An Ode to Collaboration
What would the arts be without collaboration?
Why is it so engrained in our culture that to be the strongest, greatest, and most successful one has to have accomplished everything on their own?
To succeed at something is to fail 100 times before getting it right — to adjust, tinker and fix until whatever it is one works toward is correct. This process takes more than one set of eyes, ears or hands… it takes collaboration.
The odd quest for perfection that American culture engrains into our reality is one that ignores all the work that goes into the finished project. We are so concerned with perfection that we forget that the wounds, stitches, and seams are what truly holds us together.
So many people get caught up in the finished product that they forget the most important part, the part that really matters — the journey.
For Tariq Snare the journey has been everything. He has worked his entire life slowly learning through collaboration. Tariq realized from a young age that he would dedicate his entire life toward music. He understood that music has a regenerative energy that is constantly cycling through the art. Through his dedication to music he has become the drummer, educator and mentor that he is today. But all of that would be non existent without collaboration. His commitment to his craft has allowed him the experiences that have gotten him to where his is today.
Unfortunately today business exploits the power of collaboration and markets it through shows such as The Voice and The X Factor. However, it goes without saying that success in the mainstream music industry today is heavily dependent on the ability to collaborate with artists that can further ones own fanbase.
Hip Hop has served as the guidelines towards collaborative success and it is all owed to the community that created it in the early 70’s — the connected and collaborative Bronx which through the community changed the face of music forever.
Today the community is changing once again, through the advent of the internet collaboration has taken on a new identity. The influx of art and music that has never been seen before is being produced at an exponential rate through online collaboration. It is too early to understand the true effects that the internet will create but it is undeniable that the effects will forever change the way in which we collaborate and create.
Whether collaboration is in the physical space like with The Morrisania Band Project or in the digital space like the Hip Hop group Gorillaz there is one undeniable truth - collaborate or collapse.
