There exists, now, a kind of YouTube-augmented musician in the same way that we have Stack Overflow-augmented programmers. https://twitter.com/utotranslucence/status/1282364486758719488

People who ‘teach themselves’ to make music but really are deeply interested in making a particular kind of thing and simply find and inhale the knowledge required to produce it—because it exists readily at their disposal.

The compounded effect of this sort of just-in-time learning combined with a lot of curiosity and a lot of taste is humble, brilliant artists who are way more multidisciplinary than I think any human has been able to be before.

Bedroom producers like @finneas are so fascinating because they combine the craft of learning from the world’s best and the play of being in a low-stakes environment, and having access to it 24/7 (unlike expensive, intimidating studios)

It’s surprising, but I kind of expect the returns to intelligence to only be greater in this environment. The faster you can absorb a new skill via the internet, the faster your only native instrument is ‘learning a new skill’ and everything else is just stylistic choices.

So in this case, the main identifying variable is ‘what you want to say’ or the reason you’re making art at all.

The core, personal seed inside an exoskeleton of infinite collective knowledge.

Also—returns to love and inspiration. In the case of both Finneas and @jacobcollier, their parents are hugely influential in their love for art, and hugely supportive—as in, their immediate daily context is curious, loving, safe, and creative.

(Seriously, go watch videos of Billie and Finneas with their parents if you want some loving wholesomeness)

I can only imagine showing YouTube to Beethoven, or Twitter to Virginia Woolf or Socrates. I think they would have cried with joy.