Welcome to my
about me
The intriguing multimedia project "The Gorillaz" is a cartoon Band and the masterwork of the lead singer of the 1990's britpop band "Blur" Damon Albarn and the cartoonist of the comic "Tank Girl" Jamie Hewlett. They have been around for more than two decades now with the last release of their last studio album "Cracker Island" in 2023. And the "fans" are mad!
In public opinion the quality of the albums has gone down, the ground ideas and the spirit of Gorillaz have been lost to time and bad management and the online discourse has turned largely negative. I personally don't think that is quite right. Many people don't seem to understand that the genre and style of Gorillaz keeps changing and if you only like the 2001 Gorillaz self-titled album with its trip-hop style and have been complaining since 2005 that the band is going down the hill then I happily invite you to listen to their old stuff and stop caring about anything else that is being released ever. Art keeps changing and so does Gorillaz. In my opinion, every album, even and especially Humanz and The Now Now are masterpieces within themselves, and my all-time favourite album " The Sound Machine" was released in 2020, at the time of writing only 4 years ago. With the beautiful electronic sounds that Gorillaz is known for, good lyrics, and incredible guest artists Gorillaz keeps itself over ground and relevant as ever. But of course, the elephant in the room is "Cracker Island". Did I like it? Not really to be honest. I like the title song featuring Thundercat and "New Gold", but the rest? Are there people who like it? Yes, many! Do I have to like it? Not at all, and it still doesn't mean that Gorillaz has died and will never make anything good ever again. How could I even think that way when every album is so inherently different and a completely new beginning?
Then of course there are the little mess-ups that Gorillaz make now and then. These are most of the times, not Damons and Jamie's fault (except when they are fighting and refuse to do something together for a few years), but can be lead back to bad management and the need to fund Gorillaz as a project in this size is quite expensive. I even am a big enough fan that I can forgive the whole NFT drama, as it probably wasn't the idea of the artists that are the heart of the band, but some crypto guy who somehow got a job in the management department. And today no one even thinks about NFTs anymore, no one complains about the long waiting times between the albums in earlier times, and no one can agree on that one point that apparently seems to exist when the art style got ugly.
I have deep respect for Gorillaz and everyone involved in it. I enjoy the songs from all eras and of course, am terribly obsessed with everything old and new that comes out about them in a very unhealthy way that has ruined many normal conversations for me already. I can see the love for the project and the characters in every piece of media that is released. Now here is a top ten list of my all-time favourite Gorillaz songs:
10. Every Planet We Reach is Dead
9. Man Research
8. Left Hand Suzuki Method
7. Souk eye
6. Spitting out the demons
5. Empire ants
4. November has come
3.PacMan
2. New Genius
1. Double Bass
Imagine Dragons is the world-famous 2008 US rock band that I despise more than anything ever. I'm not special with this at all, the hate for this band is very common and has even become a meme, but why do I keep bashing them on a daily basis as if I don't have anything better to do? Well, the answer is I actually don't know. Yeah, their music is not the most groundbreaking thing ever and it's a bit annoying and cringe, but is that a crime? I mean, it's not like thinking something is cringe has ruined something that doesn't have bad intentions behind it before. A common argument is also that their most famous hit songs such as "Thunder" and "Believer" are massively overplayed, which is true don't get me wrong, but being maybe a bit shoved inside of your ear doesn't make a song bad. For all, I know music is subjective and what "good music" is not really easy to define, out of my background, I could say: yes, I would rather be hit with a metal pan for multiple hours than listen to an ID song because they make bad music, and it still I think we could be friends if you would disagree with that.
