craftless culture
Posted by craftlessculture on 3 March 2008
What exactly does the title of my blog mean?
I refer to Britney Spears as an example. Put into show business at an early age, this recent Rolling Stone article, which made headlines, details her current life. While she certainly had talent as a dancer, singer and actress even (she was good on SNL.. admit it!) there is no content to her work. At least Madonna had some sort of message or provocative intent to what she was doing in the 80s, taking her cue from David Bowie (whom she inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). With Britney, the message is “buy this marketed product.” She became famous because for her family, being rich is better than being poor. But not because she has anything to say. Her craft is without content.
When she appeared in Fahrenheit 9/11, she was set up to seem ditzy for endorsing George W. Bush. But why do people even care what she has to say? Is she a political scientist? What is she an expert in? She is an expert in marketing herself. She is an expert in using her looks and her media savvy to become rich. This is what we celebrate in our culture. What does she contribute? She may not actually perform acts of sex for money, but she acts like a prostitute for music promoters and corporations nonetheless. (Then again, in a freemarket economy, aren’t we all prostitutes?) When content is removed from art, the artist becomes a prostitute. Entertainment for the sake of evoking simple emotion like joy is not a bad thing, but it must embrace what it is and be honest about it. Everything she does is to make money for someone else and hopefully herself (an accurate depiction of most all artists actually, but that’s another post). Profit and success in the freemarket, as this article shows, does not liberate us from our family issues or from our demons. (Hip hop artists and punk rock success stories are other examples of this). When we celebrate craft development rather than profit-driven art which is the equivalent of cotton candy, then we create the meaninglessness that allows people to be treated like a prop in order to sell an album. Professional wrestling becomes as respected as real wrestling. And Britney Spears is more famous than Aimee Mann or Patty Griffin.
Art is not about craft development anymore, it’s about winning the lottery.
