Over the past two days I've listened to and absorbed the words of two interesting and influential individuals. Dan Carlin, a well-known podcaster and radio host, sat down with famed record producer and everyday mystic Rick Rubin for a conversation touching on creativity, history, politics, and the inner self. With two great personalities and speakers in the same room, the podcast takes the listener through several prompts and thought-provoking topics that help to open the mind's door and let its curiosity out.
In today’s Cut of the Day, we look at a conversation rather than a piece of music due to the immense influence the topics at hand have had on the modern world of audio recording. My initial thoughts were to find a track to coincide with President’s Day but being as my first idea landed on the Honey Drippers “Impeach the President,” I decided to move on. This might have come too close to the apparent sentiments felt by both parties over the recent years.
As a creative and a history buff, I gravitated towards this specific podcast not intentionally, but instead through the world's updated forms of media marketing and displays of content. Rubin speaks about the change of how we have consumed, purchased, and obtained music over the years. From sheet music to vinyl records to mp3's and finally to the "water like" fluid medium of streaming services. "We are paying for the ability to consume," says Rubin, rather than purchasing the physical copy of an album we heard was popular. In this fluid river of content, the conversation between these two was presented to me through artificial intelligence that connected my interests without ever having to specifically tell something to do so.
As Rubin and Carlin converse about "connecting the dots" and its incorporation in the definition of creativity, the listener can form a mental picture of what it takes to make art and the reasons why it is made. As artists, we tend to "steal" from our influences and create something new with tools already crafted and laid out for us to use.
Rubin touches on the fact that an artist may rush to create their art not because others will copy that work and beat them to the punch of publishing it first, but because the tools are out in the ether and all are welcome to use them. The fact that there are formulas of influences and tools floating around creates massive possibilities for people to create while being nowhere close to what their peers have created with the same exact utilities.
In the ever-expanding lexicon of content to consume, the ones most interesting to you still seem to find their way to your front door. My interests include, but are not limited to, music, history, hockey, and podcasts. While some of these things interact, they are not required to collaborate, although they often do.
From one podcast to the next, the fluid streamline of content found its way to me through the end of a hockey podcast that spoke specifically about and recommended Dan Carlin, to the exact conversation between these two men in topic. Connecting the fact that I am a fan of Hardcore History and have listened to it, to a discussion with a top music producer that has influenced many of the songs I've grown up with and love is nothing short of game changing.
Though this is exactly the technology streaming services hold and promote it does not make me less mystified. We as a culture, with the tools we've created, are better equipped to consume similar mediums of art and creativity without having to do so much as lift a finger.
In addition to today' cut, I've ventured out in to the world and found myself a copy of Rubin's new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being. As I hope this may find you, I am inspired to find my own creativity, get a glimpse into the mind of such a creative force, and pave my own way towards expressing myself. Join me on a never ending journey of listening to yourself and sharing your interests. We all have the potential.
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