I wasn't thinking of Mr. Yankovic (or any specific artist) but he mostly fits the bill--though he has perhaps had more instances of success than I was thinking.....I know this!
WEIRD AL!
You're welcome.
I wasn't thinking of Mr. Yankovic (or any specific artist) but he mostly fits the bill--though he has perhaps had more instances of success than I was thinking.....I know this!
WEIRD AL!
You're welcome.
This...isn't the point. The point is the undue influence on the art, in an either open demand or implication of desire for a product to change to capitalize on the most profit possible.The labourer deserves his wages. It's stupid ideas like making money from something is "selling out" and therefore somehow wrong that gets socialism a bad name.
Watching many things from the 90s (or earlier) with people from a different generation can be an eye-opening experience. I recently saw a touring version of Rent with a group of younger acquaintances, and the universal reaction was the same- "Why don't they just pay the damn rent?"
It's not art, it's a product.This...isn't the point. The point is the undue influence on the art,
It is worse than that. Benny offers to continue to allow them to live there, rent free, if they'll just convince one person to stop opposing a project that is intended to benefit artists. Benny is like, "I'll make life better for all of us, give you great new facilities, and let you live here for free," and they say, "No!"
I guess the D&D equivalent would be, like, organizing a boycott of D&D Beyond because it makes money off of giving us tools to play with.
Ok, I’m gonna stop you right there. First of all, the reason they didn’t just pay the damn rent in RENT wasn’t because of artistic integrity, it was because they couldn’t afford to. The question isn’t “why don’t they just pay the rent?” it’s “why are these people, who are apparently happy to kill a dog for a few hundred bucks, unwilling to help Benny stop Morene’s protest in exchange for lifetime rent for free?” Their priorities seem extremely messed up. But moreover, it isn’t that the concept of remaining true to your artistic vision is alien to artists today, nor that we don’t perceive integrity and commerce as opposed. It’s that wealth inequality has grown so extreme and the social safety nets have been so thoroughly sabotaged that we no longer have the option to choose artistic integrity over getting paid. We submit to the gig economy or we starve on the street. And that’s why the characters’ decisions in RENT seem so bizarre to us, because the reality that they’re choosing homelessness over compromise hits us closer to home, and is extremely alarming.Watching many things from the 90s (or earlier) with people from a different generation can be an eye-opening experience. I recently saw a touring version of Rent with a group of younger acquaintances, and the universal reaction was the same- "Why don't they just pay the damn rent?" The idea of opposing "the man" (the corporation, the corporate world, the conforming society) and staying true to your authentic self or an artistic vision was simply foreign to many of them; this isn't a value judgment, so much as an acknowledgment that, to people today, the idea that art (or authenticity) and commerce are in any way opposed is bizarre. Success is not some type of integrity- after all, corporations support artistic vision, and the real sign of success is the marketplace. Right? If you are hustling to make ends meet with a number of side gigs, the idea of your endeavors becoming monetarily successful is no longer seen as "selling out," so much as finally making it!
It is worse than that. Benny offers to continue to allow them to live there, rent free, if they'll just convince one person to stop opposing a project that is intended to benefit artists. Benny is like, "I'll make life better for all of us, give you great new facilities, and let you live here for free," and they say, "No!"