Don’t get any
Big ideas
They’re not gonna happen

-Radiohead

Recently, I was watching the TV show House. In the episode, a patient was a soap opera star who was talking about how much he hated his job. He wanted to be in something important, something influential, a show or film that meant something. Any time one of the doctors told him to just quit his soap opera gig, he said “it’s not that easy.” When pressed for more explanation, he had none.

They never really went into any more detail than that, but it got me thinking: who decides how much one can push their art’s boundaries? Are artists here to entertain or innovate? Or both? If you’re hoping to push the envelope but just end up in a gray area that doesn’t revolutionize but does entertain, when should you resign yourself to be satisfied with what you’ve accomplished as an artist? Or should you at all?

When the show was over, we watched a live Radiohead performance on the Music HD channel. They mostly performed songs from In Rainbows. They are one of the best bands I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live, and the concert proved they’ve only gotting tighter as a musical unit since I last saw them. The difference in musical contribution to the world between them and, say, a band like Good Charlotte or Nickelback, is like night and day. But the latter two bands entertain large audiences. Some might call it mindless, others call it greatness. When it comes down to it, they’re both equally valid for different reasons. But if the members of Nickelback are in the business to innovate, should they accept their place in the music world (which, for the record, is in a spot pretty free of innovation), or should they keep pushing to be something they are most likely never going to be?

These are the kinds of questions someone like me who is still waiting to break into the music scene might ask themselves. I would love to be an innovative, revolutionary musician, but to be totally honest I have no idea if I’m even capable of earning such a label. Do the revolutionary musicians even think they’re revolutionary? Maybe they do. Maybe Pink Floyd knew they were making history with each successive album. But like the soap opera star said, it really isn’t quite so simple as quitting what you’re doing and jumping right into something influential. When it comes down to it, all I can do is be completely sure that I am making the best possible music I can make. (This could apply beyond music of course… I should be making sure I’m doing the best job I possibly can with anything that is meaningful to me in my life.) What more could I even ask out of myself? I am capable of being harder on myself than any music critic or fan could ever be.

I suppose that when all is said and done, it’s not up to me to decide if my music is revolutionary or not.

Hell, it’s barely even up to you, either.