Liberty, Liberally April 2023

Liberty, Liberally

Music As Culture

When it comes to creativity and familiarity in local music, it shouldn’t be an either/or scenario. It should be that the people in our community, who practice the craft of music, should retain the power to introduce new songs, and over time, make those songs familiar. It is this power that is lost.

Musicians are still practicing, and performing, but the power they once had, to create a song and make it familiar to their neighbors - that’s all but lost. Replaced with corporate culture, now we sing along to more and more music made by people we will never knowwho will never know us.

I’m not exactly sure how we can reclaim our place, as musicians, in our communities, here in Alaska. But one thing I’m sure of - and I’ve always been sure of this... Alaska is a perfect place to try. Because of our local pride, and geographic separation, we are in a better position than other contiguous states in the Union to reclaim our culture creator status.

is inescapable. Yet, for many musicians, escaping Alaska is all they think about.

Seeing how Alaskans ignore our musicians, I understand. Musicians want to be appreciated for their culture creation. But our community only hears what the corporate record companies tell us is ‘music’. Our community tells us to escape, go elsewhere for validation, let the corporate music industry shape your sound, so that there is no trace of Alaska in it. Then, and only then, do Alaskans at large give credence to our creativity.

I’ve taken a few years off from music, but that’s already changing. I’m playing more, and enjoying it more than ever. It’s coming back to me, why I loved music way back when. This essay is just my own effort to express how I’m feeling, and what I’m thinking. Trying to keep those bad thoughts out of my mind, that my musical efforts should somehow reflect what is the norm, rather than affect it.

It’s new, really. The idea that we have about how music works, in a financial, professional sense.

Technological developments, like electricity, and broadcast - and now the internet - have made music easily available to people.

The click of a button, or opening an app on your phone, will lend instant access to the world of music, spanning across time and space. It is truly magnificent. But we’ve also lost something, and that something is quite the important something, too.

The musician.

Before all this technology gave us music on demand, we had to have a real musician provide music. There was no way around it, music required musicians. In this way, there was a cultural connection to the people in a community. All music was local music, even if they were playing compositions from other musicians who lived elsewhere. The musicians in a community created the sound of that community’s culture. They created the feeling of that place.

Going back to the beginning of time, music and musicians always went hand in hand, and as a result, musicians were an integral part of any community. They weren’t ‘wannabes’ trying to ‘make it’ out of their communities. They were valued culture creators, within their own community. And it was good.

I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy the music that I have access to; I’m a glutton for music, any way I can get it. I soak in it, I let it pour into my soul. I use this modern tech to create a constant flow of music in my life. Blue tooth speakers are probably the most used technology in my home, next to the phone that connects to them.

However, what we’ve lost in our community is an appreciation for the musicians’ role as culture creators in our community. I’m not lamenting or complaining. This is simply a reminder. Musicians can put their hands on an inanimate object and change the chemicals in your brain, so that you feel... different. That is a valuable skill set. That is how culture sounds.

It never hurts to stop and consider this. Where would music be, and how would musicians function, in a world that wasn’t connected by technology?

We would be in a central location somewhere, surrounded by our community, making music for them to enjoy - that they couldn’t get elsewhere. If they recognized the songs, it would be because the local musicians had made them familiar - not because some corporation piped it into the community over the radio or mass media. That norm, of corporate influence over local cultures, local communities, is a one-way street. It’s not reciprocal, it’s not communal. How can it be? They aren’t here, how

could they play our soundtrack? How could they possibly?

The question is, how do we re-establish that? How do we get musicians and the communities they live in to work together, organically? It won’t be through a rejection of technology or convenience, that’s for sure. People aren’t giving up music streaming, radio, or electricity. I’m not suggesting that we live like the Amish. But I am wondering, and thinking a lot lately, about how music fits into our cultureminus all the professional and financial ambition that is directed at the corporate music industry. I’m thinking a lot about how, as a musician, I can create music without it becoming the means to an end.

Music is a completion of culture. It is the background, and sometimes the foreground of our lives - even now - because culturally that’s what it’s always been. The reason we like music so much is because music has been an inherent part of our culture for millennia. We all would benefit by keeping in mind that the musicians in our community are valuable to that community, making us feel how the community feels. They are masters of empathy, empaths absorbing the emotions of others, and creating a sound that communicates that consensus.

Music, when culturally considered, makes us act as one, tapping our feet to the same rhythm, even dancing in unison, singing and harmonizing...

This alludes to so much more about humanity than corporate, canned music could ever reveal. That music, from elsewhere, it’s not a barometer of our local reality. It’s a carefully crafted and skillful illusion. As a musician, I admire the craft of it, but as a community member, it doesn’t reflect my world.

Another effect of corporate music’s prominence in our local communities, following our willful ignorance of our own musicians, is that our own musicians lose their power. They start becoming imitators of that corporate culture, rather than innovators of our local culture. I’m not bashing those people, because I am certainly one of them. As a musician, I have been constantly pulled in two directions: creativity, or mimicry.

Any musician who has attempted to ‘make it’ will tell you, we are all challenged to pass through the gauntlet of the bar scene - and in the bar scene, you have to play songs that everyone already knows. Familiar tunes make people comfortable, and when people are comfortable, they eat, and drink.

However, this brings us back to the core idea of this essay. That comfort that is familiarity, the power to make us familiar with certain music, (which is traditionally the role of local musicians in a community), has been usurped by outside interests.

I think perhaps it starts with a change of mindset, a change of perception. We musicians need to stop looking to the outside for validation of our music, and start looking to the community around us. That community has had more influence over our creativity than many of us realize. It’s ubiquitous influence

It should not be about making money. It should be about making sense of things. Making a difference in our community, making people move together, make love, make memories...

MAKE A SCENE.

(WRITTEN 12-18-2018)

Growing Pains & Gains

You may notice a significant change in our publication this month. Both The People's Paper and Make A Scene Magazine have experienced tremendous growth recently, with our circulation increasing from 10,000 to 17,000 copies per issue in just a few months! Additionally, we've expanded our distribution to include Anchorage and Eagle River.

Of course, such rapid growth inevitably leads to growing pains.

As we adapt our organization to accommodate this expansion, we're discovering innovative ways to conserve space in print. Every article in our publication is penned by local contributors like you, who are passionate about their topics. We've replaced the facade of corporate media, which expects you to trust what you read blindly, with a vibrant public

We’ve gotten a surprising number of donations from community members at The People’s Paper and Make A Scene Magazine over the years, and recently it’s increased with the publication of Liberty, Liberally.

We’ve also received many requests for subscription services, requests to mail Liberty, Liberally, and our other publications to people near and far... So we thought, why not make it easier to

discourse featuring diverse perspectives on the same pages. Next month marks 16 years of our commitment to this unique approach – it's like social media in print!

Our paper's content is not controlled by individuals who live elsewhere, which plays a crucial role in preserving local culture. Fostering our own culture is the essence of true culture, and we're proud to facilitate that freedom. With the recent surge in our distribution numbers, we've also witnessed a substantial increase in submissions from community members! Consequently, this issue is the largest we've ever produced! With this in mind, we kindly ask for your patience, dear reader (and possibly writer), as we navigate these growing pains. Thank you for your continued support – write on!

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