Why great art takes time (As it should)

The immense anticipation that builds in between that season finale that ended on a cliffhanger, listening to old albums from your favourite artist as you wait for a sign of a new project. The disappointment in hearing the release date is being delayed another 6 months.

It is understandable as fans and consumers of art to develop a sense of frustration when faced with these common scenarios, however it is also important to recognise the time, effort and emotional weight that is required to produce works of substance. 

In the era of digital and streaming the need for content is paramount in order for large platforms to retain attention thus creating an incentive that encourages creators and artists to constantly create with the reward of maintaining relevance. However this practice comes at a cost for both creators and audience as, with this increase in demand puts pressure on artists to create work with an increasingly shortening turnover rate and has led to the devaluation of art; lack of substance and a prevailing sense of content over everything. Creating a cycle of lacklustre work that fails to hold the attention of its intended audience creating a need to produce more work in order to stay in the collective consciousness. 

When maintaining a sense of relevance becomes the arbiter of success, quality and substance take a back seat to shallow and generic ideas, this can be felt in the music industry as placating to the whims of streaming platforms has led some artists to forego artistic direction instead opting to create work optimised for algorithmic favorability. We have seen this in the trend of shorter songs, lengthy albums composed of mostly filler music and an annual schedule of album releases. Cluadia Dragone perfectly captures this shift in music as she describes how many artists

“digitally release music for listeners to consume, putting out albums lacking emotional intensity in lyrics, quality and thoughtful scope, while the ‘old-school’ version of artists being performers, storytellers, the mouthpiece for people to feel heard and represented is slowly dying along with the value of albums themselves.”

It can be hard as someone who is heavily embedded in the digital space and truly believes that technology can be a great equaliser in providing artists a way to get their work seen by many, as well as recognise the amazing, passion filled work that exists today in this digital space.

Despite this it is impossible to ignore the trends and not highlight the incentives that have created this new paradigm. The current digital landscape may feel incredibly democratised in that anyone can seemingly create and upload work, but we must consider the fact that the platforms with the most reach are limited to a few mega corporations and artists in order to exist on these platforms must adhere to their core business model, Attention. Not art, not creativity, not authenticity or whatever marketing buzzword is trending. Attention and watch time are the defining models in which these platforms operate. 

The term “crunch” is often associated with animators and game developers to describe

“compulsory overtime during the development of a game. Crunch is common in the industry and can lead to work weeks of 65–80 hours for extended periods of time, often uncompensated beyond the normal working hours.[1] It is often used as a way to cut the costs of game development, a labour-intensive endeavour” (Wikipedia)

This demand for quality and substance without allowing the breadth of time needed to create such work in a healthy and sustainable way breads this type of crunch culture. 

Art and creations of passion have existed before the digital age and will continue to do so after. It takes innovation and creative minds to create outside of the confines of the norm. For creatives today to build sustainable careers that allow for longevity over fleeting relevance I believe it is evermore essential that true connection between artist and audience is cultivated through works that are of depth and substance.

This allows for the art to be valued more by the consumer giving space for more artists to fan tailored platforms such as Bandcamp, Serenade and Medallion providing more options for artists to operate in.

In addition artists must find new ways to cultivate genuine connection with fans that speak to their unique perspective. We are seeing this steady shift in the industry, a focus on what has been deemed “superfans”, which is good yet I believe for artists, especially those who are independent, it is important to recognise that this shift directly positions you in control over the value of your work and the connection with your fans. 

For consumers and fans of creative work, I believe that the concept of constant consumption of content is over and that is a good thing. We can now take a slower approach to art consumption that is deeper and more substantively nourishing.

This isn't a return to the old ways of creation and fan engagement but a new frontier in the value we place on creativity. A change in power from faceless algorithms and mega corporations that act as middle men to the art and creatives that actually produce the work we love. 

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Photos from: “Sony, Fenty and Amazon Prime’s Invincible”