Are We Creatively Losing It? (Part 1)

Are we, as a culture, in creative decline? If so, why and what can be done about it?

I’ve been thinking about this for a bit and I’m going to start sorting my thoughts here, in installments. 

Let’s start with The Stones. 

The Stones have lost it. Just like we all do. Some of us even become embarrassing.

I love The Rolling Stones. Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street are as great as anything you’ll ever hear. As a young man, I loved them with a weird intensity, and I still love that music now. Lots of the stuff I loved when I was young doesn’t stand up. Their music does.

The band has a new album out and critics are again breaking out this old chestnut: “their best album since the seventies.”

I'm old enough to remember when critics said that about the now extremely forgotten Steel Wheels from 1989. As a hardcore teenage fan, I tried my best to love Steel Wheels but I couldn’t keep up the facade for long. And that album, for its time, seems better than this one. 

To be clear: if you love The Stones, the band sounds good on the new album and hey, the old fuckers are still doing it! Maybe that’s more than enough. But let’s not delude ourselves: the new album isn’t actually good. 

The Stones have lost it. Just like we all do. Some of us even become embarrassing.

When it comes to losing it, music is a tough industry, almost as tough as being an athlete. Musicians peak early and decline early. They have their heyday, then maybe they're good or occasionally very good after that, but not like they were.

There are always exceptions. 

• Beethoven was in his fifties when we wrote his 9th symphony (and almost entirely deaf).
• Leonard Cohen released I’m Your Man at 54.
• Beyonce has remained a vital pop artist into her forties.
• Johnny Cash was releasing exciting music at the very end of his life.

It can be done. But mostly, it isn’t. And this doesn’t just apply to us as individuals.

Entire genres lose it. Jazz, classical, folk, the blues, and rock were all once teeming with innovation and are now dead. Rap is late in life and will soon follow. 

And entire cultures lose it. Egypt, Rome, and the Ming Dynasty all lost it well before they fell. I’m sure war, disaster, and famines were major drivers, but I suspect creative decline is another factor for why empires fail to rejuvenate.

Are we late in the game too? (By “we” I’m not sure I mean Western Culture, I think I mean global culture. The world is now running on the same economic operating system and seems to operate within the one creative paradigm.)

Now some of you might be thinking… BUT TECHNOLOGY! AI! VIRTUAL REALITY!

Yes, there’s those. But next time I’ll explain why that’s not enough. I’ll continue unpacking this in the weeks to come.

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