With all the attention on media piracy, it’s almost as though any student holding an iPod is a member in some underground larceny ring.
However, all the hype regarding online file sharing and illegal downloads operates on an assumption that is hardly sound ““ that the material downloaded actually qualifies as art.
That is, with mass commercialism invading what lawyers call “intellectual property” and what purists call “artistic expression,” what is left of “art?”
Clearly, art has a history of commercial intrigue. Whether or not a particular artist’s work was appreciated during the course of his or her life (rather than posthumously) has little bearing on the fact that the likes of Shakespeare, Van Gogh and Dali brought in large sums of money.
However, there is a distinct difference in the way one sees art in a textbook or on the ceilings of Vatican City, and in the way one sees “Harold and Kumar go to White Castle” or listens to Death Cab for Cutie.
As it appears, today’s pop art is either too new for it to be deemed canonical, or it is too packaged, mass-produced and otherwise problematic for it to matter.
It is also clear that students fulfill two important roles in the world of art: Youth are among the most tenacious consumers of today’s art ““ and the de facto creators of tomorrow’s art.
It is time that consumers are treated to an artistically potent body of work that is neither asinine nor elitist ““ neither just the stuff of “Gimme More,” nor just the stuff of private galleries.
New York Times No. 1 bestselling thriller writer Andrew Gross, whose second novel, “The Dark Tide,” is set to be released March 18, understands this phenomenon.
He agrees that while “Every book is formulaic in the sense that it involves characters that I want to be human and likeable (or inhuman and reprehensible), the writing of every book is unique.”
Gross, who will be speaking in Westwood’s Mystery Bookstore on March 24, is the co-author of six No. 1 bestselling Jim Patterson novels ““ he knows what works in today’s literary world. He’s also keenly aware of the relationship between art and commercial viability.
“If art is something that can touch someone and draw them into your experience, then popular or genre fiction is art,” he said.
On the other hand, art as a myriad of critical acclaim seems to inherently exclude more accessible, popular art.
Gross notes that there is a “natural disdain” for works that are commercially successful, and college students know this best. After all, this is the premise for all of indie culture.
To Gross, art is “creating something lasting from nothing.”
With this mentality, one fails to understand the upheaval over the stealing of the latest “Rob & Big” episode, no matter how scintillating it may be ““ because really, how permanent is today’s pop culture? Why shouldn’t the creators of fickle popular expression be happy to take their cut and let their work fade away?
The answer lies in Gross’s advice to young writers: “There is admittedly a trade-off between creating something with lasting artistic merit and something with broader commercial value. This is almost seen as a selling out.”
However, Gross ““ who has signed with HarperCollins to write one book a year until 2015 ““ rightly argues, it is not so much a sacrifice of art as “creating a platform to reach more people.”
The platform has now been created, and recreated. YouTube, iMeem, Blogspot, Myspace Music: This generation has an unprecedented number of tools of self-promotion and artistic creation.
And yet, the platform is permeated with vapid, individualized imitations of the commercial art world.
Admittedly, there are countless true artists ““ young and old ““ attempting to succeed in a popular context. But their voices are silenced by the massive blandness of the Top 40.
Decades of children have now been socialized to see “pure art” as a contrast to the artistic work around them, but that does not mean that modern art does not exist, and it does not mean it cannot be popular.
It is Andy Warhol versus Three 6 Mafia ““ not a battle of the centuries.
It is time this generation stood up for real art, appreciated it and didn’t hate it when it hit big.
Still banging that Postal Service album? E-mail Makarechi at kmakarechi@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.