To any creative reading this, DO IT!! Any and all ideas, even if it’s just for a day, entertain all of them. Even the ones you dislike, make room for it all, and what you seek will shine through.
Lex, this is such a good point. I’d love to see you interview more creatives / artists and hear the struggles and how they have survived. I fear the struggle is going to get worse, especially with this hyper-novel world we are living in.
There's a lot of potentially successful people out there who are failing not due to a lack of ability, but due to a lack of resilience. Can you push through all the negative voices and create anyway? If not in this life, then when?
I totally agree. Don't like where we're going culturally here...treating everyone with kids gloves. The world is beautiful and vicious. Deal with it. God forbid you find a balance (within).
When you’re a kid and draw a purple cow, nobody cares because your young. As you get older there’s these societal rules that make drawing a purple cow seem nonsensical. The boundaries set as a society are difficult for most to say screw it, this is what I’m going to do
The resilient one’s do truly become successful…but that’s also the reason all the art in the mainstream is stale and rehashed. Just weathered, jaded, artist-turned-businessmen.
Damn that was well said Lex. From art to health and everything in between it seems like monetization takes precedence over everything else. Stay blessed Lex. 👍🏽
I was worrying about this before so I have put out music that I feel is kinda generic rap/pop cus it would do good but, my cousin really encouraged me to do what I want and be creative so.. now I’m kinda working on this folk-rock-punk-rnb-dreampop album. And i love it.
I went to watch Cirque du Soleil recently and realized that TPG had bought them since the last time I watched. It sucks now and you can tell that a show that was full of gymnasts, musicians, and actors, has now been scaled down dramatically to cut costs and make more profit. I will never watch another one again as I used to watch it every year they came to our city.
Regular people too. Crowdfunding allows regular people to decide the fates of artists now. I know from personal experience. I've run three unsuccessful crowd funding campaigns in the past five years. People "meh" at me a lot, even though I keep telling them I'm trying to create something as good as Lord of the Rings.
As much as I agree, business people have artists as accomplices: through selling out or keeping quiet. It's always a handful that try to fight back but are left on their own.
And yet there is absolutely nothing stopping an artist to create their art without it ever being witnessed and valued by the public. Commercial artists need what bussiness minds give to them to accomplish their goals, which are not artistic and truely economic and or narsisistic. Access to the neccessary materials/places/minds etc is not the artistic creation itself. I am making a long winded attempt at saying if you seek or need a bussiness person to do your art, than you are not creating something that is purely art, as much as you would like it to be. Artists should respect the people and structures that enable them as much they want others to respect their art.
This point is tricky. Being a sacred cow and not showing or sharing your work to anyone as you do it is THE single thing that will kill both creativity and output more than anything else. Yes, don't let business people ruin your pure art, but on the other hand, let an artist do whatever they want for as long as they want without feedback and you almost always get crap. A good producer, manager, playing in front of audiences, etc... all that is super important during the creative process. And this is true in all art forms. Saying "I can't produce art on a schedule" is a sure way to stay poor and lonely, rather than having one of the countless good paying steady jobs in music, game development, advertising, and so many other industries. You CAN produce art on a timeline, and in fact it's one of the best things you can do for your creative self. Make a thing, and then move on to the next thing.
This reminds me of Beeple in the NFT space, hes so big now that he doesn't even care that he shills other cash grabs or unethical people which is sad. Business and those Millions definitely effected his mind!
As a independent song writer I find it extremely hard to market. Jordan peterson hit on this very well how artist usually are poor something along those lines
If you are dependent on big business than this all applies to you, if you are strong enough and willing to make sacrifices than it doesn't. Let's use a band for example. If a new band constantly tours than they can only be ignored for so long, eventually they will develop an audience.
Lame example, I'm sure, of art imitating this conversation, but I'm reminded of the Sopranos episode with Chris and Adriana trying to produce music. Both sides were delusional. The artists couldn't deal with reality and the business side couldn't tap into the creative side. I can see the true value in a producer like Rick Rubin being both creative and an intermediary bw those forces.
Fridman’s definition of art includes fashion and tech. I guess that’s our world (tho I think of Woolf and Monk and Picasso and Shostakovich). But some good thoughts. Art and business are oil and water almost by definition. If it’s massively popular art, then it’s 1) a rare happy accident, 2) it’s not really art, or 3) it’s not $ successful art. Good art lasts.
