Orchestral “Friday”
This is hysterical in its own right and requires no further comment or explanation, but I’m gonna give one!
It’s all about context. You don’t want to function in a vacuum. You want to give your audience tools so they can participate and get hooked. In other words, the record is just the beginning. And the audience owns the art, not the producer.
This is the opposite of the philosophy Metallica employed with Napster. Yes, I know that was about theft of intellectual property, but the case was also made that we don’t want our work tapes distributed, we only want what we choose to be in the public eye.
That’s a mistake.
Art is no longer static, it’s fluid. There’s not only the studio version, but the remix, the multiple live takes. It’s like the classical era, before recording. You start with notes on a page and the rest is open to participation.
I enjoy this orchestral take of "Friday" more than the original. It’s rooted in that confection, but it’s somehow more…familiar, yet better.
We live in an agora with a constant exchange of ideas. This is what those in power do not understand, whether they be fat cat bankers in this country or dictators in the Mideast. The powers-that-be are all old school, they think they can dictate, stand above, when now, more than ever, we’re all in it together. And if you want to survive you’ve got to acknowledge this and act upon it.
In other words, Lloyd Blankfein should donate a ton to charity and show up and fill sandbags where flooding is imminent.
Obama should not play to bankers, but to twentysomethings who’ve graduated from college who are living with their parents and have no jobs. Because it’s these young ‘uns who truly have power. Because money and force can never eclipse the dissemination of ideas, which is essentially free with modern communication technologies. Sure, we pay for Net access, both wired and wireless, but we pay for electricity and gasoline and access is here to stay. And those who want to cripple it are fighting the wrong battle. You’ve got to get in the river and swim, damming doesn’t work in this world.
Hearing Rebecca Black’s studio version of "Friday" I could not envision this orchestral take. But that’s the power of inspiration and collaboration, someone else could! In other words, the more the major labels exclude young employees the worse their business will become. You’ve got to let everybody in, let everybody lend a hand, and it’s not about the initial product so much as what it will ultimately turn into, when the public gets its hands upon it.
Suddenly everybody is playing in the arts. This is a bad thing? No, this is FANTASTIC! The public is doing what the government will not. Arts have been eviscerated from the educational curriculum, but that’s where you learn creativity, let’s give the underclass these tools, so they too can live enriched lives, can get ahead.
Just like Richard Aschcroft and his cronies in the Verve took an obscure orchestral Rolling Stones track and turned it into "Bittersweet Symphony", the artist here has made something interesting out of something irrelevant.
Oh, what a great age we live in!
