Song of the Day - Reset by Gesaffelstein (and some musings on the state of music lately)

Watching Gesaffelstein's go from being a talented producer with a unique and unnerving sound to the type of producer who sits on the fringes of popular culture with production credits on Kanye West and The Weeknd albums has been really interesting to watch and on some level really makes sense. He has a sensibility about him that taps into this dark nihilistic vibe that is an understated in the current world of pop music. Now he's back, with his slightly dissonant synths and crushing drums for something more contemporary but uniquely him and as I'll talk about with the video, pretty subversive as a whole.

Reset isn't exactly going to win awards musically for breaking new ground, but coupled with the video that might kind of be the point. There is definitely a statement that this as a whole speaks to. First though, you should watch the video.

Still with me?

There is a lot to unpack here and I'll just give my interpretation of it.

As you probably noticed, the central figure of the song goes from being simply dressed without much artifice adorning him to almost a comical mockery of the current state of popular hip hop artists. If you pay any real attention to the current state of popular music, you can likely infer who he seems to be mocking. Yet, look at the central figure as it progresses. A little more burnt out with each reiteration as the nuclear arms race of attention seeking has worn him down. This on its own makes the video fascinating to watch.

What really gets me about this video however is the persistent use of loops in the video. While the visual of the artist taking center stage changes his visual in a damaging escalation of attention seeking, the surrounding aesthetics stay the same. A string of replaceable guest rappers. The cliché of ass shaking in the camera repeated till it loses any meaning. Nothing has really changed and the use of these loops highlight this. These loops are used even more effectively towards the end where a never ending stream of similar rappers seem so intent on capturing what he has that they are constantly pushing each other out of the spotlight.

It's here that Gesaffelstein is finally seen. An outsider unamused by the progression of what he seems and numb to it all. It's pretty brief, but as the spotlight dims it feels like the title of the track snaps into focus. We need a reset. The ethos of this scene and the repetition of the players are doomed to self destruct and eventually that spotlight will fade.

I think about this type of stuff pretty frequently honestly.

I've tried my best here to make a channel focused on positivity. By this I mean, I know the easy way to get engagement is to hate on something. Maybe take a couple of shots at the state of rap music and complain how things aren't as good as they used to be. Negativity engages people lately and while it might not be as immediately popular, I have felt like I owed it to myself to use this space to highlight music that I love rather than things that I hate. This whole culture right now is focused on hate watching, but I know the only way good music rises to the top is to share it and talk about it. Show people these things that I really love and I feel need attention.

That's what I got today.

Enjoy.