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.