I was assigned to write a short auto-ethnography about a subculture I belong to, how the process of belonging has unfolded and how it’s influenced me. I wrote about something I am extremely passionate about and the essay turned out decent. So here it is!!
“Right now is the best moment you’ve ever known!” These are lyrics from Pretty Lights’ summertime hip-hop jam called Around the Block. And it really is the best moment I’ve ever known; or so the music tells me. Pretty Lights is the musical vision of Derek Vincent Smith, a musician and producer based out of Fort Collins. Derek and the rest of his music label, Pretty Lights Music (PLM), have created much more than a community of touching and emotional music and a live show experience that so far, hasn’t been matched. PLM has created a community where creating an optimal functioning space for yourself is considered an art, and inspiration and creativity are the lifeblood of every single beat in every song. Most importantly, the PLM movement advocates that positivity is life and as fans we have connected the dots of our own music notes to realize that without a sunny outlook we keep our faces turned toward the shadows and miss all the Pretty Lights. As fans we are the Chinese Lanterns of this idea and our light extends into areas of our society that you wouldn’t believe a single beam could seep into. This is a theme that without a doubt, now defines my life. I haven’t decided yet if Pretty Lights Music attracts passionate people or passionate people gravitate toward funky-retro-analog-electronic soul music, a genre in which Pretty Lights solely sits in, but I do know that Derek lays the foundation of passion through music. D and the rest of the label have transitioned into the beacon of a new dawn of music and culture with grace and left a torrent of inspiration, energy and beauty in his wake. We have created a paradigm of not only watching and listening to Pretty Lights, but living under a sky full of Pretty Lights. We have perfected the practice of eating, sleeping and breathing Pretty Lights—and most importantly spreading that practice. This is our movement, this is our time, we are out here, and we have THE message to spread!
Specific music scenes and the enjoyment of music in general is a fairly positive movement. Experiencing music you appreciate and being surrounded by others who feel the same way is an unarguably enjoyable experience. Because of the natural positive force characteristic of music, Pretty Lights is a vision that must be set apart from the rest. It is rare in our culture of capitalism to see someone giving away a bit of their art without cost, but Derek makes every single song ever released available for free download. This means that Pretty Lights is everyman’s type of music—available to anyone, not just those who can afford it. A little over two years ago, a particularly dedicated fan (which describes all of us—again, I have not decided which came first, the passionate people or the PLM egg, I am only certain of the direct correlation between the two), created a group page on Facebook called the Pretty Lights Family or PLF. This is where everything changed.
Without knowing it we were building the foundation of a fast-growing subculture full of individuals who refused to be defined by their “generation” [clearly negative connotation] that is chalk full of Gossip Girls and Miley Cyrus’, apathy and complacence. We became the new age Dead Heads, the passionate, at times to the point of obsessive, souls of an unspoken doctrine that at first we couldn’t even define. But as our family grew, so did our understanding, and so did our potential. I’ll try not to be too much of a hipster when I admit that I’ve been around since Day One. I can’t even be pretentious about this community because it feels too pure to taint with meaningless issues of who loves PLM “more”. The progression of support, positivity and tolerance has been enlightening to watch. Here was a safe and easy-to-use spot to interact with people all over the world and share our passion for music, art, ideas, travelling, and everything else in between. The way Facebook groups are set up, in order to become a member of the group you have to be referred by someone that was already in it, so increasing our ranks was out of pure acknowledgement and universal acceptance. If an individual was having a bad day or experienced a tragedy you simply had to post one sentence on the “Fam Page” (this is what I personally call it) asking to be kept in prayers or to be sent positive vibrations, and within moments you were bombarded with support and caring. I have been exposed to intense acts of kindness but never have I seen such unwarranted human optimism and compassion. The Pretty Lights Fam is embodied by something as simple as scribbling a paragraph of positivity or gratefulness on the Facebook page or as monumental as picking up a stranded family member from the airport in your city or letting them crash on your couch. The truly incredible thing about the PLM Movement is that I found hundreds and eventually thousands of other people who heard the same sweet symphony of epiphanies serenading my ears and brain every time a Pretty Lights track was played! I was not alone!
As an individual, Pretty Lights and everything that it stands for probably plays a much larger role than music or an artist ever should in one’s life. I don’t feel like anyone could get a thorough construction of me without spending some time with the song Understand Me Now. (I recommend listening to it). In a world where our society makes us all feel like aliens no matter what we care about, communities that inspire and accept your weird are vital. I try to shy away from statements like “I can honestly say that without insert-interest-here, I would not be the person I am today,” because I believe that words and music notes and colors and textures exist for a reason. Too often do we try to put ourselves and our passions in chains and boxes. For me, it was about finding a place where I could let my weird out. I belong among people who cry in the middle of concerts because the music is just too beautiful for any other emotion. I belong among people who find art in both the music and the silence of a song. I belong among people who read every breath like a poem and write every movement like a Thank You Letter. To be infinitely grateful to people you’ve never met before and may never meet is surprisingly liberating, and it has shaped my ability to be conscious and verbal about all the things I am grateful for. The gratefulness and positivity grow by the day—and so does the awareness of our movement.
The most empowering thing, for me, was the realization of how much potential I held through positivity and support and sharing the love and light of PLM. I was a vessel of this incredible orb of energy, like a light bulb illuminating the darkness of people stuck in holes or boxes or behind bars that with an iron fist define what is worth your time and what isn’t. I feel like a laser crackling like an electric fence with passionate potential energy. More days than not I feel like a dormant volcano preparing to erupt with inspiration. There are so many things we can do as humans! But inspiration doesn’t have a reliable home in our society. There is a home for extraversion, punctuality, assertiveness, and leadership, but inspiration is important only in certain contexts. I am not okay with that. If we have to inject our lifestyles with positivity and satisfaction, so be it. I’ll take a massive daily dose of Pretty Lights Music, please. Until we can put a price on inspiration, on positivity, on optimism, on acceptance, on weirdness, on love, on FAMILY, we can just put them all to music. I think they’d sound a lot like Pretty Lights.
Pretty Lights at Red Rocks Aug of 2012
Some of the motivation for PLM – written by Michal Menert, another beautifully inspiring artist on the label. Check him out too!
Butt Naked Travels 