued or remade by other authors, how many times have they appeared as fictional characters in TV shows, or how about all the references to them in the modern media? I rest my case. 

I will not go into further details or we’ll be here all night. Moving even more to the west and a few decades in the future we see the scandalous influence of Madonna in the Americas. She too, no doubt impacted both music and culture. Even if she is not as prominent today, she’s still a pretty big deal in the showbiz. Again no time to go into details.

But I’ve been focusing only on the geniuses of music you’ll say. Why yes I have, these are the people who made an impression, for who the public would sell their souls to hear. The great musicians who were beyond their times, inspirational even now. Personal tastes aside, very few can argue against their importance and greatness. Why I have been concentrating on them? Well who else? There are those who make it big and then there are the insects. A problem occurs when more and more insects make it big and less and less people are interested or even as little as know who the great figures of music were or still are. But let me better explain my concerns as I continue my story.

Having gone on a long journey through the ages we finally reach the now. What about the music now? Well we have Lady Gaga, we have Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, and what’s her face – Kesha… Oh how have times changed! I bet most of the past musicians are rolling in their graves in horror. I know at least I am, every time one of the up mentioned release a new useless song and it somehow reaches the top of the charts. And yes I know there are many good Euroean and some American musicians. But answer me this, exactly how many of them have made it to the intternational spotlight? It’s heartbreaking really. However, I’m not here to rant, mostly, I’m here to present an objective view of the state of today’s music, and society. If the notable figures of the past were created or at least have been marked by what society was like, then what does today’s music say about us? Things that I would rather ignore while I safely isolate myself in the bunker I built. When I see the popular music art of today’s culture, a culture believed to be way beyond the primitive and transcending the classic, why do I feel ashamed, why do I feel like crying out in terror? Why have we chosen these people, this form of atrocious art to represent our age? Did we degrade morally and intellectually? But don’t get me wrong, I know there are still many good musicians out there. They just hardly ever seem to reach the spotlight. They are isolated in the circles of true music lovers, and for everyone else, for the big chunk of people out there, kids, teenagers and adults, there’s Katy Perry…

Why is our society fascinated by such music? I can’t give a clear answer, for the question is too grand and complicated even for me to comprehend. What I can do is present the concrete example, and maybe try guessing why it has become this way. So next time I will be taking on one of the songs that can make the devil cry. A sound so horrible even I could not finish listening, and believe me I tried. Next post: Sak Noel - Loca People.

This is why I want to draw you a picture...

So, what’s the reason for this blog…? I guess it all started when a friend pestered me to stop wasting my time with immature teen-filled writing communities and start a blog and connect to real writers. I didn’t really know what to do, I didn’t have a topic of discussion, and my daily life was way too boring to describe. As for my interests, let’s just say I’m a minimalist.
So what was I to write about? Did I really have something interesting to show? Some time passed and one day I was accidentally hit by an idea - art. What is art? What does it say about the artist? And what does the artist say about us all? After all art is often inspired or expresses the world. Behind this idea of mine, as it is with most inspirations, there’s a story.

Not too long ago I was happily chatting with a friend who was extremely excited for finally finding the time to finish a new Photoshop piece for her DeviantArt account. Show me, I said, and so she did. It was a nice surreal photo manipulation, I said. But a something wasn’t quite right; a feeling that something eluded me haunted me. What is the idea behind it, I asked? What was she trying to get across? The answer to this, however, was not what I had expected. In fact, I didn’t get one at all. There is no meaning, she said, she was simply trying out “unconventional surrealism,” whatever the heck that meant to her.

There wasn’t a meaning behind the picture? I was shocked. It was just a picture, a collage of photos forming a coherent but lacking a symbolic meaning piece of art? Art? Is this really what art is? More upset than I logically should have been I went on a rant. Isn’t art such, precisely because there’s a meaning behind it? Isn’t it the material representation of the ideas, the thoughts, the mind of the author? How could a mash of pictures, as shiny and well blended as they were, be art when there was no thought behind it? How did she create it at all when there was no idea to support it? Had she randomly mixed pictures and called it surrealism, just because she and no idea what she wanted to do? That’s not what surrealism is. I know what surrealism is. It’s my field of art after all. On and on I went. Her piece simply couldn’t be art. There was no appeal to it at all. It was empty, hollow, it lacked a soul. My reaction I blame on art school. All the way through it I was told to present and explain the ideas and thoughts behind every technique I used, every single piece I produced. They had to be carefully thought through, executed, and then presented to the rest of the class. It was not only a part of our grade but a way to understand ourselves and become true artists, to evolve. We didn’t pick up the brush and draw just for the sake of it. We did it because we had something to say. We used art to express ourselves. That’s precisely what art is, for me, an expression of the artist. If there’s no meaning, no thought behind it, can't the same be said about the artist?

                Having chased away my friend, I finally began cooling down. Still outraged I began thinking. Was it really my friend’s fault? How is art presented by the modern world? What do I see when I look at the world of popular media around me. When I turn on the TV, the radio, go to the cinema, or simply glance at the billboards and store decoration. Then it struck me, I finally realized. No one seems to know what true art is anymore. And the few that did were hardly ever noticed and appreciated. They were secluded in hard-to-find galleries, or obscure movie festivals. In short most good art is limited to the artistic world, hidden from the rest of society, and the rest of society has only the mainstream crap to judge what being artist means.

                Now let me clarify. I don’t see myself as an artist. I took up and dropped painting over and over again until I was finally convinced I simply lacked what it took to be a painter. But, as every artistic person would know, there’s this inner urge that just won’t stop nagging, look what a great idea, draw it, paint it, write it, do something, let it out. It’s much like schizophrenia with the lack of inner voices, which would actually sometimes be useful... ideas can be pretty vague and confusing without a voice. So having discovered the wondrous world of literature, I had previously avoided as the plague, I simply switched to writing. Then I blindly plunged into the realm of mass media and communications and ended up where culture and society met. And so here I am now, still searching for my voice and taking brave steps towards it. I hope.

But let me explain my topic better. For that I have another little story for you, a story of the past. A story of a time long before history. When our great ancestors gathered around the evening fire, after a hard day of work for survival. Back then they did not have a TV, they did not have a radio, or any other technological gadgets which are now irreplaceable part of our lives. Instead they sang, they danced, and they spoke, re-enacted adventures, tales of great bravery or fear, they found creative ways to entertain themselves. With time this primitive entertainment grew and evolved until one day the monster we call modern media was formed. Cinema, TV, movies, paintings, songs, books, I can go on forever. But what does this say about art, what does it say about us, how much has it changed since the time of our ancestors?

Art is the expression of an artist.  Inspired though harmony or discord, freedom or oppression, beauty or ugliness, the artists create, they are the “expression” of a culture, of a society. Culture and individual give birth to art. Then it is society that dictates what enters the realm of popular media, and what sinks with the ship. The amount of people affected by the art, the number of those who noticed, and were left with an impression, is what defines its popularity. Simply glancing at the mass media we can see the state and culture of its society.

This is exactly what I’ll attempt to do. Draw you a picture of the world through popular art: music, movies, literature, and the media in general. I’ll try to show you both its beautiful and ugly side and make a guess as to why it is the way it is. Sometimes it will be a magical journey, others a tale of terror, and on occasions simply a rant with no direction. But nevertheless I hope it manages to entertain you.