I have realized the sudden aggression that comes over me anytime I hear "Thunder-Th-Th-Thunder" anywhere has not only something to do with the absolute earrape that I just experienced at that moment but my deep-lying dislike for the kind of person I would imagine actually liking an imagine dragons song. And that is so stupid, because why would you hate someone because of something so silly as music taste and not if they are like a nazi or something. But this happens due to the fact that I, just like many other victims of this mindset, made my music tastes such a big part of my identity that I feel the need to be defensive about what kind of songs I listen to to every living thing on this planet. Also as someone who has a taste for a lot of alternative music, it is a known fact that people in my subcultures get all kinds of gatekeepy about everything. And I think the main problem with this, going back to my previous point, is that in my mind the average ID enjoyer sees themselves as alternative. I'm not quite sure if there is something wrong with that I mean, alternative to what? They are at least a (debatable) alternative to pop music and I am sure the average listener doesn't even put too much thought into the topic. But what my inner ego keeps fighting with is the idea of a person that feels just like I feel when I listen to for example a cool alternative song, while they are listening to the musical abomination of an Imagine Dragons song. That thought of an imaginary person (or dragon) even DARING to feel cool and enjoy the music they like, or just liking a stupid song without really thinking about it makes me feel like this person has really questionable taste in music, and it feels like it invalidates my not so careless thoughts about music and all the time I put into listening to music, thinking about music and even sometimes playing music myself. Like how DARE you have other things on your mind than how you perceive yourself through the music you listen to. How DARE you feel cool and alternative with something that can't reach my incredibly specific and high standard of what's alternative and what's not. And even more important: How DARE you listen to something that I that I categorize as cringe? Or worse ... how dare you make cringe music? A-HA! We have found the source of all evil !! Without the band itself, there wouldn't be all those imaginary fans that I have to fight off in my head!
With all that self-reflection about my behavior around music and explaining the workings of my thought process, my final point is that maybe it just feels good to feel like you have an ideological standpoint on something a.k.a being a hater. And as long as I don't hurt someone with it I think everything is just fine.
Anyway, check out this game about how much I dislike ID.
click here !
I am of course not talking about EVERYONE, I for example like getting my spelling checked by AI. It's not that I think that people should be punished for creating a chatbot of their favorite celebrity and then texting them, I mean it's not a crime and nobody actually thinks that this is Timothée Chalamet.
I also don't hate my schoolmates for quickly trying to write a paper with Chat GPT only for the teacher to realize, as it is in my opinion not very different from copying from a very badly written Wikipedia article where the writer doesn't give any sources and obviously just made something up to fill a word count.
There are other multiple problems to be had with the common uses of AI at the current time ( time of writing May 2024).
Like why would you let AI create a website? In times when the internet has become officially a vital part of your life, at least here in Germany, it is so important to have websites that everyone understands and have a good interface design that actually fulfills its purpose, especially if that purpose is something important to the public, like government websites, lawyers, doctors, public transportation and more relating for example to culture or communication.
Things that could affect the average person just lawfully living their life.
Imagine looking up an official website for a library and it tells you that yeah it's totally ok to not pay your fine for the next 30 trillion years.
Or if you don't immediately return your book you will get publically executed.
Everyone I know either doesn't give a shit about AI, has their life negatively affected by it, or is an Elon Musk dicksucker that thinks they are going to be the next number one bro of Silicon Valley.
And of course rich people.
AI is not a sci-fi futuristic super invention that is going to make us the coolest planet in the Milky Way, it's just machine learning rebranded by crazy people to hire fewer workers and sell mediocrity to the public.
No one actually looks at a picture created by AI and thinks: "Wow that's really good and full of meaning and beauty!"
No, it's just: "Wow that anime girl with huge tits and thirteen fingers on each hand is really hot, cool that a computer made it". ( It wasn't "made" by the computer it was stolen by millions of gooners drawing anime girls before AI was a thing).
Hell yeah, let that shit run through Midjourney instead of hiring a graphic designer, it's totally not gonna look like a piece of shit and will be totally outdated in two months, don't worry, at least you saved some money!!
Noooooo don't hire someone who is a professional and studied writing and has years of experience in writing commercial texts, just run it through the machine!
What you really wanna hire cashiers in your store?
Just train an AI to see what people take with 200 almost unpaid Indian workers! Save some cash and ruin your image!
Some people seem to generally forget that AI is bad, like not only morally bad, but it doesn't do its job well.
I mean not even the scams are good, your grandparents will fall for it but luckily they already paid all their money to a well-meaning Nigerian prince. People will learn, just like they learned to avoid scams since forever.
Whatever its job is supposed to be in the minds of tech bros stuck in the middle of a psychotic episode, AI at the end of the day will never do a better job than a human. Because one day in the very near future, Ai will have nothing more to "learn" from than what it created itself. Because people are adapting, and moving their stuff to other places where it is not immediately stored in Zuckerbergs Home laptop.
One day you will have to hire actual humans again, and one day you will have to pay them well, there is no sane way around it.