Sometime in the nineties, around when Mariah Carey ascended in the marketplace, the criterion for quality became sales. And not only does that suck, it's inaccurate.
Not that it's the music business' fault. It started with the movie business.
Grosses were always known by the insiders, they were published in the trades. But then, the weekend's grosses made it to television, to print, to radio. A mania was created. THAT was the story. How "Independence Day" had the best Fourth Of July opening. How this film set this record or that.
The big story this summer is how movie GROSSES are down. It wasn't until deep into the slump that anyone questioned the movies' QUALITY.
Now, unlike grosses, quality is subjective.
Then again, isn't art? Isn't art supposed to be a creation that provokes, makes one think, that you have a reaction to? Too many Hollywood films elicit NO reaction. What would be your response to "Bewitched"? Other than Elizabeth Montgomery was a better Samantha!
We've moved towards a quantified society. No Child Behind is about testing. If you're learning for the test, you're learning very little. Education is about learning how to THINK!
But thinking is no longer revered. You go to college to learn a trade. English majors are laughed at. It's all about getting ahead, acquiring things. Hell, Washington, D.C. has everybody up in arms over the estate tax. You don't want to take anything AWAY from people.
But, you can't take away someone's identity. Oh, you can steal all their money, their car, but you can't take who they are.
But it no longer matters who you are. If you're nice, you're a shmo, to be taken advantage of by someone else. If you're compassionate, you're too ignorant to realize you're giving but not getting. As if that's how it worked, that you should help for twelve hours for twelve hours of help in return. Maybe reading to an underprivileged child for hours gets paid back by one smile. THAT smile you can reflect upon, you can treasure in your brain. The dollar in your wallet? How good does that make you feel?
We live in a country of winners and losers. And you win by making money, acquiring things.
I guess art reflects life. With the soulless, money-grubbing society that now exists, we've got soulless money-grubbing art.
If you're a critic, and you say something financially successful sucks, everyone shouts you down, saying the show/movie/music made people happy, it did a lot of business. I ask you, does this make anything GOOD!
I'm not saying that the critics are always right. But a good critic will give you insight into art, help you to understand it, evaluate it for yourself. Great criticism will EDUCATE you.
But in topsy-turvy America being dumb is a badge of honor. Dumb and rich.
SoundScan fucked up the music business. The goal became to create an album that would debut at number one, and to spend enough money to insure this. If you didn't make music that fit this paradigm, you weren't signed, or weren't promoted.
The light was shone on the big sellers. The small sellers somehow didn't even count.
Hell, that's become the story with Arcade Fire. Not how good or bad the music is, but how many albums they're selling, the grosses, HOW MUCH MONEY THEY'RE LEAVING ON THE TABLE!
For longevity, to be remembered, to have a career, you've got to be good.
All those old bands touring today. It's their high quality songs that are drawing people in.
U2 made some great albums and sold a ton of them.
But that doesn't put their last two albums in the category of "Boy".
I only wish the focus was on great. That there was a big debate in society on quality.
Then again, can anybody read anymore? Can anybody analyze? We're making all this money, but our culture is empty.
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