All-Consuming Hate Kills the Artist’s Creativity

Scott K Fish

Silver Member
All-Consuming Hate Kills the Artist’s Creativity

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“’Everybody hates something!’ the angry child flings. Perhaps. Surely most men do. But the artist must love to create. He must bring love to his art if it is to live. He can hate, but if this becomes all-consuming, his creativity dies.”

Source: Don DeMichael (Down Beat publisher): Love, Hate, and Jazz, DB 10/26/61

Scott K Fish Blog: Life Beyond the Cymbals
 
Hate is a very strong word and one that should seldom, if ever, be used.

It is akin to love. The only things in my life that I love are my wife, children, grandchildren and other family members.

Thus with hate being the polar opposite of love I do not dislike anything or anyone as much as I love my family. As such I hate nothing or no one.
 
What about Hitler or pedophiles?

I think that everybody hates something. But, yeah. I didn't read the article because of the overly dramatic description.
 
Slightly off topic (as far as drums are concerned) but I heard a story about a fairly well known UK hip hop artist who wouldn't take part in a "Love Music, Hate Racism" benefit because of the word hate being used. Which I thought was a bit on the weird side.
 
I was taught early in life that everything was a choice between joy/love and fear/hate, and that revoltions were something that we create in our imagination so that we can grow by conquering them. These internal battles make for great writing, as they're often shared among the general population. It's neat, because music can be used to create a narrative of the struggle.

While I've succeeded in working this into guitar+vocal+lyric, I've not yet experimented with conveying emotion with drums other than providing an ambient backdrop to other instruments. If anything, drums are sympathetic instrument to me, made to compliment other instruments.

If anyone has a good example of an empathetic drum exposition, or part, I'm all ears.
 
I agree in principle, but any context about who he was talking about? Some people were calling anti-racism/civil rights activism "hate" at that time. And in '61 there was a fair amount of backlash among white jazz writers against the "New Thing" just musically, too-- they were calling it "anti-jazz." With the exception of Archie Shepp, though, most of the way-out guys were positively-oriented-- they were into peace, love, God, music, creativity.
 
If anything but the work is all-consuming it's not going to be much help for artists, other than being grist for the mill if they become centred again.
 
Too many people get caught up in the political maelstrom and begin ranting on all those things they have no control over whatsoever.

Facebook made me sad in the beginning because I would come across someone whom I'd just either met or reconnected with, and they turn out to be vile and reactive people whose rhetoric makes me just kinda go "ewww" and then, I don't want to get on a stage and share the better part of my soul and spirit with them.

And the sad thing is, I'll tell them flat out and they come back at me with the same fervor and disgust... then we see each other in real life and it's like "Hey, how's it goin'? Haven't seen you around in a while, everything OK?"

People confuse the crap outta me sometimes.
 
I made a little quip about liking hate on another thread that I thought carried at least a kernel of truth; that the things we hate are things we avoid at all costs.

This can be especially true when it comes to creating art since art is the the expression of an aesthetic sense and its vision. This often specifically excludes elements deemed not worthy or distasteful by the artist. If one says they hate elements X and Y, then X and Y will be nowhere in the resulting expression.

The more elements hated enough to avoid, and rebelled against, the more focused and the true the art.

All-consuming hate is an extreme and sounds borderline personality disorder, but having strong negative feelings about this or that is just part of knowing yourself and having a clear idea of how things should be. It informs your choices about art, and really pretty much anything else in life.

I think most healthy people have this sense to some degree.
 
Too many people get caught up in the political maelstrom and begin ranting on all those things they have no control over whatsoever.

Facebook made me sad in the beginning because I would come across someone whom I'd just either met or reconnected with, and they turn out to be vile and reactive people whose rhetoric makes me just kinda go "ewww" and then, I don't want to get on a stage and share the better part of my soul and spirit with them.

And the sad thing is, I'll tell them flat out and they come back at me with the same fervor and disgust... then we see each other in real life and it's like "Hey, how's it goin'? Haven't seen you around in a while, everything OK?"

People confuse the crap outta me sometimes.
We are different people in different circumstances. I talk a lot on a philosophy forum and if you read some of my posts you might not recognise that it's me. I sometimes spoke differently to people at work to how I spoke with friends and fam.

Meanwhile, Dad was a staunch right winger and I have always tended to humanitarianism and environmentalism. We'd have massive and pointless political clashes at times, but our more usual conversations were more like "Hi? How are you? Are you going to play tennis today?" or "I'm making a cup of tea, would you like one?".

Human beings can probably only really be understood when you're laughing :)
 
We are different people in different circumstances. I talk a lot on a philosophy forum and if you read some of my posts you might not recognise that it's me. I sometimes spoke differently to people at work to how I spoke with friends and fam.

Meanwhile, Dad was a staunch right winger and I have always tended to humanitarianism and environmentalism. We'd have massive and pointless political clashes at times, but our more usual conversations were more like "Hi? How are you? Are you going to play tennis today?" or "I'm making a cup of tea, would you like one?".

Human beings can probably only really be understood when you're laughing :)

I never discuss politics on my Facebook wall and rarely discuss them anywhere. Religion as well. I'm not an expert on either and just refrain from any sort of invective.

