by Jahred Namaste of Love Eternal
The conversation always goes the same way. Our friends, our family, they eventually say something along the lines of “You guys are pretty good, I bet if you wrote songs that were more mainstream, you could make it.”
First of all, that’s assuming we haven’t “made it” and what is “making it” anyway? So often in the music industry, we are constantly aware of the ones who have “made it.” Their videos are full of gold chains, models, fancy cars. They make money hand over fist and have crews of a hundred people making sure their every photo, blog, article, makes them appear to be super human. Yet their songs? Their lyrics? Almost always the same regurgitated fluff.
Listen to the album while reading the text.
Illusions
These artists who have “made it” in many ways have success. They have millions of views. Millions of dollars. Millions of fans. But so often in the credits to their songs, did they write them? Nope. Is it even art? Questionable.
Artists these days perform songs written by teams of talented songwriters who have a basic formula that has succeeded since the first hit song was recorded. But what about the content? It’s generally entertainment in the form of distraction. It’s not real; this person isn’t singing about a love they lost or wanted to have. They are creating an illusion of emotion, in hopes we the listener will connect, become infatuated and ultimately distracted.
When teamed with branding experts, these celebrities are little more than human billboards. Their very lives used not just to sell products, but to perpetuate the very machine that is leading humanity to destruction.
Power
I’m not saying it’s all a bad thing. I’m saying it’s not for me. In this world we live in, where poverty is rampant, destruction of the earth is a thriving industry, and the very food we eat puts us in a perpetual loop of failing health, distraction can be medicine in itself. However, in this same world, this world gone mad, someone needs to speak out. And what better vehicle than music?
Music has a power unlike any other. It goes beyond the rational mind, into the subconscious. Music has been used since the dawn of humanity to uplift and unite, to inspire our imaginations, and to speak out against injustice. Songs can be used to actualize the ideal world, the perfect world, if only for a few minutes. And that is the true power of music.
So… have we made it?
Substance
My wife and I travel and support our family while sharing our own original, personal music and stories in hope’s to make this world a better place.
So yeah, we have.
We have no one to answer to but ourselves. We don’t need to pitch a song to some executive whose only concern is dollar signs before getting to record it. And, when we rest at night, we rest easy, knowing that we used our talents, our words, and our lives to at least attempt to leave this world a better place than as we found it.
Why is this not popular? Why is music with substance not mainstream?
Distraction
Well, I have theories, you see many true artists that try and use their platform for social change get, well, assassinated. Whether that be actually murdered like John Lennon, or just marginalized and career frozen like so many artists that you’ve never heard of, buried under piles of the latest glitz and meaningless glam.
The system fears musicians and celebrities just as much as it needs them. It needs them to distract, to entertain, to take the center stage, to hold society’s focus while the sleight of hand is performed off to the side. And it fears, more than anything, that these celebrities and artists would one day rise up and use their fame, their brand, their social media accounts, their lives, to create real change, to speak out against the war machine, against the very system that provides them with their riches. Indeed the way it’s rigged, they would be crazy to do such a thing.
Now, no socially conscious artist needs to be assassinated because most people will never hear of them. The mainstream music machine will keep pumping out more and more fluff. Rising idiocracy to the top of the pile, and insisting that the only way to make it is to put our message aside and get with the program, or programming as it were.
Change
However, I have found that people do want the message. People more than ever feel disillusioned with their government. They feel like we as a society are heading in the wrong direction. But worse, they feel like they are alone in seeing it. And the apathy of the younger generation is palpable. They feel like real change is improbable if not completely impossible like no one with a voice cares anymore.
So, that’s where we come in. And not just us. Many many artists are and always have used their amplified status to promote social change. To promote unification. To speak up for justice.
We may not be famous. We may not have millions of followers, yet. But we are doing what we can to make this world a better place, to be a voice for the voiceless, and most importantly to let those who have woken to the immorality of our system know, that they are not wrong, and more importantly, they are not alone.
Love Eternal
Love Eternal, Category: Artist, Albums: Love Eternal, True peace, Healing, Singles: Good Life, Sleeping, Water Is Life, Go With da Flow, Common Vision, Top Tracks: Good Life, Faith in Jah, Change, Go with the Flow, Revolution, Biography: Through a river of cosmic circumstances rises Love Eternal “Music for an Awakening World”.
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