In a teaser clip of an upcoming episode of The Shop: Uninterrupted, Travis Scott and Pharrell Williams are seen discussing the influence of the streaming service, SoundCloud. Pharrell started off by calling millennials “gifts to the species” because they grew up online and are “all about sharing”. Travis then made the connection with SoundCloud, a streaming service widely used by millennials, and praised the immediate upload nature of the site.
He said, “I was doing this interview, man, for Playboy, right? And the interview guy was like, he was saying my generation was SoundCloud rappers, and I was like, ‘Wait, pause.’ I had to tell him, like, you got it twisted. SoundCloud was there for us because SoundCloud understood, like, we wanna drop a song right now. We’re not trying to wait for any load-up”. Travis then went on to say that this dramatically increased the speed of recording and that even the step of recording notes on paper or iPhones was bypassed and that the songs came “off the brain”.
Pharrell added on to that last point and said that “feeling is your GPS, first and foremost. If it doesn’t feel right, I ain’t give a fuck what you’re saying, or what you’re talking about. Right, it’s your spirit, and people can see that”.
It seems that both Pharrell and Travis are praising the spontaneity of the instant uploading that happens on SoundCloud. However, I still wonder though if trial and error still holds value in this world. After all, humans are prone to mistakes so somebody’s spontaneous reaction might in fact not be as powerful as the second or third reaction. To compromise, an artist shouldn’t shy away from his or her gut reaction, but just make sure it’s the best one.
Let us know what you think in the comments.