“I Make Content, not Art!”How we Traded Deep Musical Experience for Consumerism, and How to Revert the Trend.

A musician’s 2024 social media post on Instagram read:

“I look forward to the day when I won’t ever have to promote my art again !”.

This statement adequately describes the attitude of many musicians who are affected by the changes to music distribution and consumption, where music creation is overshadowed by the need to make ‘content’, either as a promotional or for ‘brand influencing’. The reliance on social media and streaming services, such as Instagram and Spotify, has not only drastically reduced the ability of musicians to earn money from the sale of their music, but has ultimately devalued music in the eyes of consumers, propagated by the never-ending flow of content needed to satisfy online algorithms, resulting in an overflooding of the market. The rise of music as ‘content’ competes against traditional ways of artistic creation- such as the creation of art for art’s sake, for a higher spiritual or community purpose, or as commissions- all modes that enhance the desire for quality music and art.

Modern practices of music as ‘content’ perpetuates the idea that music is a commodity, a form of promotion or free entertainment, that has little value beyond its immediate novelty and utility. This is a symptom of a modern-day belief and gradual cultural shift in the way we think about music. Sure, we love listening to music, but many people don’t see any deeper value in it. We saw this during the Covid lockouts in 2020, where in Australia the first things to be banned were bars, clubs, and events- the main locations where we unite to listen to music. There was initially pushback from the industry based on the loss of ability to make money (which is fair enough), but not about the necessity of engaging in music for matters of health, well-being, social cohesion, spiritual and mental sanity. We don’t make the connection between these concepts, or at least we don’t see them as overly critical in mainstream culture.

How did we get here?

Without delving into the benefits or disadvantages of religions per se, religious cultures have played an important historical role in the preservation of music traditions. These societies ensured music was valued for its higher abilities while protecting it from commodification. Take for example, Catholic liturgical music such as Gregorian chant, or Afro-Cuban Lucumi music. These musical styles are contained within long-standing and strict musical and religious traditions, taught through apprenticeship, and performed in religious celebrations and rituals. Its approach and thinking about music are vastly different to that of the secular West, for it sees music as imperative to human spiritual evolution and development, preserving the appeal for direct musical participation and experience. Similarly, Indian classical music traditions link music to the passions and soul, upholding the importance of music’s connection to our mental and emotional being (Coomaraswamy 1917, p.166). This distinction in music thinking, from a sacred to secular, is evident around the world and particularly in the West, which has undergone a major transformation into secularism through the advent of science. This is compounded by the degradation of religion, which traditionally played a key role in protecting and preserving musical traditions and its ideals.

“There has been a vast transformation of consciousness, not only in the Western world, but over the whole face of the earth” (The Way of Art, Joseph Campbell 1986, p.100)

The modern West has moved further into secularism and materialism, a shift away from its ancestral intuitions which are reflected in its music. For example, the Greek idea of mimesis saw music as connected intimately to non-physical processes, which referred to the ability of listeners to perceive psychic and emotional states through music (Schneider 2010, p.77). Other theories of musical affect were popular during the 17th and 18th centuries with German Baroque and French theories positing that music could resonate with listeners on psychic and motor-mimetic levels, inducing catharsis or states of physical and mental arousal (Schneider 2010, p.77). In 1934, the music psychologist Edmund Kurth (Hsu 1966, p.7) described music as a psychic force, guiding perceptions of space, sensation, and unity. Kurth advocated for the emergence of a field of music psychology that considered the holistic nature of music. This holistic approach to music used different metaphors to describe the relationship of music to human beings, viewing it as an organism rather than a mechanical system (Schneider 2010, p.77). This approach considers music part of an interconnected system- both physical, psychological, biological, cultural, social, and emotional- having ramifications for how we think about music within society and culture. Such holistic perspectives are common in non-Western cultures, such as Nigerian orisha worship, as described by Villepastour (2017 p.268, 284), where gesture and dance hold equal significance to sonic elements of music and collective cultural meaning. These ideas have largely disappeared from the mainstream Western zeitgeist, although the work of Capra and Luisi (2014) and emergent ideas such as Gesture Theory (Trevarthen et al. 2011, p.14), show a revitalisation of such ideas due to a growing frustration with materialism (Jensenius et al. 2010. p.24).

