89. Moonface And Siinai - “The Nightclub Artiste“
Call me pretentious, but I love songs that call out pretentious shit. Art is word that has been continually cheapened throughout its existence, and nowhere is this more apparent than in today’s day and age, when everyone on social media fancies themselves an artist. Now don’t get me wrong. I think its great that everyone has a creative outlet and access to a potential fan base without being restricted through the classic channels of fame. However, I don’t like it when people with little skill and no originality make sweeping claims to the title artist. Call yourself a person that does art, but until you make a living off of your art or are at least recognized as skilled, you’re not an artist. Don’t cheapen the title by claiming it without the proper respect, time and dedication put into the craft.
I know, I sound like a mean spirited ass, and I might be, but I think life needs some degree of order or definition to have meaning, and that includes something even as amorphous as art. It seems that now more than ever the definition of art is continuously in motion. However, the most common, banal, and en vogue conception of ‘art’ preached by the stagnant vanguard of society is that everything is art. According to them art is an amorphous and self-conforming mass that shifts and morphs into whatever one wants it to be, and yet it’s that same vanguard that incessantly acts pretentious about the concept of art, as if something that is proliferate by nature can simultaneously be an esoteric gem granted only to a prestigious few.
It’s infuriating stuff, and Spencer Krug is with me on this. His line sums it up perfectly. “You can say it was so good it could not be understood, which is another way to say it was so weird it just doesn’t matter”. It’s brutal in its honesty, but then he takes it a step further on the final refrain to end with, “which is another way to say that it was bad - you’re just a grey swan on a grey pond and you’re sad.” Lets all make an effort to be honest with ourselves, and in doing so lets all help make art great again.