There are some who have turned their backs on the path of freedom for want of self-discipline, and yet they have determined to enjoy the fruits of freedom. If you would have the reward of the path of freedom, you must understand that there is a process that is called for, a very natural process like the transformation of the wheat or the kneading of the dough-the cycles of life itself. The essential ingredient is always the individual and his sacred labor. The process is the alchemy of God forming and reforming himself within you.
The casino problem is all over the comments whenever someone says these things. Anyone comfortable says things are fine, because obviously they themselves are worthy not privileged or lucky. The overall health of the culture simpoy is not a priority to them. And so they argue for complicity with the destruction of that culture.
This is such a negative take and angle. Business people enable the artists to make a career out of their otherwise generally fruitless passions. They help artists balance the pragmatic reality that producing things requires resources and investments and can only grow and expand with resources pouring back into that thing. You cannot ever ignore the fact that you have to generate capital for the machine to run or return to you the resources you need to follow your passions. Being naively cynical towards the true objective of not only our basic biology and purpose in nature and also the underlying economic system that is the vehicle of your pursuits is counterproductive, especially when most artists main objective is to pursue their personal and chaotic interests.. Never mind the fact that the business people are often dealing with literally thousands of artists at once, most of which are amounting to next to nothing and aren't on some greater intellectual and purpose filled pursuit to create masterpieces. Most art is mediocre and cannot be pragmatically managed according to the artists idea of fair. Most churn out mostly mediocre art most of the time. Most art isn't worth anything or very little, and business folk have to remind artists of this ALL the time. As in hey buddy, if you would like to continue pursuing your art, it needs to have a minimum viable value in order for you to continue to afford this pursuit. But agree, There HAS to be a balance. The critique though that the business folk don't understand misses the point that they KNOW not only do you not understand their side at all, but you don't appreciate it and think it is valueless or at least very low on the totem pole compared to your pursuits. Which is ridiculous because it is most often the fundamental bedrock that allows you engage in these pursuits to begin with.
That was not my impression that this take was negative-He gave quite a fair analysis of the important role business people have in the process, in the marketing and economics required to share art with the public, but that it can also be at odds with the creative process when it comes to producing art. Also, given how influential Rick Rubin has been in the industry, and how many millions of albums have been sold stemming from projects he's been a part of, I think it's fair to say he aware of the necessity of the business side of things . Nobody is being naively cynical here, as you say
I would argue most art is unseen, and not that it is necessarily mediocre. For example, I've shown a handful of pieces of art online, but I have a stack of drawings that would hit the ceiling. I've heard of other artists who died, and when going through their stuff their family found that they had thousands of paintings that they never knew about. Also, a lot of art is practice, and practice art is sometimes not that great, and if that art gets shown it's not that "its mediocre" but something closer to "a record of exploration and growth". I would also argue that most of the people deciding what is good and isn't good art don't have a clue what they are talking about. "Business folk", as you say, have a hard time keying into art. They are decision makers by nature, and decision making is not creativity.
Lex, you have interesting guests and you ask interesting questions but when you do ask a question you are way too long winded. Learn to be concise in your question and then let your guest talk. Ask one question at a time and don't go off on a tangent. We are more interested in your guests opinion than yours. Listen to what your guest has to say and respond, concisely, to what they have to say. Hosting an interview is not having a conversation in the typical sense. It is all about giving your guest room to express themselves. Go back and watch this whole interview and count the time you are speaking and count the time Rick is speaking. I think you will be amazed. You totally dominate the time. In my opinion, this is backward. You have good guests, please let them talk.
Business without ethics has bo patients in the US. It csptures, devours and spits out the bones of all artists. The competetion in business often does not collaborate or have the cirtue of patience. Business if narbaric in this country. Look what it did to hospital care in this country.
@@TheJ4RyD Not necessarily true. For over 150 years nurses have always been mindful of cost effectiveness in practice. Business offices have always told us to cut back with little or no resources. The collision between unethical business decisions without listening to those who deliver care do not choose to understand in most cases. Business decisions made by government entities like the NIH and CDC bottleneck funding to research hospitals attached to universities not for best practices outcomes but for producing rapid results hastily. It takes 17 to 22 tears to mobilize one single component of effective research into policy that translates to standard of care. It is both. But until business takes a back seat to bioethics we are all in deep trouble. Ask any bioethicist.
