How the end of the world paralyzes our imagination and why Kraftklub still gives hope with “Dying in Karl-Marx-Stadt”. The new column by Paula Irmschler.
Like almost every year, I refuse to look back musically. Not because I’m cooler than anyone, but because it’s really stressful to go through all the albums and songs that you liked during a calendar year and then organize them into a hierarchy. You still have to work!
I also belong to the “I don’t let the so-called end of the year divide my time” faction. For me, the year feels like it starts at the beginning of March and ends in the mud of January, and then it languishes for a while.
In the end, I’m like Mariah Carey and reject the concept of time. So roughly.
Spotify Wrapped and the musical age
BUT I’m also happy about the trendy pictures of the most popular songs and artists that are flying around on social media these days, especially when they show lesser-known acts, because the platforms only support the big names who have already had enough of the cake anyway. Unfortunately, my review of the most listened to things is completely mainstream, because my taste is basically called “charts”.
But since what you’ve heard the most can’t be equated with this year’s releases that you liked the best, things get more complicated. After all, you don’t just hear new things. That’s why Spotify came up with new nonsense. After recently assigning people’s musical tastes quite arbitrarily to cities in distant countries, there is now the “musical age”, which is apparently nothing other than participation bait. People share it with great confusion about it, others then also want to know what comes out of it for them and so on.
For example, I’m supposed to be over 70. If it were really me, I’d be writing comments on Facebook posts about my most listened to acts – Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Charli But because I ALSO listen to older folk and workers’ songs, the algorithm goes ERROR because it can’t imagine any young anti-fascists who also enjoy beautiful melodies. So overall it’s good that they Music nerd journos still pack their best lists everywhere without being askedinstead of relying on this terrible company like most people do.
AI photos and the end of the world
But speaking of something ending and we rely on corporations and their stupid technology… Last week many people online were alarmed by an AI photo that went viral.
Aside from the fact that the person who circulated it wanted to ADVERTISE AI, and too many fell for his alarmist posturing, many also went along with it and reinforced the narrative that the photo on the right otherwise looked realistic. Yes, of course, but the scene is particularly authentic for people who already spend too much time on the Internet and have absorbed its aesthetics and ideals of beauty. Of course it’s all shitty anyway, but if we all act as if we’re doomed, cooked, finished, screwed, at the mercy, lost, then that’s just how it’s going to happen.
Editorial recommendations
For some people, however, it seems to be a certainty for a long time that everything will go even further down the drain and that the world will end, and they don’t hold back from spreading it everywhere. In recent years we have hardly been able to save ourselves from scenarios conveyed by series and films of what this could look like. Whether world wars, atomic bombs, pandemics, zombie invasions, the takeover of artificial intelligence and so on – the question now only seems to be HOW, and not IF. If you’re just doing well enough, you’d rather sit back and watch. For you, it’s entertainment, true crime, so to speak. It’s bad, but that’s just the way it is. For others, this fatalism is primarily an opportunity to earn money. But for most people, giving up is not an option.
The more we conjure up doom, the less imagination we have to prevent it. So perhaps it’s no surprise that the most streamed song of the year also hits the mark.
Nice song and just pop anyway, but also fitting. Die with a smile, just the two of us while the world ends.
Strength club and refusal to give up
Kraftklub also seem to want to give up at first glance, their new album is called “Die in Karl-Marx-Stadt” and it gets correspondingly morbid. But with a (typical combative strength club) twist! Kraftklub basically want to be “immortal”, they still see light at the end of the tunnel (“When I’m dead, I’ll start smoking again”), and: “As long as someone else screams ‘Fuck you all’, nothing is lost here”, or: “Nirvana isn’t there, dude”.
De La Soul and dealing with death
Being afraid of death is of course more than understandable, and there is no point in trying to talk people out of the feeling or even sugarcoat death. It is undeniably terrible when loved ones die and also that you have to go yourself. The new album by, yes, exactly, De La Soul, “Cabin In The Sky”, is also about death in the close environment, which very lovingly remembers the deceased member David Jolicoeur and also deals with grief in other ways.
There must be as much space as possible for grief, fear and stories about the deceased. For conjuring up the end of the world, I’d be happy to say less. Because what we over 70 year olds like to sing still applies: Hurray, we’re still alive.
What happened so far? Here is an overview of all the pop column texts.