 Emergence of Secular Thinking in the Modern West

The Enlightenment of the 16th and 17th centuries was the birth of a scientific revolution, that did away with many religious superstitions in preference for logic and objective fact, the grounds of a modern secular atheist movement. This cleared the path for a new way of obtaining knowledge based on the scientific method, a powerful tool that has been the foundation of all major Western technical innovations for the past few centuries, including the industrial revolution and technological revolution. This approach perpetuated the idea of the ‘world as machine’, which could be studied by reducing it to its various components, resulting in the rise of specialisation as is evident in the field of medicine (Capra and Luisi, 2014, p.63). The rejection of religion, plus the rise of materialism and reductionism, and the growing reliance on science and objective empiricism, perpetuated a view of the world as material, objective, machine-like, and fundamentally devoid of any spiritual essence (Capra and Luisi, 2014, p.11). With the degradation of religion and the rise of science, and a rejection of the subjective in preference for the objective (what can be observed in the ‘outside’ world), a void was created in the study of subjective experience which was previously the realm of religion.

The Rise of Psychology

In the mid 19th century, psychology emerged as a response to this problem, with icons such as Sigmund Freud, William James, and Carl Jung expanding upon the scientific approach to studying the subjective domain. These thinkers tried to apply the scientific method to exploring the non-objective realm of personal subjective experience. Non-scientific studies of supernatural phenomenon, psychic abilities, or spiritualism was frowned upon, and so, psychologists treaded carefully to explore the subjective world using terms and language that suited the scientific method and worldview. The led to the rise of psychology as a branch of science, but since its nature was to explore the psyche, it tended keep one foot in the world of the mystical and ancient. We see this in the work of Sigmund Freud, who explained consciousness with regard to primitive mythologies (Freud 1940, p.67), or William James who explored the varieties of religious mystical experience (James 1902), or in Carl Jung (1934, p.3) who saw the motives of our lives as emerging from archetypes deep within a collective consciousness, akin to the influence of primitive gods (Jung p.3).

Changing Attitudes to Music

With the changing social environment and development towards a materialist objectivism, societal views about music and arts naturally changed as well. The traditional view of some African cultures was that music was a doorway into the realm of spirits, a way to access the unseen forces, and method for communing with ancestors (Somè, 1999, p.96). The emerging secular Western approach was to strip music it of its spiritual essence, and treat it using the same perspectives that science used to view the world: as matter. When music became matter, it lost its connection to spiritual purpose and became utilitarian, meaning, that if it didn’t have a practical use than it was considered useless (Coomaraswamy 2004, p.124). In this context, music became valued for its immediate function rather than for its potential for helping reach new types of understandings (Coomaraswamy 2004, p.122). These alternative understandings include knowledge beyond utility and immediate pleasure, towards higher ideals of ethics, beauty, and the nature of existence.

Remnants of Secular Musical Thinking

We see the effects of this type of thinking in the music industry today. In 2024, the CEO of Spotify Daniel Ek, referred to music as ‘content’ whose cost of creation is “close to zero”(Johnson 2024).  This statement from the leading distributor of streaming music is totally out of touch with the blood, sweat, and tears that many artists face as they stive to make music, often taking years, and connected deeply with their sense of worth and purpose. But Ek reflects a truth about our culture, where music is being made increasingly quickly, to satisfy algorithms, and for immediate, temporal, and fleeting satisfaction. It is not being made to last throughout time. Daniel Ek is reflecting a general cultural consensus, the view of many people today in the West, that music is valuable only for its temporality, its fleetingness, and ability to give us brief pleasure, temporarily shifting our mood, or momentarily distracting us from work.

The ‘Low-bar’ Set by Modernity

This view of music results in a setting of a ‘low bar’, with musicians (and record labels) responding by putting less energy (funding, artist development, time and resources) into the creation of music, or in seeking quick fads that earn revenue for low output. This creation of ‘music as content’, as ‘temporary pleasure’, or ‘promotion’, provides quick to make music, that serves no deeper purpose except momentary satisfaction and utility. Its ability to inspire and make us think deeply about our humanness is erased, as a constant barrage of low-quality music overwhelms the market. Major record labels promote this because it is cheap and quick to create, and makes a buck before moving onto the next group, and so on. Through our shifting secular worldview, we have created a chicken/egg situation, where our devaluation of music leads to more vapid and cheap music. Much like the furniture we buy, or the cars we make, all is replaceable, utilitarian, lifeless (meaning without soul inscribed by the maker), and meant to be used, abused, discarded, and superseded by the next model. How do we resolve this dilemma?

