Greg and I went for coffee. It was after a brief stop-in at the Magic Castle. We climbed up a steep hill and finally got to the joint. Its got a beautiful view overlooking the Hollywood hills. Armando (previously written about) told me about the spot.
Greg is a magician and a friend. Probably in the reverse order. I’ve seen his show a lot. We talked. I like talking to Greg. He’s got a cool way about him. He can get you going on topics you had no idea you had thoughts on. He’ll sit there and watch you unwind. And he speaks knowingly.
Sometimes it hits a point where he seems to know what’s going on, but you’re not sure if you do anymore. Talking to Greg is always interesting.
Somehow we got around to the topic of advertising, artists, and what it means to “sell out.” I get on about this subject. I was reminded of an ad I saw for an insurance company. I think it was Nationwide, but they’re all the same really.
For this ad they hired a “famous” singer (in quotations because I’d never heard of her before). She sang a little jingle for them on screen and that was the ad. My point was that unless she was actually desperate for money then she “sold out.” And has therefore branded herself as someone not worth paying attention to.
Allow me to explain. I heard once that Mad Men, the TV show, had 3 million views per episode. It’s one of the most famous shows ever done and often considered one of the best. Only 3 million views. There’s cats on Youtube with more views per episode than that. That’s less than 1% of the U.S. population. The same is true of this singer. To have 3 million fans is to be a superstar. But it’s also less than 1% of the U.S. population.
This is important because, to me, she isn’t a singer-songwriter. She’s an advertisement. That’s the only thing I’ve ever seen or heard from her. When I see or hear her I don’t think of her music, I think Insurance. And this ad will be seen by more people than any of her work is likely to be seen by. Therefore to the majority of the world she is an ad. Not an artist. I hope the paycheck was worth it.
Of course if she did need the money, we can make exception for that. Divorce is expensive. People don’t pay for art. It’s hard to get by, you got to do what you got to do. But if your fan base was giving you enough money to pay bills and live fine, then it is selling out. Because the only reason you did it was out of greed. And there’s nothing to respect about that. Just another greedy person not worth paying attention to. How easily bought.
I once had a conversation with a very famous “artist” in my field. He said that artists keep score in money. It’s a very modern sentiment. But it’s bullshit and it’s the reason a lot of the work coming out now sucks. Especially in my field. It’s all commercialist bullshit.
Hustle, grind, make money. It was one of the most naive things I ever heard. Businessmen keep score in money. Artists get paid in the ability to do the work. And as long as you can do the work and keep doing it, then you’re paid in full.
An art professor once told me that the Sistine Chapel isn’t considered a work of “high art”. I was confused, “it’s literally on the ceiling.” I said.
But he said “well not only did Michaelangelo not want to do it. He hated doing it. He wrote about how much he hated it. But more importantly it’s not ‘high art’ because it was paid for. And by definition a commissioned work cannot be ‘high art’. ‘High art’ is art for the sake of itself.”
High art or as I like to call it “True Art” is art that would be done rather or not it’s paid for.
I had so many musings on the subject. I could have gone on for a long time. I probably did go on for a long time. Greg sat there knowingly and then changed the subject. We walked back down the steep hill. Going down is always easier than going up. When we got back to the Magic Castle. I realized I'd lost my wallet back at the coffee shop. Goddamn that hill. Greg drove me up to get my wallet and watched me unwind, knowingly.
Factotum