>>2269497>The same people who think J Dilla pushing buttons on a sampler was “innovative” are the same people who think Jackson Pollock splattering paint on a canvas was “innovative.”Except the kind of art and music you're talking about isn't at all what the current hegemonic culture is feeding us. You know that saying: "The opposite of love isn't hate; the opposite of love is indifference"? I'd say the opposite of beauty isn't ugly; the opposite of beauty is blandness. The problem isn't that everything is "ugly" nowadays but that everything is bland, generic, and personality-less. What mainstream culture promotes nowadays isn't chaotic and distorted art and music but lowest-common-denominator minimalism that lacks any real personality. Yeah, you may say the paintings of Jackson Pollock ("the CIA's favourite") or the beat tapes of J Dilla ("the intellectual elites' favourite") are "ugly" but you'd be hard put to deny they have qualities to them that make them distinct.
Look at the Billboard Top 100 and you won't find many songs that involve layering samples upon samples upon samples. Look at the art used as home decor and you won't find much that resembles Pollock. Hell, look at modern home decor in general and you'll notice how much contemporary living spaces look like dentist office waiting rooms or Apple stores. Fashion too has become incredibly dull. Everything is white, beige, and grey with zero funky colours anymore.
That's largely because art, music, fashion, home decor, architecture, etc. is all about efficiency. The years of selling fantasy are over, now it's about mass production via social media. Nearly everything is about catering towards social media.
Also, sampling IS a legitimate form of making music. All those Joe Hill songs you sing every May Day used melodies stolen from church hymns.