Quote:
Originally Posted by Peakly  Beethoven worked in a "vacuum," and so did Van Gogh.
Are you serious when you say that a work of art has no value unless money changes hands, or someone writes something favorable about it? How can that be? It doesn't change in any way just because someone pays to listen to it or writes about it.
A work of art simply exists. If someone notices it and wants to throw money at it or write about it, that's fine. It may remain completely obscure, or become hugely famous. That's incidental, and after the fact. Fame or money won't improve art in any way.
You might say something has musical value, and I might think it's comically bad. Or the reverse could be true, and most likely is. I might point at a passage in Mozart's Requiem, or Miles Davis' Footprints, or one of Pete Seeger's songs, and say that it's flat out brilliant. But is it? Me and 100,000 other people might spend our hard earned money going to a concert by the new band XYZ. But that doesn't mean they're musically any good. They might be making a lot of money, but so what? If I sell a lot of records and make a lot of money and buy a lot of stuff, does that mean my music has artistic value, and is no longer just an opinion?
The value of art will always remain subjective, and be people's opinions, no matter how many or how few people share those opinions. Art should never be created with any material objective in mind, or pander after the latest fashion. It should able to stand on it's own, without needing to "fit in" or be part of some current trend.
Of course, these are all just my opinions... |
I remember very well an art appreciation class I had in college. We looked at a lot of great art works and we discussed them ad nauseam. My instructor said basically what you are saying that great art simply exists but he also said that art is something to be appreciated in the mind of the beholder and what is someones masterpiece is another's trash. We talked a lot about how art is bought and sold and how some pieces of art have reached the summit while others languish at the bottom of the pile. This does not make one painting or sculpture "better" than another but the ones that stand out are also the ones that are worth more in the market place.
If you want your music to stand out in the market place then it is up to the artist to have it the best that it can be and part of that is having someone who is trained in the mastering art have a listen to it. With their years of experience and their listening space and equipment they can turn something that is great into something that is polished and ready for the marketplace. They cannot turn a sow's ear in to a silk purse but they can take something that sounds good and make it into something that sounds incredible and marketable.
Music is not only about money but it sure comes in handy to pay for a new guitar or a new studios filled with all kinds of goodies and if you are a professional musician it is a way to put bread on the table and a roof over your head. Money is the glue that holds the music BUSINESS together. The music business is the BUSINESS of music and the people that MAKE IT are the people that can sell the most CDs and thereby make the most money for the record company and conversely for themselves.
I am not saying that everything has to have a price tag associated with it but to write music that only you think is GREAT! is just fooling yourself. Music is a communicative medium and if there is only a transmitter and no receivers then there is not going to be a lot of communications going on.
IMHO and FWIW.