Originality & Conclusions

Originality is an intriguing concept. What is ‘original’? Is it just the new things we see or is it when someone discovers something missing in the world and identifies the problem and creates a solution. Does that idea manifest in that one instance or is a confluence of pre-existing ideas and experiences that show at that moment, and if we’re constantly drawing from the pool of our subconcious, is that idea really original or just a new iteration of past ideas. We could call these ideas conclusions. Answers we draw up after our minds organize thoughts into a cohesive plan.

A good example of this was found in a recent interview Kanye West did in Australia. People repeatedly attacked his self confessed iconic status and the fact that he confidently compares himself to legendary artists like Elvis and Jim Morrison or the Beatles. See the problem is that our sense of originality is often locked into a linear scale of time and we authenticate the originality of ideas by date or the time of inception. Innovators like Presley and Morrison are awarded the iconic status of being original because they were the first. I don’t think Kanye’s ego is the issue, but people are used to hearing that kind of candor and sincerity about success and creative direction. Kanye know’s who he is and where he’s going and more importantly what he’s creating. That’s original.

Original artists that push new boundaries are relegated to the lesser status of follower, simply because they came after the fact. Regardless of how far reaching their ideas or concepts are always, they are ‘inspired by’, ’similar to’ or worse yet, ’sound like’ everything preceeding it. Case in point this album. A ground breaking piece of work that cannot escape the obvious associations of motown even though it’s completely new.

Artist like West, seek to carve out new genre’s, new looks, new sounds and they fight to find space as original artists as we seek to push them back into place. I hope we can stop drawing such blatant conclusions, so he can flourish in his originality.