In my opinion, there are two types of artists. There are people that want to make art because that’s what they have to do for their souls. Then there are the people who do things because they want everything in life that comes with success and has nothing to do with the actual art itself. The second group of people want recognition and all eyes on them.
To me, the second group of people are not real artists. They are con artists. They’re businesspeople who are using the idea of “being an artist” merely as a backdrop to what their true desires are. You can see it in how they promote themselves: these types of people beg endlessly for you to like, subscribe to, and share their work at all costs. They all robotically say the same things at the beginnings and endings of their videos because they have no personalities: they’re just following a script they think they have to follow because that will get them noticed. Anyone that has to ask you to watch their YouTube channel is automatically not good, because if their content was any good they would not need to promote it. That type of person makes me sick, and if it were up to me they’d all be shipped to a secret island somewhere and dropped off forever to leave the rest of us in peace.
I hate the way these types of people have taken over almost every single art form, and diluted it and made it worse. I mean, even look at stand-up comedy: there is now an unwritten rule that every single comedian must have an Instagram profile, where they must post videos with captions of everything they do. It’s the most cookie cutter shit, and 99% of people are playing into it. If you don’t post videos of yourself doing what everyone else does, how will anybody know you’re a comic? The same goes for other “artist” types: musicians, YouTubers, etc. They all engage in behaviour completely dichotomous to how an artist should create. Personally, I don’t want my artists to post things pathetically promoting themselves, I just want them to make shit and put it into the world. If it’s any good I’ll hear about it sooner or later.
In a perfect world, this is how I think art should work: a person makes something, makes it available, and doesn’t speak about it too much. Fans of said product should alarm other potential fans about what a great product they’ve found, and the promotion should be done organically.
I’m not just saying this because I’m an unknown and unpopular outsider artist, but I personally do not think something that is popular is conducive to it being a thing of high quality. For example, there are women I know that consider themselves singers and dancers, and they are always constantly promoting themselves like their lives depend on the validation. Some of their videos get thousands of views, and on the surface it appears as though they are successful, but it’s mostly just their friends and family cheering them on and it’s all a big illusory jack off. I’ve even heard people speaking poorly of their work behind their backs. Some of their biggest supporters online are also some of their most vocal haters in the real world: none of it is real. That’s why I’ve personally set up my writing and artistic work in general to be kind of hard to find. I want it so that only the few people that like it read it, even if it’s only like 5 people. Of course, I am not the right one in this scenario, and I’m doing myself a big disservice by not promoting like an insane person, but the other way of doing things kind of makes me sick.
I’m not even trying to be funny there either: the thought of someone begging someone to watch their video genuinely makes me physically uncomfortable in the stomach. It’s a toxic way to live. But we’re now in an era where every artist must also be a ruthless businessperson as well, otherwise they’re not taken seriously. I know I’m wrong and promotion is good, but I also feel that it should not be something a real artist does. It looks incredibly needy and sad to have to work on something and then have to beg people to pay attention to it. I’d rather just expend all my effort into the next artistic project. In an ideal world I wish a publishing company could just give me a million dollars, leave me alone, and then I’d give them a novel when I’m ready after about 2 months.
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