Yeah. I dunno. I spent a fair chunk of my life being a delicate artist. And it's just stupid. Now I don't give a fuck. Like the saying says: you have to suffer for your art. And this means pushing on and on regardless of what happens. I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware! Beware! His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
This man’s hair is art
Reminds me of hihachi from tekken
So funny. So true.
Yung Zeus
Perhaps a biproduct of art, (which is also art)
He reminds me of that tekken character Heihachi Mishima
To any creative reading this, DO IT!! Any and all ideas, even if it’s just for a day, entertain all of them. Even the ones you dislike, make room for it all, and what you seek will shine through.
Man thank you for this
On the case. Cheers
Lex, this is such a good point. I’d love to see you interview more creatives / artists and hear the struggles and how they have survived. I fear the struggle is going to get worse, especially with this hyper-novel world we are living in.
I second that!
I agree
Save the artist, kill a businessman!
There's a lot of potentially successful people out there who are failing not due to a lack of ability, but due to a lack of resilience. Can you push through all the negative voices and create anyway? If not in this life, then when?
I totally agree. Don't like where we're going culturally here...treating everyone with kids gloves. The world is beautiful and vicious. Deal with it. God forbid you find a balance (within).
When you’re a kid and draw a purple cow, nobody cares because your young. As you get older there’s these societal rules that make drawing a purple cow seem nonsensical. The boundaries set as a society are difficult for most to say screw it, this is what I’m going to do
@@skeezix8156 been looking for a name for the record label I'm trying to start, I think I might go with some variation of Purple Cow now lmao
@@rockboi91 send a t shirt when you make it. I’m picturing the old RSO record label now, the one with the red cow
The resilient one’s do truly become successful…but that’s also the reason all the art in the mainstream is stale and rehashed. Just weathered, jaded, artist-turned-businessmen.
To use Bruce Lee's quote, artists are focusing on the moon and the heavenly glory, business people are focusing on the finger pointing to it.
Empathy types versus narcissistic types in a sense
@@Job.Well.Done_01 Yeah, Ego, vs Spirit
Damn that was well said Lex. From art to health and everything in between it seems like monetization takes precedence over everything else. Stay blessed Lex. 👍🏽
I was worrying about this before so I have put out music that I feel is kinda generic rap/pop cus it would do good but, my cousin really encouraged me to do what I want and be creative so.. now I’m kinda working on this folk-rock-punk-rnb-dreampop album. And i love it.
I went to watch Cirque du Soleil recently and realized that TPG had bought them since the last time I watched. It sucks now and you can tell that a show that was full of gymnasts, musicians, and actors, has now been scaled down dramatically to cut costs and make more profit. I will never watch another one again as I used to watch it every year they came to our city.
They had to sell it a year later at a loss to pay creditors its owned by mgm grand and catalyst capital now
It makes you think of how much great art we've missed out on because of corporate entities and stockholders.
Regular people too. Crowdfunding allows regular people to decide the fates of artists now. I know from personal experience. I've run three unsuccessful crowd funding campaigns in the past five years. People "meh" at me a lot, even though I keep telling them I'm trying to create something as good as Lord of the Rings.
As much as I agree, business people have artists as accomplices: through selling out or keeping quiet. It's always a handful that try to fight back but are left on their own.
There wouldn't have been a renaissance without business people financing it.
Lex is the Sean Penn of interviewers. A+
And yet there is absolutely nothing stopping an artist to create their art without it ever being witnessed and valued by the public. Commercial artists need what bussiness minds give to them to accomplish their goals, which are not artistic and truely economic and or narsisistic. Access to the neccessary materials/places/minds etc is not the artistic creation itself. I am making a long winded attempt at saying if you seek or need a bussiness person to do your art, than you are not creating something that is purely art, as much as you would like it to be. Artists should respect the people and structures that enable them as much they want others to respect their art.
The worst is what Lex mentioned... about being hampered or limited in a stupid or unnecessary way. Wild!!!
Beautiful thought. The concept applies across all creative fields, I believe.
