This morning I submitted to listening to The Shutov Assembly by Brian Eno once again. I chose to enjoy it, though I didn’t follow it in depth for very long. It got me thinking about the concept of hero worship.
As a quick aside, I typed I chose to enjoy it on purpose in the previous paragraph. This is a concept I’ll attempt to write about in depth in a blog entry during a not too distant epoch. Anyhow -
In the ambient music community, Mr Eno can be thought as a sort of pioneer (especially if one ignores the countless German artists and ensembles before him). I’m sure many of his works are revered by ordinary dudes like me who make ambient music from time to time and by other ordinary dudes who create goopy drones every single moment of their waking lives. Sure, like The Shutov Assembly, the works are revered. But are they preferred?
At this moment, I’m listening to another ambient work by an artist that is very far from being revered. In fact, he is practically unknown. I’m enjoying the music just as I enjoyed The Shutov Assembly. I’m also choosing to enjoy it. At this moment, I prefer it. An important question to me is this: Do listeners in general place the works of those revered in a genre of music above works by people less known simply because the former artists are revered? Another way to state this would be: Do the works of revered artists have more value than the works of lesser known artists simply because the artist himself is revered?
I try to imbibe art out of context as much as possible. That is, I want to affect me in whichever way it may without outside influence. Thus, at least consciously (who knows what my bastard subconscious does?), I don’t differentiate a piece of ambient music by Mr Eno from a piece of ambient music by the hobo living under bridge on Taborská Ulice in Praha in regard to who made the piece. I believe I do good job not having prejudice in this manner (but, again, who knows what my bastard subconscious does?).
But there is this: Were I to remark that a piece by Flavigula - say, any drone piece from Hap Jaum Sima Liz - is a preferable piece of music than The Shutov Assembly by the revered Herr Eno (yes - I’m aware they are not necessarily very similar in intent), I know myriad people who would guffaw before even listening to the former piece. I selected myself as an example, but I am sure it applies to multitudinous lesser known artists. The culprit here is a fading cultural hangover everyone knows as Hero Worship. Eno has had the “good fortune” to exist as a media highlight for decades and to work with a number of other high profile artists doing atmospheric soundscaping. His cultural value seems higher. I emphasize the word “seems”.
Personally, I do like Eno’s music quite a bit. I also have the good fortune to know of and know personally many lesser known artists that I listen to voraciously. Thus, I discard the idea of cultural value and go back to my personal favourite listening philosophy: each piece stands on its own and what I’m listening to at the moment is the preferred piece, be it The Shutov Assembly, a drone piece by an acquaintance from the fediverse or a sprawling ambient epic by the hobo living under the bridge on Taborská Ulice in Praha.
