I have wanted to sit down and listen to Ryan Adam’s
re-recording of Taylor Swift’s 1989 in its entirety and at 4 am thanks to insomnia, I got my chance. Now, you don’t have to like either one of
them to appreciate what I have to say, or you can like them both and hate what
I say and that’s fine too; what I found most interesting about his
re-recordings was his perspective and of course, the people hating on both of
them for the project altogether. This got me thinking about the idea of copy on a scale. Ryan Adams taking every word and making
something new is at one end of the spectrum, John Lennon observing violence,
wanting peace and writing “Imagine” would be on the other.
I see a lot of people do things simply to be unique and
different. They reject things because
they aren’t unique enough. They want to
do something weird simply because they want to be different. And ironically,
they become a group of people who are nothing unique and are all like each
other. I guess I am wise enough at this age to know that if you simply like
what you like and do what you want, you’re still not going to be the only
person on earth to like what you like and do what you want….but you’ll be a
true version of yourself and isn’t that the goal?
I think that when people are uncomfortable with
re-recordings, remakes, and the idea that everything is inspired by something,
there are a couple of reasons why. First
of all, your medial pre-frontal cortex is actually tied to your music. We simply become attached to the original and
have our own love affair and experience with it. Why would we want someone ruining that
experience and relationship? When you
fall in love with a song, your senses are tied to it forever. Ask any girl in her 30’s how she feels about
a remake of Dirty Dancing. She will have
the same kneejerk reaction, which is to feel as if a remake will magically change
the first. Secondly, intellectually, the
idea of copy is just uncomfortable. I
know for me, especially as a writer, when I sit in a movie theatre and see
nothing but a string of trailers for movies that already exist, I get
upset. I think “Have
people just run out of ideas? Is there
nothing that hasn’t been done? No story
that hasn’t been told? Why are these people working as writers?” Those thoughts are very stifling. It’s also not a very rational one to think
that just because copy exists that nothing new does.
The older I have gotten and the more I understand the world,
the more I appreciate the process of creation, and that’s taking something,
anything, and having a new perspective.
That makes the idea of “copy” a
little more tolerable. (I still don’t
want them to remake Dirty Dancing.)
Everything that is created originally is in fact inspired by something else, be it a historical event, a
place, a song, a feeling, the weather, a person….it’s a concoction, a storm,
smatterings that come together to create a unique perspective.
Even feelings are not unique,
and thank God they aren’t or we would all feel alone. Certain songs resonate with us, art, books,
and that’s because there is something familiar about it, something that exists
in it that also exists within us, which means it isn’t completely
original. The way it was created is what
is original, and the twists and turns that it took to end up whatever it did,
like something would in a chemistry lab.
I remember writing a poem in yoga about a year ago (and what
I mean by writing is that I had thoughts bouncing around in my head and they
came together in a way that I could take home with me and then put on paper; I
wasn’t literally writing on paper in Down Dog.)
I am me. There is only one Brittany
Chenault. I was thinking something that
led to something that led to something that led to something and I have no
evidence that anyone has thought these thoughts in the exact order that I had
them in the history of the world. I used
a vocabulary of words that I did not invent, but I placed them in an order that
no one had. I have had feelings that
other people have also felt, but have never described them in the exact way I
did. And yet people read it and knew
EXACTLY how I felt.
Does the fact that everyone can identify with what you say,
do, sing, or write take away from the originality of creating it? Of course not. So in reality, are we too easily offended by
the idea that we are not original,
and nothing in the world is original,
and missing the fact that the only originality that truly exists is our
experience with copy?
I think so. There is
so much more in the world to enjoy when you truly understand the idea of a muse
or inspiration, or feeding off your senses and feelings and people around
you.
Listen to the link below. Then go listen to Taylor's. The comparison of something identical doesn't actually make me feel like the world is getting smaller, it actually makes me feel like the world is
huge, that the spectrum is infinite, and it brings me to my knees when I think
about how God gave us art. We can simply
never get bored if we appreciate what’s been given to us….the process of
creativity.
Ryan Adam’s “I Wish
You Would”