“On this quest for greatness, are you living up to your ability?” - Rick Rubin
genius question. absolutely quote worthy
Quarterly ways of business don't interpret into the once a decade ways of Arts unreachable perfection
The wisdom that this man is offering for free is insane
It's also the way it should be
This point is tricky. Being a sacred cow and not showing or sharing your work to anyone as you do it is THE single thing that will kill both creativity and output more than anything else. Yes, don't let business people ruin your pure art, but on the other hand, let an artist do whatever they want for as long as they want without feedback and you almost always get crap. A good producer, manager, playing in front of audiences, etc... all that is super important during the creative process. And this is true in all art forms. Saying "I can't produce art on a schedule" is a sure way to stay poor and lonely, rather than having one of the countless good paying steady jobs in music, game development, advertising, and so many other industries. You CAN produce art on a timeline, and in fact it's one of the best things you can do for your creative self. Make a thing, and then move on to the next thing.
God that is some conformist self satisfied BS right there.
They destoryed music , and movies, and are currently destroying video games.
Excellent interview
William Gaddis' The Recognitions is the magnum opus on this topic.
This reminds me of Beeple in the NFT space, hes so big now that he doesn't even care that he shills other cash grabs or unethical people which is sad. Business and those Millions definitely effected his mind!
I want Rick Rubin to produce the next Meshuggah album
I love the new album, but it would be interesting to get a new production perspective.
I love the new album, but it would be interesting to get a new production perspective.
Damn craZy how much crazier things seem the more we uncover
just sing but meaningful...
I respect myself and my community
As a independent song writer I find it extremely hard to market. Jordan peterson hit on this very well how artist usually are poor something along those lines
Beautiful Lex, just Beautiful!
saving this clip forever.
If you are dependent on big business than this all applies to you, if you are strong enough and willing to make sacrifices than it doesn't. Let's use a band for example. If a new band constantly tours than they can only be ignored for so long, eventually they will develop an audience.
Dumbest logic ever
@@jkool1919 I'm curious as to your thoughts, perhaps I could reflect on this more?
@@joesmulti-edc890 depends what you’re doing while touring
The title seems misleading.
Thanks. I watching your video.
Lame example, I'm sure, of art imitating this conversation, but I'm reminded of the Sopranos episode with Chris and Adriana trying to produce music. Both sides were delusional. The artists couldn't deal with reality and the business side couldn't tap into the creative side.
I can see the true value in a producer like Rick Rubin being both creative and an intermediary bw those forces.
People should be consuming art that is controlled by the artist.
Fridman’s definition of art includes fashion and tech. I guess that’s our world (tho I think of Woolf and Monk and Picasso and Shostakovich). But some good thoughts. Art and business are oil and water almost by definition. If it’s massively popular art, then it’s 1) a rare happy accident, 2) it’s not really art, or 3) it’s not $ successful art. Good art lasts.
There are some who have turned their backs on the path of freedom for want of self-discipline, and yet they have determined to enjoy the fruits of freedom. If you would have the reward of the path of freedom, you must understand that there is a process that is called for, a very natural process like the transformation of the wheat or the kneading of the dough-the cycles of life itself. The essential ingredient is always the individual and his sacred labor. The process is the alchemy of God forming and reforming himself within you.
Could you expand on this a little further? Any books I could check out talking about this?
hairstyle is a cross between a fresh born baby and neo cortex. hard to pull that off
Business and Art are in the same arena. Brutal and self absorbed
Please talk about Spotify trying to convince music "artists" to make tracks 2 minutes long because of Spotify's "math" 😒
And breaking down partial listens into a profit formula for them (Spotify)
Imagine paying for partial views of a painting or a sculpture. Ridiculous!
The casino problem is all over the comments whenever someone says these things. Anyone comfortable says things are fine, because obviously they themselves are worthy not privileged or lucky. The overall health of the culture simpoy is not a priority to them. And so they argue for complicity with the destruction of that culture.
Please set up a documentary podcast special MMA match between Rick Rubin and Mark Ellis. Let joe rogan be the announcer.
🙄
His hair. What happend? Was he in a explosion?
Word.
"How business people destroy art" - the irony of this when Rubin has destroyed work from two of the greatest bands.
The headline for this video is perfect because Rick Rubin knows all about destroying art
This is what happened with Disney Star Wars
....."a flock of fish" ? .... say no-more.
