Today’s big music news finds Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre donating 70 million to USC to start a new school for the ever changing music, technology and business industry. As noble of an effort as this is and extremely commendable, I wonder if it hinders progress. Hear me out. Dr. Dre and Iovine are major innovators in the field of music. They didn’t go to school to learn how to be ground breaking, they taught themselves through being on the front lines. And though there are a slew of cutting edge bands that have ties to college and art school (Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, MGMT, Pavement) it seems like the most successful route to becoming a musical innovator is by living in the trenches as a struggling musician for years and paying your dues (Eminem, Guns N Roses, Nirvana, The Black Keys, The Beatles, and N.W.A.) I’m not saying this isn’t a positive thing…it is. I guess my question is can great music be taught or is it learned?
Here are the 11 Best Songs By Small Black:
- Photojournalist (New Chain)
- Search Party (New Chain)
- Despicable Dogs (Small Black EP)
- Love’s Not Enough (Moon Killer Mixtape)
- New Chain (New Chain)
- Moon Killer (Moon Killer Mixtape)
- Two Rivers (Moon Killer Mixtape)
- Crisp 100s (New Chain)
- Sun Was High (Photojournalist)
- Camouflage (New Chain)
- Sunday Son (Moon Killer Mixtape)
Buy Small Black’s new album, Limits of Desire…now!!