There is a ridiculously prevalent idea pervading and perverting the landscape. An idea so vile and loathsome that it makes me cringe every time someone says they are doing something, and in the back of my mind I can't help but think, "Dear God, that is (or will be) awful." I blame it on MTV perpetuating this idea that if you are a chronic drunk, a whore, or so stupid that the even more stupid public would think you being totally incapable of a functioning thought is hilarious, you can be famous. This idea is really more of an intrinsic feeling from the person choosing to pursue an end, and that is passion.
Yes, passion. That oft mentioned, overutilized and misguided feeling of attraction toward someone or something. And while there is no denying that people are passionate about anything in this world from animals to assholes, both literal and figurative, to me it is often completely absurd. Call me a cynic, call me pessimistic, call me whatever you want, but it just doesn't seem to me that passion is worth anything. Simply saying that you have a passion, to me, is indicative that while you might actually really, really, think something is fantastic, there is no reason for you to try and pursue that which you have a passion toward.
For instance, last night I came across someone who, on a whim, has gotten together with 4 obese gangbangers (probably in every connotation of the word) and they have created what they are calling a "hip hop/hardcore rap/blues" group. They have created a website, a facebook fan page, ringtones (WTF for I don't know), and, I was told, are making a self-produced record. Great, just what people want to hear, shit music that doesn't make sense to anyone but them that will sound as if they recorded it in their bathroom on an 8-track. So after all the "fun" of making the technological aspects available to a completely unaware and uncaring public, they seem to think their passion is going to just will them to amazing stardom or some shit.
I visited the website for this asinine project and first read the "About Us" section. And the thing that stuck out to me was, of course, that they said "we have a passion for music." That in itself made me want to gag and shoot a duck out of a slingshot, but then I ventured to take a listen to some of what I guess is loosely considered music. There were sounds in the background and some sort of vocalized atonal speech mixed together with insufferable tinny noises. And that pretty much confirmed my position that passion doesn't amount to shit.
Passion for passion's sake doesn't amount to anything if you have no discernable talent for that which you profess to be passionate about. I love tennis, but...no, that's not a good example I'm good at tennis. I have a passion for cooking but I can't even...no, no, I can cook something fierce, self-taught, I'm pretty amzing. Ummm, huh, I'm actually having a hard time coming up with something I don't have some sort of talent for. Oh, I know! I am passionate about reading but I don't go around recording myself reading books and trying to sell them to elderly people or the blind or people who don't like to read, not because I don't read out loud well, but because I know that my voice, when recorded, doesn't hold the right timbre or flow to be appealing. And it's that simple.
And before you go thinking, "Well who the hell are you to judge what's good or bad or complete shit? You don't know everything." You would be right, I don't know everything but I've been cursed with soemthing called common sense and a background in music. I may not know every facet of it, but I know what sounds like total garbage and that passion will never pay the fucking bills. Passion is important, but so is talent. And it's true, you can work on something if you are truly passionate and become good. I have no problem with that but in this case, knowing what I know about the one person in this musical atrocity and can infer about the other based on the person I know and the people she associates with, I can say with 100% certainty that they have no drive to learn and they all suffer from delusions of perfection stemming from unchecked narcissism.
Oh, a last funny thought. The website has menu buttons that are locked until they get X number of 'likes' on their facebook page. The page has been up for at least a year and they have amassed an impressive 36 likes. Not even their entire families like them.
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