Why I Listened to 2,000 Minutes of Tchaikovsky Last Year

We are living in the age of "frictionless" music. The algorithms know what we want before we do, the dopamine is cheap, and the content is served to us on a silver platter. But as Charles Bukowski once said of classical music: "It washes the crap right out of me."

Lately, it feels like there’s a lot of crap to wash out.

In this episode, I’m stepping away from the "business" of music to talk about the Aura and the Sublime. I’m breaking down why I spent more time with a 19th-century Russian composer than anyone in the Top 40, and why I believe the "smoothness" of modern digital life is actually making us bored, exhausted, and artistically numb.

In this episode, we explore:

The "Loss of Aura": Why music feels less valuable when it stops being a "hunt" and starts hunting you.

The Sublime vs. The User-Friendly: Lessons from Walter Benjamin and Theodore Adorno on why great art should be a little bit terrifying.

The Tchaikovsky Antidote: How complex, uncomfortable, and "loud" art reminds us that we aren’t the center of the universe.

Breaking the Algorithm: Why the most successful artists of the future will be the ones who refuse to be "mathematically certain."

If you’ve been feeling a specific kind of creative exhaustion lately, this one is for you. It’s time to stop trying to conquer the mountain and let the mountain conquer us.

RESOURCES & LINKS

📧 Get in touch: [email protected]
📝 Read the full essay on Substack: Letters to Myself 
📸 Follow on Instagram: @troycartwright

#Songwriting #MusicIndustry #Tchaikovsky #ClassicalMusic #MusicPhilosophy #Algorithm #CreativeProcess #NashvilleSongwriters #WalterBenjamin #TheSublime #ArtVsContent #MusicPodcast #TroyCartwright #LettersToMyself #Authenticity #IndieArtist

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Find the host Troy Cartwright on Twitter, Instagram.

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This podcast was produced by Ben VanMaarth.

Intro and Outro music for this episode was composed by Troy Cartwright, Monty Criswell, and Derek George. It is called "Same" and you can listen to it in it's entirety here.

Additional music for this episode was composed by Thomas Ventura.

Artwork design by Brad Vetter.

Creative Direction by Mary Lucille Noah.