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Second, “enjoy” is the wrong word. Capitalist techbro just can’t imagine music having any purpose other than pleasure or consumption, to be maximized (obviously).

People create music/art because the creative process gives them life — even when that process is frustrating, laborious, maddening, or just •hard work•.

And people enjoy engaging deeply with music/art because of that sense that it has a creator and the creation process gave that person life, life they can now share in experiencing that art.

2/

My legendary mentor Don Betts said, “Music teaches us how to think and feel.”

Note: not •what• to think and feel. •How.•

Gen AI is probably just fine for pumping out endless office lobby music whose purpose is to be neutral and generic, to be ignored. But what Don said? No way. The mere output isn’t the point. You’ve got to live it.

3/

Music (and all forms of art) aren't just self-therapy — though they are that, to be sure. They’re instruction manual and mutual support and medicine and nourishment for being a thinking and feeling human being. Being a person is a •lot•! Music helps us be this messy, beautiful thing that we are.

And it’s something else, too.

4/

We live in a world of breathtaking beauty. That beauty is not just inhabited by life; it is •created• by life. It’s created by all these living organisms just being what they are, shaping the world by living in it.

Trees make forests. Coral makes reefs. Humans make art.

Other things too, yes. But all our creative work is surely one of the things at the center of what we bring to the universe — precious and valuable the way flowers or anthills are precious and valuable.

5/

If there’s any •purpose• to living things, if our existence is •for• anything, surely creating music is part of that purpose. Not just outputting music; living music, breathing music, struggling with and through music, experiencing music fully as both creator and listener. Our purpose.

And if this extractive capitalism of our current world is good for anything, it’s killing purpose, reducing everything to an empty husk. So to be clear, I’m not just saying “fuck you, Mikey Shulman, you cheapen my work as a musician;” I’m saying “fuck you, Mikey Shulman, you’re trying to destroy what gives our human existence meaning.” •That• kind of a fuck you.

/end

@inthehands What a great thread, and well said! While I’m not a musican, the way you describe feeling and living music is perfect. Music has been super-important to me my whole life, in good times and bad. It can make me smile and it can make me cry, and that’s mostly because of the *life* imbued within by the artist. Thank you for writing this.