It’s the early 2000’s. A music video plays on a nearby loop on the Much Music TV channel. A
man stands in a room, the background is nothing, non existent, as if in a void. The camera rolls
and does not stop. He is shirtless. Sparse guitars begin as the camera sways effortlessly
through the abyss, never taking its omnipotent gaze off the man. He is shirtless, cut from stone
like a statue from antiquity. Flawless in all regards, but we have not seen everything yet. The
music ungulates towards an apex as the camera begins to lower its gaze. Revealed are two
lines few have seen before. Angular muscles beginning at the navel and ending at the thighs. A
new style of music video is formed, a unique take of R&B is created, the artistry of D’angelo is
now truly whole.
Peter sits at home transfixed to the screen. He is amazed as his perception of what is possible
in music has changed. Peter is now on the precipice of a new dawn.
Morning has broken.
“Wake up, grandma why don’t you put on a little makeup.” Or so he thought the lyrics went to
the new music video playing. Chop Suey by System of a Down. Peter is flabbergasted again.
More new styles of music, more new guitar riffs! He sits, mouth open, with a copy of Guitar
World magazine open to the tablature of Chop Suey. Reading the fine print with a magnifying
glass he is now completely stunned, knocked flat onto his back, when he learns a guitar can be
tuned much lower than he had expected! Drop C in fact. A tuning he uses to this day.
“Time to go to school young man. This essay isn’t going to read itself,” he thinks to himself
clutching his homework. At school a classmate of Peter reads his essay aloud for marks. They
stumble through the quote “Be careful when staring into the abyss because the abyss will stare
back into you.” After class, amazed at his friend’s penmanship, Peter does a secret handshake
with the author to celebrate the success of the essay. A ‘home-shake.’ That was the moment he
Realized how to unite his new inspirations. An artist is born.
-written by an interested third party