The Growing Need for Transcendent Experience

Secularisation is at the core of our current beliefs about music, and the antidote is to reclaim some of our traditional ideas around music and its nature. As religion is eroded, the values that preserved these tradtional musical ideals have eroded with it. Secular society exchanges these in preference for utility, commodification, speediness, and promotion of ideologies and products. Although a trend against rampant secularisation is reemerging as people yearn for transcendent experience, something that was always at the heart of religious experience, both in the West and in traditional cultures. These experiences emerge out of values that oppose those just mentioned: instead of utility we seek art for art’s sake, an expression of a deep state of consciousness; rather than commodification we yearn for uniqueness, originality, and for work that has a deep value; in preference for speediness, we value dedication and care; and rather than promotion, we seek a demotion of ego-self and narcissism, in return for societal connection and cultural well-being. 

People are seeking out transcendent experiences in a variety of ways, including through non-Western music practices such as shamanism or indigenous rituals, or through a return to Roman-Catholic sacramental traditions, or in the ritualisation of electronic music events. David Tacey (2019) writes about the psychology of this phenomenon in his book ‘The Postsecular Sacred’, suggesting a re-emergence of modern sacred experience based on a yearning for transcendence. It acknowledges an innate human desire that has been overlooked due to the rise of materialism and rationalism, as Coomaraswamy (2004, p.140) states:

“The secularisation of art and the rationalisation of religion are inseparably connected- we have become material beings focused on a superficially material universe and have lost our essence of mystery, beauty, and spirituality in the process.”

The traditional approach to music, as a technology for healing, spiritual development, and social cohesion, was overlooked in preference for materialism that developed into music as content and commodity. This idea has supported the creation of vast technologies that warranted music’s spread into all corners of the globe, based on consumerism and the sale of products. But as people struggle with mental health issues, and as technology continues to isolate us, and we grow a deep emptiness and longing for connection and harmony with others, we will naturally seek alternative solutions. This requires a re-enchantment of music and arts, but on a much different scale owing to the advent of distribution technologies. We now have the global music technologies in place to not only inspire our local communities, but to inspire the entire globe, an advancement like no other age.

A New Vision

Recent science is starting to change our views about music. For example, Daniel Levitin’s ‘Music and Medicine’ (2024), details the amazing uses of music in treating ailments and diseases, such as trauma, pain, dementia, and PTSD, without the side effects of prescription drugs nor the invasiveness of medical procedures. While new technologies for music therapies are also emerging, such as the work of Nicc Johnson, whose company Music Health provides an AI music therapy platform. These advancements and new understandings are slowly changing the way we think about music in our lives and within culture, merging long-held traditional views with modern science and technologies. It is pushing us towards a new understanding of music, not just for entertainment, content, or as commodity, but as a holistic technology – a music medicine.

A new vision for music could merge from both traditional and modern understandings, forming a new type of musical experience and appreciation. By taking what we once developed through the music of religion, we can begin to integrate modern perspectives to formulate a holistic view of music. This change is thinking envisions music as medicine, not only in the clinical sense, but as therapy in the widespread consumption of music. This entails a development more aligned with traditional uses for healing, social cohesion, spiritual and emotional development using new tools, approaches, and technologies. The new priests and shamans will be the musicians as therapists who use music to heal, rather than to merely entertain or promote. Their tools will be the new technologies of AI, internet distribution networks, and performance technologies that enable widespread connection to music for therapy. These internet technologies will play a pivotal role in distributing music medicine around the globe, and unprecedented advancement due to scientific innovation. The new churches will be the global networks that enable worldwide access, so that peoples of all cultures and classes can have access to music medicine of all kinds. While the new symbols, won’t be celebrities that promote ego, separation, or consumerism (a vestige of a materialist thinking), but symbols that highlight a holistic view of the individual and their important place with community and cultural networks. These symbols serve as sites of contemplation that enhance the experience of music, with rituals that promote participation for the purpose of healing and growth. This new vision moves away from the need to reclaim some ancient past, but instead, integrates the successes of modernity- of its technologies and globalisation- with the wisdom of past ancestral generations to initiate a new way of thinking about music.

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