Badsleeper Life

How long does it take to take properly “digest” art? How long should it take? And how much effort should one really put toward doing so?

I’ve been watching a bit more of Anthony Fantano (the internet’s busiest music nerd). He has an encyclopedic knowledge of modern artists and their discography and really is entertaining to watch. My favorite moment has been watching his interview with Damon Albarn, where at the start Damon cordially shares a bit of small talk about his morning “I’ve just been for a swim. It’s a beautiful beautiful but quite chilly autumn afternoon.” To which Anthony nods with an utterly blank stare and begins firing off questions about the creative process. His awkwardness and musical obsession know no bounds.

I like that he’s willing to listen to and assess pretty much anything. He recently posted a first-listen review of Taylor Swift’s new album “The Life Of A Showgirl”. Not exactly my go-to artist…but I was interested in his thoughts, and I always want to try to expand my understanding of production, songwriting, and of what is popular. As expected of Taylor, the songs were sparkly, catchy, lyrically loquacious…occasionally mawkish.

But to get to the point. There was a moment where Anthony and his co-hosts were reacting to a song called ‘Eldest Daughter’ that featured the lyric “I have been afflicted by a terminal uniqueness, I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool”. They instantly began laughing and railing against the lyric. Expressing how out of touch, arrogant, and egotistical the line was. “How ridiculous to claim you are so unique. And then add ‘terminal’ on to it!?” I was honestly pretty surprised by the instantaneous reaction. I was expecting someone who essentially critiques music for a living to have a more measured response. A message popped up from a random chatter in the stream, “the Swifties will try to defend her and say she’s being sarcastic! lol”

A few moments of research reveal that “terminal uniqueness” is a term used in the world of psychology and addiction recovery to describe “someone who believes their own situation is so different from others that recovery programs and support groups will not be effective for them.” It would seem obvious that an artist describing themselves as having a “terminal uniqueness” would carry some implied self-awareness. Akin to expressing something like, “I’ve lost my way to utter narcissism”. Not to mention songwriters frequently take on the role of a character or persona when telling a story.

In any case, it got me thinking about how we engage with music. Should Anthony and his co-hosts have stopped and asked, “Can this lyric be interpreted differently? Could I be missing something?” I would answer a resounding “yes”. But, to what lengths should we even go to understand art? It seems clear that sometimes art can be so off-putting to one’s sensibilities as to be beyond investigating. In such instances, it seems writing something off makes sense. Yet at the same time, it seems to me that in order to justify having a very strong opinion about something, one should put in a great deal of time to understand the thing they are passing harsh judgment on.

I can’t sight-read a piece of piano music and claim to understand it after one play-through. Or watch a confusing film one time and make the claim it was total nonsense. When I inspect a piece of art and feel off-put by it, in some ways I feel compelled to engage with it even more and understand the nature of my own aesthetic revulsion. This was a long post and I don’t know where it’s going. I need to sleep.

Joy and disgust surface in an instant. Understanding takes time. Sometimes a lot of time. Sometimes more time than we have.

Good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight.