There’s a time and a place for great art

It's a humid night in New York City. I’m strolling Broadway with my classmates when I get yanked into a merchandise store dedicated to the musical Hamilton. All around me, fans squeal with excitement. I stand there awkward and indifferent. As a highschooler, I didn't really care for a political hip-hop musical about the founding fathers of America - the hype was beyond me. 

A few months pass. It’s 11pm on a Saturday night, and a room full of drunk teenagers scream the words to “Humble” by Kendrick Lamar. I’m stone cold sober, entirely unfamiliar with the artist, and I have incorrectly assumed the song to be titled ‘Sit Down’. The drunk boys around me insist that Kendrick is actually “super deep bro”, but I remain uneducated and unconvinced. 

A year passes. I have just started university and am working a monotonous admin job, scanning documents and sorting out mail. Sick of being inundated with pop and desperate for intellectual stimulation, I play Hamilton on a whim. Three hours (and a lot of tears) later, I find myself dumbfounded. I listen to the album every day at work for a month. I delve into good kid, m.A.A.d city the next month, To Pimp A Butterfly the month after, and DAMN after that. My taste in music had been changed forever. 

It took studying a Humanities degree, engaging in more conversations about race, and becoming personally invested in politics for me to appreciate hip-hop. Both Hamilton and Kendrick’s discography had been heavily recommended to me for years, but I’m so glad I procrastinated listening to them until I had the mental capacity to absorb their messages. 

Great art doesn’t come along every day, so we should savour it. 

There were times when I was impatient, when I squandered away a precious impression because I was overcome with the need to be in the know. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Lauryn Hill and Because The Internet by Childish Gambino are two such great albums that made a poor first impression with me because I listened to them at the wrong time, in the wrong headspace. I’ve tried coming back to them, but it's like there's this invisible wall between us. 

Great art demands respect and intentional consumption. You’ll never get to listen to your favourite album for the first time again, so you should pick your moments carefully.

This issue heavily focuses on local music, and Salient encourages you to get out to more gigs and support Poneke’s music scene. 

In our features and interviews this week: Maia celebrates Eyegum Wednesdays returning to San Fran, Zoe profiles three up-and-coming Welly artists, Lauren gushes her favourite DJ, Andy discusses the Grammys snubbing hip-hop artists, and Darcy finds out what it's like for small town musicians to move to big cities. 

In our news this week: Salient finds out what politicians are listening to on Spotify, what last year’s Music School protest achieved, why VUW hosted a free speech event on campus, and more. We even got a psychic to predict who the next Vice Chancellor will be. 

Wishing you a happy Music Month! 

Words By Janhavi Gosahavi (She/Her)