In an abstract sense, I like music as a medium more than music itself.
As with all art, to me it feels worthless if it's not telling a story.

Journey is my favorite word to describe it.
hypochondriac by brakence is, despite the superficial appearances, a concept album.
The portrayal of a psychedelic trip, rich with melancholy, mania, psychosis, depression and ego death scenes.
It is a play, and some if not most of it is related or expressing Randy's real life, but in a much more refined way than the previous punk2.
And that's not just on a production and lyricism standpoint, but the patchwork of references, supernatural entities, and everything portrayed within it.

It is art.

The same way Hip Hop is art, when people rap about stories, real or not, when they chop samples near and dear to them, creating a collage and assigning them new meanings. It can also be samples that they dug up from the crates, be it to pay homage or out of necessity.

From a breakup song to a DJ set, the artist is someone with an internal struggle, the desire to create, to portray their story, their struggles.

Yes. DJs and party music are art too.
As are songs that don't have lyrics, or that don't overly express the artist's story.
Sometimes art is fun, excess, experimentation, expression.
Pop is art, love songs are art, disco is art, every genre other than country is art!

The line between art and product seems to be shrinking these days.
Storytelling, artist background, struggle, are often no longer considered when evaluating music, and the same goes for other mediums.
The amount of people who are able to create art is increasing, but the amount of people who are able to appreciate it is decreasing.
When all that's cared for is a fleeting moment, a catchy hook, a TikTok trend, a meme, a soundbite, monetization, what does that leave in us?

Is art just what it makes us feel, how we perceive it, or are the above criteria just as important, if not more so?
In a world where everything can be printed, duped, imitated, soullessly so, a split arises in how we assign value to art.

The material world might need background music for stores and cheap illustrations for advertisements, painting that appreciate in value and cost more than houses, but our souls need art.
Everybody needs to find that one album, book, painting, show, story, that resonates with them, that is a catalyst for introspection, inspiration, growth.
When you find that feeling, and you know it if you've felt it, you know why art is a necessity, and not a luxury.

To me, art is a plea to belong, to be seen, to be understood.
A desire that can turn into curse, unrealized, nagging at us, trying our best to express ourselves. A desire that can fade away, turn into talent to be exploited for a quick buck, or perhaps livelihood.
I stand with the definition of art where the artist's story isn't secondary or a footnote in the plaque next to a painting in a museum, but an integral key of reading held within the work itself.

Art isn't for everybody, it's by people with feelings, for people with feelings.

It is that blend of expressing the human condition, of eliciting a reaction,
A mirror into the self, a porthole into the artist's mind, and a reflection of the world around us.