I wish others could do the same. And I'm not talking about the jab here and there, I've seen some downright hateful and bigoted stuff come rolling down the pipe; so much so that I want to create an anonymous account to troll them back, but that's how it all starts!

I agree with the laughter part.
 
Too many people get caught up in the political maelstrom and begin ranting on all those things they have no control over whatsoever.

Facebook made me sad in the beginning because I would come across someone whom I'd just either met or reconnected with, and they turn out to be vile and reactive people whose rhetoric makes me just kinda go "ewww" and then, I don't want to get on a stage and share the better part of my soul and spirit with them.

And the sad thing is, I'll tell them flat out and they come back at me with the same fervor and disgust... then we see each other in real life and it's like "Hey, how's it goin'? Haven't seen you around in a while, everything OK?"

People confuse the crap outta me sometimes.

And how is Ted Nugent these days?
 
I never discuss politics on my Facebook wall and rarely discuss them anywhere. Religion as well. I'm not an expert on either and just refrain from any sort of invective.

I wish others could do the same. And I'm not talking about the jab here and there, I've seen some downright hateful and bigoted stuff come rolling down the pipe; so much so that I want to create an anonymous account to troll them back, but that's how it all starts!

I agree with the laughter part.
Sounds like a good recipe for sanity, Bill. Whatever we say makes bugger all difference anyway.

It's weird how people develop these hates. I think they get off on the excitement of it, but it's unhealthy. I avoid bigots like the plague - positive people are more fun.

Still, as others have said, anger and hate have spurred some good music. Music can be a catharsis which I'm sure is what's going on with heavy metal musos. I don't know if it's luck but most that I've met in person are really mellow guys, so I assumed they got their no nos out with the music.
 
I think hate and musicianship are mutually exclusive. Unless music is elitist and used to separate people, not unite.
Look how peaceful this forum is, you should see certain competitive sports forums. Interesting IMHO when it gets unfriendly at DW it's often about ranking drummers against each other and other forms of misplaced competition.

On Rage against the machine, the rage is just part of the act. I can't see a group of people maintain the same anger for months while writing, rehearsing, recording, performing... Hate destroys. Love creates.
 
I never discuss politics on my Facebook wall and rarely discuss them anywhere. Religion as well. I'm not an expert on either and just refrain from any sort of invective.

I wish others could do the same.
I don't think this is anything to be proud of or to advocate for. The disengagement of US electorate is a major reason why the average person keeps getting screwed over as deals get made by the people who are engaged in the process. Discussing politics should not be problematic. The problem is that Americans don't know how to discuss politics. Most approach it by "picking a team" and then arguing from that standpoint. This tribal mentality leads to constant assaults against the other tribe while putting blinders on when their own tribe crosses the line. This behavior is so common now that it is actually expected. I'm on the liberal side of the fence, but the moment I criticize Hillary Clinton, for example, everyone makes automatic (and grossly incorrect) assumptions about me: That I must be a Republican, therefore, I must believe A, B, and C. How can rational discussions possibly exist in such an environment? If two people, who are considered on opposite ends of the political spectrum, are willing to leave the tribal mentality behind and explore issues honestly as individuals, while considering all the available evidence, and most importantly, accepting the notion that they just might be wrong about some things, it should not be hard to come to an agreement on the issues, or at the very least, respect each other's opinions.

As to the music angle, there are countless examples of great songs that are political in nature. This makes perfect sense. Music generally resonates with more people when it deals with universal subjects, and politics certainly qualifies as it affects and influences everyone's lives. If we really want to explore the subjects of rage, hate, and politics in music, we can start with the punk movement that began in the mid-to-late 70s and carried on into the 80s. Very angry. Very political. And very influential towards popular music in general.
 
Anger and Hate are poisons that kill the soul. I hate the "binary mentality" too of just two sides or positions when usually it is a medusa. And of course expressing an opinion can evoke lots angst from those who disagree. Beliefs of faith are a medusa as PEW studies indicate. 2.4% of Americans claim to be atheists, yet of those 14% of those who call themselves atheists also say they believe in God or a universal spirit. Then just to add to the diversity 7% of Christians don't believe in God. So basically more christians don't believe in God than atheist. Crazy isn't it? Beliefs are all over the place and we shouldn't have "mind blindness" to others perspective and beliefs.
 
I call myself a liberal and grew up in a liberal secular home. I became a biological scientist which further supported my humanist views. But at the age of 45 a series of events set off a spiritual journey-the short of it I identified as a "Christian". OMG my faculty and research peers questioned my sanity and intellect, and you would think I was going to Scientist hell and should have my Phd revoked. My views of science hadn't changed-belief in evolution, nor teaching, my research still excellent, but I thought I was going to have to go to seminary to study Apologetics to defend my belief. I could mention Gould's non-overlapping magesteria and different domains but that was just gas on a fire and a cop out was the accusation. I couldn't believe the "hate and anger" towards me suddenly. I never really paid any attention to faiths and figured to each their own. I think Francis Collins has similar stories too because his decision. Still heads up NIH and is an excellent scientist. People often just default to stereotypes. I guess I'm guilty too.
 
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