One of my favorite movies in music is “Purple Rain” starring the legendary purple one himself, Prince. This movie takes place in Minneapolis at a venue called “First Avenue” where up and coming acts scratched and clawed for a chance to make it big.
The music is spellbinding, but what serves as the driving force for the legendary soundtrack is the environment in which it was presented. What I’m talking about is competition. There is something to be said about going on stage and performing like someone is trying to kill all of your hopes and dreams.
I can only imagine the peculiar onus an artist must feel when it is just them and the audience. Where there are no judges, executive producers, or algorithms declaring a victor or constructing a marketable narrative. Like a Roman Coliseum, the victor is clear. You sense it. You feel it. And everybody knows it.
In this modern age, competition is as dead as a door nail. To be or not to be competitors? The answer seems to be the later. Today’s musicians are borderline terrified of competition. Maybe this stems from insecurity, maybe it’s laziness, perhaps a mixture.
It takes a particular kind of will power to claim and defend a throne.
Musical releases become blockbuster events and the content within becomes downright weighty, essential, dire. While it’s understandable that everybody might not be built for that kind of pressure, nobody being built for such is downright ridiculous.
There are very few terms that makes me cringe like “pitting” Pitting women against women, putting artists against artist. Dear artists of the 21st century. No one is asking you to slaughter children. Love is a Battlefield and music is a sport. Competition is healthy and it gives us amazing art. There is no brand dependent on consumers that gets to hide from competition.
When acts don’t compete music suffers, the cream doesn’t rise to the top and the fans suffer from an acute sense of complacency. The pursuit of dominance is what give us great rivalries like Mozart and Salieri, Miles David & Wynton Marsalis, Pearl Jam & Nirvana, Biggie & Tupac, NSYNC & the Backstreet Boys, Britney & Christina, Shady Aftermath and Murder Inc, Michael & Prince.
Competition isn’t sexist, it’s necessary. It wards off complacency and stagnation. It breeds creativity and ingenuity in a way that gives us the most incredible music. Acts today are as openly insecure as they have ever been. They are too concerned with being liked and collaborating with their peers. What we are witnessing is the death of competition and the creation of a weird musical utopia where we all sing the same song in different notes, of the same chord.
The musical gladiator is so necessary in today’s music and without it we will never push pass our limits as creatives, we will cheat the world out hearing new songs. Superstardom will die and we will never experience music the way we have it in years passed again.
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