It's been a bit, but I'm finally back with a new post. This time I wanted to expound on the way modern studios think of their audience. Mostly in that they don't, at all. Well, they do, but not in the way they really should.
You've heard the phrase before: Don't Give Money to People Who Hate You. This means that refusing to reward people who dislike you should be paramount in your decision making. Even if you like something, you shouldn't reward the people making it both so that it doesn't encourage poisonous behavior and so that you aren't complicit in rewarding it. It's been a growing notion, the phrase getting a lot more use these days than it used to, partially because of the buying public's increased apathy towards those trying to sell them products while simultaneously spitting on them.
Truth be told, separating the art from the artist is not not totally possible. The artist will always have something of himself in what he does. However, what matters is not whether you agree with his philosophy or way of life, but if what he creates is genuine art: an attempt to connect with people outside himself. This is increasingly difficult in a world where Hollywood and the music industry (and most other industries) can't help but wag their finger and sneer at those not like themselves, and inform the audience that unless they believe 100% in lockstep with them they are not only not Good People but also unworthy of purchasing their product and engaging in their wares. This unearned arrogance is why such folk should not be rewarded for what they do.
That said, most customers understand this now. The issue comes from after that realization that these people do not see you as people.
In today's art and entertainment climate, finding someone who doesn't hate you is surprisingly difficult, even more so to find one who doesn't see you as little more than a wallet with legs even if you do believe 100% of the same things they do. The only places one can seem to find and reprieve is among scattershot independent artists. It just seems as if everyone has an ulterior motive and, unfortunately, they do.
The above video from Real Life Fake Wizard highlights a recent example of a grift played with audiences that have long since gotten tired of being played with. It is what happens when you don't see the audience as people. This grift is particularly malicious since it requires many layers of lies to be explained. Check the video to see it in detail.
It once used to take a long time to discover these sorts of schemes. It could be decades before you learned that author you enjoyed secretly hated everything about you or that a certain musician was some kind of a criminal deviant as opposed to a normal drug addict. Now, we find out almost instantly because modern artists and creators (and the money men) no longer care about even trying to lie to the people they're trying to get money from. Now they just outright tell them that they hate them, if not with words than with direct action, like this. Whatever level of respect that once used to exist is gone, and the audience knows it.
There was a lot of talk recently about the destruction of "Christian Art" industries and the revelations that there never actually were any to begin with. It was an artificial genre ghetto construct no different than what happened with siffy way back in the 1940s. The people in charge catered to a fringe demographic and pretended it was now the mainstream one, and in the process alienated the majority in order to profit solely from the obsession of Fanatics. In this case, instead of anti-social materialist zealots it is Bookstore Betty, an archetype that barely even seems to exist anymore.
And not only that, they are perfectly willing to throw Bookstore Betty under the bus if it gets them a seat at the big boy table. As seen below:
This is what everyone can sense now about how things are. It's all about grifting now. There is nothing that puts the audience first before opposing sides over silly political games. The worst part is that it always ends up here, in the end.
The issue with most studios/groups/artists/whatever today is that the audience comes secondary to either monetary compensation or fame. Such people are wannabe Hollywood insiders using acceptable verbiage and rubbing the right shoulders to get what they want. They never believed in anything to start with. At some point we bought into the idea that however you make money doesn't matter. All that matters is that you make it. It's either that or become a true believer of some ideology and obtain infamy instead (which will also somehow get you tons of money from your masters for doing what they tell you). This is where the industries have ended up.
But that's never been the reason to create.
You create because something inside you stirs you to put something forth: and it's something only you can put forth. It's not so you can be famous or become showered in praise and money. You create because you have to, because there's no other choice but to create. There's a spark begging to be lit, and when it is lit it cannot be stopped. This is creation only you can make and give to the audience, and it's your responsibility to do just that.
Nothing else will do. There is no other option but to do it.
For one who creates, you can't hate your audience. You can tell yourself you do, or misdirect your frustrations at them (countless examples of that happening), but people who create never actually hate their audience. It's impossible. The reason is because the entire spark to create is due to the need to express this idea, this piece, this work, that no one else can express, in order to connect with other people so you can help make sense of it in some context. At the base of it, this need requires an audience or it's not really creation, it's just vanity. Even if it's unintentional, all art does exist for audience enjoyment. We can't keep pretending otherwise.
Therefore the way many modern companies and creators treat their audience is wrong and backwards. It is also why the audience is shrinking and walking away, and why the monoculture is gone and more or less forgotten now. There is no attempt at connection, only leeching, and there is no industry or medium that can survive for the sole purpose of leeching. This is the reverse of how it should be, and why it is not sustainable.
Lecturing in art is also leeching, by the way. It implies that you deserve an audience to berate and browbeat into submission with your work. All anti-audience motives in creation are also anti-art, a sign of death, and will not lead to any growth. Lecturing isn't connecting. If you want to learn, find a teacher, not an artist.
In fact, that subverted view of the world is why we are where we are right now.
There are plenty of creators aiming to do better than this dead end state of being, and those are the types to support in order to get the art and the work you desire. Eventually the dead wood will be cleared away and all that will remain will be the path forward.
After that? Hopefully we can finally leave this era dead and buried. I don't know about you, but I'm beyond sick of the grifting and the lecturing. I just want something to connect with again, just like it used to be.
I think we all do.
Check out the 10th anniversary issue of Cirsova for some exciting tales of action and wonder! My story, Infinite Alley is in this one. It's a tale of repeating madness on a dark planet deep in the void of stars! Can Dana escape the loop, or is she doomed to be dragged into hell? Read today and find out!
