Your Self is an Independent State

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I’ve dedicated an important part of my life to overthinking stuff I’m supposed to accept without second thoughts. For example: the most thoughtless word I can think of when discussing art is “boring”. I fucking hate that word and yet most people use it like it’s their constitutional right to simply dismiss whatever doesn’t directly cater to their own experiences. But this isn’t a crowded island. No one really gives a shit about what “boring” means except me.

Last week, I’ve come across this video on social media because I follow Revolver Mag. It features kid aged between 6 and 12 who interpret my favorite song by the band Korn Here to Stay. The video was posted by the O’Keefe Music Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides free music education to children of all socioeconomic backgrounds. Great, right? At least, I’m supposed to find it great and this is where the overthinking begins.

Is this a good version of the song?

The obvious purpose of this video is to elicit one of the two following reactions:

Reaction no. 1: Wow, this is fucking awesome. Some kids are still rocking out to songs I care about. They’re not just all obsessed with Billie Eilish, iPhones and their own ecoanxiety. There is a future for mankind, yeah! * devil horns’ emoji *

Reaction no. 2: This is cute, but I can interpret Here to Stay better than them. They need to practice.

If you’re browsing through the comment section for this video on every social media platform that shared it (whether it’s the O’Keefe Music Foundation or a rock media that aggregated it), it makes for 99% of them. It is how you’re supposed to feel about these kids’ rendition of Here to Stay. Because you’re supposed to feel a certain way about it. Either command the band’s dedication to keeping the early 2000s alive or question the foundation’s technical acumen.

But is it good?

Well, it’s technically fine. The kids are playing it in tempo and the six years old frontman has great vocal delivery. I’m 38 and I wouldn’t be able to pronounce every syllable of every word without messing up like he does. That’s really the important part. But Here to Stay is, at it’s core, an emotional song about self-harming in order to stave off psychological pain and, you know, a six years old boy cannot possibly carry that meaning in his interpretation.

So, the cover sounds a little hollow. But it’s fine, really. You can’t hold against a kid who just started elementary school that he doesn’t know what it means when he says that he bashes his face into the mirror, so that he won’t have to see the pain. You have to be a little soulless not to admire the kids’ dedication and discipline and you have to be a little self-obsessed in order to draw joy from it for more than the duration of the song.

Why am I slightly upset about it?

While I vaguely liked the video (enough to heart it on Twitter), it kind of made me uncomfortable. Because it went viral and racked up over six digit views inside a week. I’m not a big fan of Korn, but I like Here to Stay’s heaviness and empowering idea of transforming pain into anger. The kids are good, but they’re not revolutionizing the song technically or emotionally. They’re just kids learning how to play music together as a band. But it’s not what they’re framed as.

The O’Keefe Music Foundation frame the performance as prodigious and it is from a technical standpoint. But it isn’t a technical song. It’s an emotional song and therefore, the rapport you have to it is entirely yours to have. There is no objective definition of what makes a Here to Stay cover good. If kids in a band nail The Glass Prison by Dream Theater, they are objectively prodigies because it’s technically difficult to play. It doesn’t require emotion in your delivery.

So, aside of the obvious fucked up idea of making a 6 year old memorize lyrics about self-harm…. I’m just really wondering what’s so awesome about exposing children to the judgement of the internet (including my own) in order to show how great they’ve been taught music by this foundation? If their parents are any responsible, they won’t have access to social media but what is on the internet is usually on the internet forever and they’ll one day find it.

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The point of this exercise is: this is a promotional video for a non-profit organization. It’s great that they’re featuring their clients, but it was made to promote the foundation and it used the kids to do so. It used them in a particularly ingenious way, because everyone in 2021 is sensitive to how destructive social media can be and don’t want to be the ones bashing children online. So it banked on the idea that you’re supposed to feel a certain way about it.

You’re not supposed to hate it. You’re not even supposed to be indifferent to it. You’re supposed to click, say wow and share because that it how content works now. 1) Gives you a reason to click (Here to Stay) 2) Gives you a reason to watch (an unlikely interpretation) 3) Gives you a reason to share (the moral imperative to support kids). I guess this is what I’m doing right now, but trying to pull the conversation forward about this sort of practice.

I love Here to Stay, but this cover is mostly mimetism of a song that is supposed to be catharsis. It’s not the kids’ fault for not being old enough to understand what the lyrics mean. It’s the foundation’s fault for using them to promote itself and it’s our fault for reflexively clicking on content all the time. Garage covers like this have been happening since rock n’ roll exists. But they’re meant to stay in a garage. This is where people get good. Not where they get attention.

A six years old boy singing Korn is cool, I guess. What’s not cool is a foundation using his age to coerce you into thinking it’s cool. Your self is an Independent State. Don’t let anyone colonize your feelings.