The Tragedy (and Comedy?) of Modern Times

The following is an excerpt of an email sent from Art to Will on 27 June 2014.

The main tragedy of modern times is that we all think we are the protagonist and we all find out we are just members of the chorus, without anything that individuates us.

Brian Dennehy as Willy Loman

We realize that we are not frontman material, that we are commonplace, and that we could have saved ourselves a lot of misery if we had merely accepted our lot in life from the beginning. Perhaps this modern tragedy has its advent in Willy Loman, who believed being a "big man" was the most important thing in life, totally devaluing his vocation as father and husband, and perhaps his avocation as a skilled handyman or builder.

The Internet has done a lot to augment (exascerbate?) this phenomenon, beginning with McLuhan's prophetic notion that the satellite provides the proscenium arch that makes us want to be an actor.

Countless millions--ourselves included--have set up stages for themselves in virtual "theaters" that theoretically accommodate an infinite number of "theatergoers": followers, fans, etc. A large number of these theaters--ours included--are almost entirely empty.

But we have also witnessed in recent years many instances of the "viral" phenomenon whereby an ordinary person becomes famous through this medium (e.g. Justin Bieber, Andy Samberg). These successes--again, an infinitesmal percentage of those who have attempted this avenue--fuel even more dreams, all of which can, in a sense, be "chartered" through social media.

This has spawned a lot of overweening pride that is, in most cases, utterly crushed by reality.

Luke Bryan

I put "and Comedy?" because this age has spawned yet another phenomenon, the name for which I don't know. We see it in the two ascendent genres of music of recent times: Country and EDM. I was largely unaware of this phenomenon until reading about it through Bob Lefsetz's newsletter over the last year.

Country is the only legitimate stadium rock still extant, not counting mega bands from past eras like the Stones, Springsteen, and U2.

Maybe it's the content: down-to-earth realities, stuff the chorus can understand. Luke Bryan puts out a Spring Break EP every year--what an amazing concept to provide a soundtrack to others' mindless revelry! And the songs are simple enough that thousands of people (the chorus) can shout/sing along with the melodies. At Stagecoach--country's answer to Coachella--Lefsetz marvelled at how "real" the performers were, how fun and flawed and passionate and in touch with their fans. And how much the fans love their artists, how all-consuming this is for them. And this phenomenon has almost disappeared in every other genre, even pop music.

EDM is a similar phenomenon.

Some famous EDM dude

I don't want to diminish what the artist actually "does" in EDM, but to an outsider, but to me it looks like music lovers communing with other music lovers. I know there's a lot of manipulation and maybe even creation, but a lot of it seems to be serving up other people's work to a bunch of drugged revelers. The DJ is on stage--a little bit like a protagonist--but he is far less different from his his peers in the chorus: he is singing and playing and dancing along with them. Accordingly, this phenomenon is more akin to comos than tragos, and, as such, is likely going to result in nothing worse than a bad hangover. The same seems true of Country.

Somewhere in this is the zeitgeist we need to confront. Do we want the former tragos or the latter comos? I'm suggesting here that what we choose will necessarily take on the characteristics of one or the other. I don't have time to summarize right now, but hopefully you got the gist (or geist) of what I was outlining about each option and can apply those ideas to our own situation.

For myself, I have seen multiple opportunities to embrace elements of one or both, and the power that would be found in that.