Much has been said, justifiably, about the state of music and film in pop culture in North America. You can't go anywhere without being met with an armada of magazines and cd's that pander to the lowest ebbs of humanity. From the Simpson sisters to other trash art, we are bludgeoned to death to the point of not recognizing what is good music or respectable film anymore. If you are the type to soak all this in, take it in stride and know where to get your deep fill of true artistic talent then good on you.
It takes too much time and effort to find where all the good stuff is.
Make no mistake about it. There's a lot of interesting things going on. There's an underground backlash to all the crud around. People with real talent are tired of watching half-ass talents get all the glory and the money. I suppose this is why movements like Indie rock and Sundance exist. It's to give a chance to have real creativity, free of all the blueprint mafia, to express itself.
There's a two-tiered cultural system out there. Like everything else in life, it takes an acquired taste to appreciate the finer things in life. Many people still adhere to the mantra ' if I haven't heard about it in the mainstream than it's not worth my time'. Sadly, they are the mass market. And it's all the nerdy morons in upper management who run the marketing show that bring you all this bad programming and music. To be fair, some things of note do filter through into the mainstream (due, in part, to some people in power who have some vision and guts.)
In the end, we should respect what is coming out of the underground these days. It's telling us that art is alive and kicking and is shouting to be heard behind all the mass hysteria that is of the Jessica Simpson mold. Some eventually find their way into the mainstream conscience and help to purify the pretenders in their way.
You know what else? The pop sell-outs may be raking in all the cash and getting all the fame but it's the music of the true artist that will have a kid somewhere draw inspiration from for posterity.
This in itself is immeasurable in its value.
Yeah I strongly agreed... used to be that it was the artist that brought their product to the market and the 'star system' decided they could make money using wider distribution.
ReplyDeleteBut today we have the 'star system' scouting wannabes in the hopes of big time vertical marketing which produces a 'name' which can lead to horizontal product placements (movies, tv, hocking products et all).
What I am saying is that the business has superceeded the art and now the art suffers for it... but then again the slobbering media thought that orange bed sheets hanging in central park in NYC recently was an art revelation! So what do I know? Where did Cristo get the bucks to do this anyways? who the F' is Crisco anyways?
Brian Walsh