Despite music being a seemingly boundary breaking art form, we still have fairly consistent structures that are often followed as if they are rules. This makes it so much more satisfying when a song goes against the normalities of music in the way that Veg. does in their debut single ‘Technology’.
The song is 30 seconds long (when listening to the Spotify version it does loop to make it just over a minute, as otherwise it would not have been recognised as a song), which is almost unheard of for any song that is not used as an interlude, let alone a single. It is an incredibly brave and smart choice to make this song their debut single, it sets them apart from the myriads of other musicians releasing music currently.
They use this song to discuss “how the overuse of social media shortens our attention spans and feeds us fake happiness and insecurity. ‘Veg.’ aren’t against technology, not in the slightest; everything we use from a shovel to a lightbulb, to a guitar, is technology. All we ask is that you take a step back and assess what forms of technology are bringing value to your life and what forms of technology are devoiding you of it.”. The shortness and simplicity of the song work to prove the message and the meaning of this song, as well as the lyrics which start by calling for attention that has been taken up by a phone and then spends the last 10 seconds of the song repeating the phrase “Technology, technology, fuck you!”, giving the whole song a punchy and passionate feeling. It is the kind of thing that you can imagine yourself screaming.
This is one of the most interesting and smart choices as a debut single that I have ever heard and gets its point across incredibly well. Whatever Veg. next release, I will be incredibly interested to hear.