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Social Media and Artistic Integrity

Suddenly, I am starting to feel that there is some sense of freedom among artists in today’s society. This I realised after I observed the trends in YouTube and other social networking channels where creative people were freely expressing themselves without any need of mediator.

Artists are always known for their eccentricity and individualism. Their ego defines their works of art and that is what people around love the most. But in between the artists and people, there were always critics and mass media who defined the image of the artists. These mediators were people benefiting from the whole game. Though not all are as bad as I am making them sound :)

But the reality is that platforms and media always had a control over making or breaking an artist and they still do. Publishers always control the content of the book and records label always control the content of the music. Because behind this whole setup is a big business model running. There is nothing good or bad about it, it’s just the way it is. But there has always been an independent group of artists revolting this whole system.

Source : informationliberation.com
For example, along the line of mainstream cinema you can always find independent films breaking the norms of main stream culture and similarly garage bands breaking the trends of posed culture by main line music industry. But look around you today, you will find that nothing can stop these artists from reaching out to people.

There are free platforms for people to share their creativity and earn from them. Hence I feel that power to control the creative work is going back to the creator rather than to distributors. But it’s not that there was never any freedom before. But it took a lot of effort for creators to control their work.

Recently, Paulo Coelho, author of alchemist, told in his interview that he sold his recent books all through twitter and facebook and without any kind of promotional activities in main media. I think that is very encouraging for artists. Also youtube is full of self made artist doing great in their walk of life. This proves that a true and genuine artist always have a place in the world.

But why did I put the title as Social Media and Integrity? Well integrity is something that is very much the only assets of artists, as far as I am concerned. So I believe that social media is giving people to think freely and express in any way they like, irrespective of what others have to say. Hence preserving their integrity.

Comments

  1. Yes, I also believe artists are eccentric by nature; but they may or may not be egotists. Example Lata, Michael Jackson are good examples.

    Also if you take the example of Asha Bhosle, she sings modern as well as classical songs equally well. Do you think this violates your definition of integrity?

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  2. Binit dai, I think ur point is valid but I am still to the belief that integrity plays a heavy role among artist.. Mentioned artist are some of the most respected people and its difficult for me point out their integrity..coz only they can tell us if they really felt happy singing all sort of songs or the only one they felt right for themselves.. 4 example one thing I know is that especially in the entertainment business.. artists are always being challenged about their integrity.. some give up while some don't..

    The question of ego is bit complicated though.. it only shows itself when challenged.. :)

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  3. Basically it boils down to how you define the keywords ego and integrity.

    My view has always been that a good artist just needs to be a perfectionist and eccentric in the sense that some amount of inventiveness for the artistic touch is implied. A perfectionist is guaranteed to produce 'best works' but people might call that 'the old school' way if the person is not original. While being only eccentric might take him/her nowhere.

    'Ego' I think is detrimental to learning. Integrity I don't know much about!

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  4. Ya it depends upon the definition of the terms. For me ego means something to do with the nature of the artist. Integrity is the values on which artist makes his decision.

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  5. Lata Mangeshkar said in an interview, that in a different world, if she did not have to had supported her family, she'd have been a classical singer, not sung for movies. Does that variable factor itself into ur definition? Or is it more absolute?

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  6. Artists should take advantage of these new technology so they can maximize their time and produce more work.

    dental web design

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  7. @Ashay yes, it kind of adds to the fact that, if there were no other responsibility in her life, she could have choosen more pure form of art and given up the lime light..

    @Joseph ya.. artists should employ technology to maximize their productivity but not compromise in integrity..

    ReplyDelete

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