Quote Blog #1

The pages I read throughout the first week of read Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad covered four chapters that talk about four different bands. I read about Black Flag, The Minutemen, Mission of Burma, and the some of Minor Threat. It is interesting because each chapter is not connected to the last but each band has a different story as to how they found themselves in the underground indie scene. While reading this week I noticed that although each chapter held history and backgrounds from many different parts of America like California to Washington D.C., these bands are so unified in the sense of their beliefs and agendas.

I quickly understood in the first couple of pages that the author has amazing insights and understandings of the true essence of the American Indie Underground Movement. Maybe I am just biased because the bands he writes about are some of my favorites, but Michael Azerrad adds many quotes and pieces of interviews in his book, which I find brings a huge sense of life and realness to his work. Azerrad added a quote on page 119 by the lead singer of Minor Threat, “A lot of people I know - everyone, maybe - just feel a great uselessness. You’re a human being and the world is so big; everything is just so untouchable. They just want to do something that they can be a part of and they can mold and they can make,” (Ian MacKaye, 1983). Essentially MacKaye was describing the idea that the world we live in is so large and inconceivable while most people have the need to somehow find a place in it. Commonly, this feeling leads to a desire to somehow make a difference, affect one’s environment, and provoke someone to feel something. Even if it is just a small influence, people just want there to be meaning in what they do with the time they have.

    This quote is very much open to interpretation and in my opinion I honestly think anyone can resonate with the general message Ian MacKaye was speaking of. Personally, when reading the quote I immediately thought about my desire to pursue a life in the art world. There are endless possibilities surrounding art and the entire world is influenced by the creations of countless artists within it. Finding a place in this type of environment is very easy and also very difficult at the same time. Although one can simply choose to express themselves through art and writing, many people associate success with the number of people who know your name or failure with the amount of money you make, but in my opinion that is not the case. Of course it is common for and an artist to desire validation for the work they give so much meaning to but in the end I feel that as long as your work has some importance to you, it shouldn’t matter nearly as much if it is acknowledged in the same way by others. The art world is such a vast and open area that it is somewhat hopeless to try to find one’s place in it. Taking that into consideration, I find that breaking down the concept of the art world into the fairly small amount of people that I have the opportunity to share either my writing or my art work with, proves to make a small difference and that small difference sincerely makes me feel like I belong to something because I have accomplished to touch even just the life of one person, with something I have created and found a way to visually put a piece of me into the world.