Rick Rubin has destroyed his fair share of artists TBF
Nexy: how art destroys business? I vote for that! ;)
The fuck are you talking about
a flock of fish? dude...
Still happily taking their money though Rick...
This is such a negative take and angle. Business people enable the artists to make a career out of their otherwise generally fruitless passions. They help artists balance the pragmatic reality that producing things requires resources and investments and can only grow and expand with resources pouring back into that thing. You cannot ever ignore the fact that you have to generate capital for the machine to run or return to you the resources you need to follow your passions. Being naively cynical towards the true objective of not only our basic biology and purpose in nature and also the underlying economic system that is the vehicle of your pursuits is counterproductive, especially when most artists main objective is to pursue their personal and chaotic interests.. Never mind the fact that the business people are often dealing with literally thousands of artists at once, most of which are amounting to next to nothing and aren't on some greater intellectual and purpose filled pursuit to create masterpieces. Most art is mediocre and cannot be pragmatically managed according to the artists idea of fair. Most churn out mostly mediocre art most of the time. Most art isn't worth anything or very little, and business folk have to remind artists of this ALL the time. As in hey buddy, if you would like to continue pursuing your art, it needs to have a minimum viable value in order for you to continue to afford this pursuit. But agree, There HAS to be a balance. The critique though that the business folk don't understand misses the point that they KNOW not only do you not understand their side at all, but you don't appreciate it and think it is valueless or at least very low on the totem pole compared to your pursuits. Which is ridiculous because it is most often the fundamental bedrock that allows you engage in these pursuits to begin with.
That was not my impression that this take was negative-He gave quite a fair analysis of the important role business people have in the process, in the marketing and economics required to share art with the public, but that it can also be at odds with the creative process when it comes to producing art.
Also, given how influential Rick Rubin has been in the industry, and how many millions of albums have been sold stemming from projects he's been a part of, I think it's fair to say he aware of the necessity of the business side of things .
Nobody is being naively cynical here, as you say
@@kellyh5748 Yeah I think you are right. I was being very biased.
@@M200Sniping You are entitled to your opinion!
Great Comment!
I would argue most art is unseen, and not that it is necessarily mediocre. For example, I've shown a handful of pieces of art online, but I have a stack of drawings that would hit the ceiling. I've heard of other artists who died, and when going through their stuff their family found that they had thousands of paintings that they never knew about. Also, a lot of art is practice, and practice art is sometimes not that great, and if that art gets shown it's not that "its mediocre" but something closer to "a record of exploration and growth".
I would also argue that most of the people deciding what is good and isn't good art don't have a clue what they are talking about. "Business folk", as you say, have a hard time keying into art. They are decision makers by nature, and decision making is not creativity.
Lex, you have interesting guests and you ask interesting questions but when you do ask a question you are way too long winded. Learn to be concise in your question and then let your guest talk. Ask one question at a time and don't go off on a tangent. We are more interested in your guests opinion than yours. Listen to what your guest has to say and respond, concisely, to what they have to say.
Hosting an interview is not having a conversation in the typical sense. It is all about giving your guest room to express themselves. Go back and watch this whole interview and count the time you are speaking and count the time Rick is speaking. I think you will be amazed. You totally dominate the time. In my opinion, this is backward. You have good guests, please let them talk.
Duck dynasties distant cousin...
Business without ethics has bo patients in the US. It csptures, devours and spits out the bones of all artists. The competetion in business often does not collaborate or have the cirtue of patience. Business if narbaric in this country. Look what it did to hospital care in this country.
@@TheJ4RyD Not necessarily true. For over 150 years nurses have always been mindful of cost effectiveness in practice. Business offices have always told us to cut back with little or no resources. The collision between unethical business decisions without listening to those who deliver care do not choose to understand in most cases. Business decisions made by government entities like the NIH and CDC bottleneck funding to research hospitals attached to universities not for best practices outcomes but for producing rapid results hastily. It takes 17 to 22 tears to mobilize one single component of effective research into policy that translates to standard of care. It is both. But until business takes a back seat to bioethics we are all in deep trouble. Ask any bioethicist.
Yeah. I dunno. I spent a fair chunk of my life being a delicate artist. And it's just stupid. Now I don't give a fuck. Like the saying says: you have to suffer for your art. And this means pushing on and on regardless of what happens.
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!