I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.
Interpretation
Limiting oneself to specific genres restricts creativity and discovery.
David Byrne's quote highlights the drawbacks of confining oneself to established genres, arguing that such limitations can stifle creativity and prevent the enjoyment of unexpected experiences. By encouraging a more open-minded approach to art and music, he advocates for exploration beyond familiar boundaries, suggesting that true inspiration often lies outside the 'box' of genre classifications.
In practice
In an art class, to emphasize the importance of exploring various styles, a teacher might quote this to inspire students.
Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can't bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
We don't make music, it makes us
All my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
Individual writers have different postures, different stances, even different physical attitudes as they stand or sit over their blank paper, and in a sense, without doing it, they are crossing themselves; I mean, it's like the habit of Catholics going into water: you cross yourself before you go in.
For your information, a good novel can change the world. Keep that in mind before you attempt to sit down at a typewriter. Never waste time on something you don't believe in yourself.
The writing process for a short story feels more like field geology, where you keep turning the thing over and over, noting its qualities in detail, hammering at it, putting it near flame, pouring different acids on it, and then finally you figure out what it is, or you just give up and mount it on a ring and have an awkward chunky piece of jewelry that seems weirdly dominating but that you for some reason like. I could be wrong about field geology here.
Poetry is a life-cherishing force.
Art is not just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be.
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