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Music For Human Beings

Trilogy by Samantha Grimes

By Walter RheinPublished 4 years ago 2 min read
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You could listen to music non stop without repeating a song for the rest of your life and never come close to hearing everything that’s ever been recorded. The flip side of this is that it’s pretty much impossible to make the drive from your home to your place of work without hearing the same three annoying new releases played at least twenty times.

The dominance of air play by a small fraction of artists means that there are many highly worthy musicians who explore interesting themes with tremendous talent, but will never get any exposure.

I’ve often wondered what the method is for determining which songs receive radio play. I’ve never seen any evidence that my tastes or opinion have anything to do with what eventually becomes a number one hit. In fact, it seems like modern radio is just another arena in which a small number of gatekeepers determine what we listen to, what we watch, and, ultimately, what we think about.

Photo by Mitch Lensink on Unsplash

However, every now and then you stumble across something that’s outside the general perception that makes an impact on you, leaving you thankful for the experience. I recently picked up the album ‘Trilogy’ by Samantha Grimes off Amazon, and have enjoyed playing it on my car radio to the detriment of whatever sinister program to control airplay secretly exists.

Samantha has a significant following on her Facebook page, and regularly creates delightful new compositions that are not hindered by the artificial corporate polish of most Billboard singles. I suggest following her musical adventures where she will often post snippets of works in progress which she performs with skill and enthusiasm.

Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash

It’s refreshing to listen to the music of a real human being instead of the mismatched atrocities stitched together by committees on the basis of analytical reports on currently popular trends.

‘Trilogy’ contains three songs that have a nice, dreamy, and ethereal quality. The lyrics are vulnerable enough to be sincere, and polished enough that they work extremely well. The studio sound of the tracks is apparent, but the human element of this album lends it a level of warmth you don’t find in a lot of music anymore.

In a time before recorded music, people could make a good living performing in local establishments. Now it’s easier to pump in sound from a radio station or a flash drive. Like most of our modern artistic communities, we are now told what is great before a work of art has a chance to prove itself on its own merits.

Photo by Mark Riechers on Unsplash

Grimes is known to perform locally to wild enthusiasm. Familiarity goes hand in hand with popularity and so overplaying the studio releases lends them a kind of legitimacy they haven’t really earned. The difference with a local recording artist like Grimes, is that individuals who have heard her songs have made the choice to do so. Once you’ve allowed her music to play on loop for a while, you’ll recognize it stands up to anything that the radio tries to shove down your throat.

If you’ve ever found yourself sneering in disgust after listening to asinine lines like “push and pull like a magnet do” for the billionth time, why not try hopping over to Amazon and giving ‘Trilogy’ a chance? Or jump onto Grimes’s Facebook page for an intimate look at what the process of producing music is actually like for people who do it out of passion rather than a ruthless pursuit of profit.

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About the Creator

Walter Rhein

I'm a small press novelist. Shoot me an email if you want to discuss writing in any capacity, or head over to my web page www.streetsoflima.com. [email protected]

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