A 16 Year Old’s Take Away from PressPausePlay

This is a guest blog post from my 16 year old daughter who’s also an aspiring musician. She and I watched the fascinating documentary PressPausePlay Friday night. I thought I’d share her insight with you.

With my hopes of becoming a musician, the film [PressPausePlay] wrought feelings of both inspiration and intimidation. It also confirmed many thoughts that were slowly forming in my mind regarding the change in culture and media from technological advances. I felt intimidated because I know that I’m only one in the billions who are clamoring for recognition of their art. However, I was greatly inspired at the fact that because there are so many who are dabbling in the arts, it sparks the question of “Why not me too?” Of course, some have talent and some do not, but if even those who do not have talent are pursuing the art – there’s no reason for the talented to abstain from pursuing it as well. I no longer have reason to feel ashamed of how I do not measure up to the old standards of a “good” artist. The old standards are based on the old artists who used the old technology. This film has encouraged me to learn from past art and artists, but to never feel an obligation to do exactly what they did. I can now confidently jump into the pool of future technologies and ways of producing and distributing art with both of my feet, whereas before I had one foot in the old ways and one foot in the new.

Are you ready and willing to “jump in”? Go for it. What’s the worst that could happen?

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Original music and lyrics by Imahni Dawson.