Real Art vs. Products

Telling The Difference Between Real Artists And Artificial Products

I’m going to kick this one off with a pretty straight forward and somewhat relevant quote from long-standing pioneer, Coone, taken from his track “Words From The Gang.”

“I hate those smart asses to who think DJing is a easy way to get laid. Well, get a life!
If you’re not enough for the love of the music, would you please, fuck off!”

The second line in particular really stands out to me and says something that I feel is slowly being lost in the modernised market of hardstyle. Must I add with the accentuation of the word ‘market,’ by that unfortunately, I don’t mean community anymore. For those who are either deeply immersed in the world of hardstyle and follow every movement in the scene and even for those who love the music itself but have better things to do than follow artists every movement, you will probably notice that when browsing around, some artists stand out more in comparison to others.

But do these artists stand out for the right reasons…?

Picture this: You’re a child in a toy store and most of the toys are of a respectable quality and they are evenly distributed throughout the shop to be fairly chosen out. One year later, you return to this very toy shop to find that a brand new range of extremely plastic and made up Barbie and Ken dolls are pushed to the front and all of your former favourite toys have been pushed all the way to the back.

#FAKE

So what do overly polished Barbie and Ken dolls have to do with hardstyle?

Well in terms of “shopping” within the hardstyle market, some artists have a clearly distinguishable “product” that is associated with their name. Backing this concept slightly outside of the hardstyle sphere and into the dreaded mainstream pop music, Lady GaGa is a prime example of exactly a product with her wild and wacky costumes. Nicky Minaj is also a product with her bizarre butt implants, her name, her outfit choices and hairstyles. Come to think of it, most pop stars are products who have been pushed into the big bad world of fame and you can find someone just as talented (or even more talented) singing at an underground bar or small indie music festival. You probably understand what I am talking about now, a product or brand consists of marketing tactics to create something extremely recognisable to tell them apart from the fuckload of other artists around these days.

**Lady GaGa – Talented artist or a fake money making product?**

Yeah, we know, everybody wants to stand out from the crowd and let’s face it, when creating music, most producers have dreams about hitting it big and standing amongst thousands whilst showcasing their own tunes on mainstages at huge festivals. When immersing yourself in your dreams of becoming a top-notch producer in the hardstyle scene, yes, your image and how you portray yourself to your fans is important – that is only normal and part of building up your act. However, on the other hand there are products who are basically empty shells or a good looking exterior with absolutely no knowledge, no say and no musical creativity in what they do. Higher order marketing geniuses or “powerful big-dogs” create these products, create an over-the-top image that will be highly recognisable and then they push these products as far as they can go. It is quite rare that these products make their own music or have a big say in what music that they release, after all, they are the product, not the creator.

Now, sit tight as I’m going to tell you a little fictional story about our good friend “Audiofrequencybasscontroller”:

Audiofrequencybasscontroller is a 22 year old hardstyle producer who has spent a significant amount of time producing hardstyle and other electronic dance music since he was 13 years old, he was signed to one of the biggest hardstyle labels 3 years ago. Since he was signed to the label, Audiofrequencybasscontroller has made some great music and has become a well respected young producer within the scene and has earned some great bookings, mostly in festival season. When Audiofrequencybasscontroller is playing at a huge festival one weekend, he notices one particular young DJ who was playing on the mainstage, yet has only been signed in the scene for only 1.5 years.

This particular DJ, called DJ Footfuckz is a ghost produced DJ who somehow scored some top notch management who dedicated his life to make sure that DJ Footfuckz would be one of the most famous hardstyle DJ’s in a short period of time. His ghost producer is an old friend of his and DJ Footfuckz sometimes pops by his studio to listen to the tracks, however he does not have much input into the tracks – mainly because he cannot produce for sh*t. DJ Footfuckz manager has him dressed up in a costume when he plays his gigs to be more recognisable and also has everything done, including merchandise with a catchy (yet lame) slogan, artwork and a packed out bookings schedule. When Audiofrequencybasscontroller sees DJ Footfuckz playing on the mainstage and all around social media with more likes than his page and more dedicated fans, he begins to speculate and wonder what is really going on….

As you can see, Audiofrequencybasscontroller has worked so hard perfecting his sound in the studio for so many years, it can be frustrating seeing someone new appear out of thin air who doesn’t make their own music and is basically a product to appeal to the masses.

Nowadays, for longstanding producers who have been making music honestly for even 20 years, have established their name in the scene as a solid producer and have truly earned their gigs at huge events and mainstages, it can be frustrating when a random product pops up like the biggest MOFO around and ends up getting double as many bookings than them! Artistically, a high status within music should be earned and the hard yards must be put in if you want to make good music, simple!

**Noisecontrollers – The definition of a talented and artistic individual. He’s not a fad or a product, hence why he has been a respective player in hardstyle for so long**

So, what is art?

Well, in terms of hardstyle, artistic creativity can be described as a constant production of innovative music that has thought, emotion and a feeling behind it. This music belongs to its owner, is showcased by its owner and it is the owners decision on how it will sound. True artistic self expression and personal musical perception has the ability to create something from scratch with the sole purpose not as a money making tactic or an appeal to a mass audience.
You can see true artists within quite a few hardstyle producers nowadays, but sadly the table turns both ways. Pioneering act themselves Endymion even admitted in the following quote a specific kind of talent that they recruit on their label:

“It’s a little bit fake if there’s a just a product on the main-stage. We want to have real artists as a part of our label and not just brands, we want real producers who work hard in the studio and have a creative vision. Of course we can help them with a few things here and there, but we do not have the power to put these kids on main-stages – that’s their job.”

Of course, some ‘products’ may put on a good show every now and again and have a great entertainment factor, but that may be where it all stops and that’s where some people do not differentiate. There’s a fine line between entertainment and artistic expression, for example, some days you may just feel like watching a brainless TV show and sometimes you might crave watching “The Davinci Code!” Even taking TV shows as an example, no one will remember Big Brother Season 2 twenty years down the track, however people will always remember Shakespeare.

For upcoming producers, it’s really important to be able to artistically express yourself and make a name and honest image for yourself, it will most likely attract certain types of “open-minded” fans who feel a true connection with the music! Although dressing nicely in trendy clothing and taking care of your aesthetics and image and making an honest living from your music is a harder way, being somebody’s puppet is not much better…