Reading your insights felt like watching the world through a kaleidoscope—fragmented yet revealing patterns within the chaos. The notion of media speaking for us instead of just to us is striking. Perhaps it’s not just about authenticity but about the resonance, like finding harmony in dissonance. What if the real magic lies in those niches where sincerity meets obscurity, forming the unsung ballads of our time?
Silent revolutions are happening elsewhere. Each person makes their own response at home. From one artist speaking to millions, we are moving to a model where artist and audience are one. In the middle is the machine.
I agree with niches getting more popular because they “speak” in place of us, but I think a piece of the puzzle is informed consent (or something like that if it even can exist). With this I mean the audience being informed of the influence placed upon them. Barbenheimer is a great example: Both movies (individually) had the potential to be what you talk about, an organic mix between what the public at large wanted to be said, and a truly mainstream popular product.
The Barbenheimer phenomenon, however, I think took away this magic, precisely because it was so clearly manufactured “upstairs” out of fear of failing movie theatre sales. No informed consent, the public was mostly guided like sheep to the “event” by paid influencers, empty media pieces, and actors working overtime to shove it down your throat on social media.
It worked as a short term solution, which is what matters to the production companies, but I hardly see either Barbie or Oppenheimer being talked about as anything other than two other expensive movies of the year 202X, with as much cultural impact as Furiosa, or the latest action comedy starring John Cena.
Hi Simon,
Reading your insights felt like watching the world through a kaleidoscope—fragmented yet revealing patterns within the chaos. The notion of media speaking for us instead of just to us is striking. Perhaps it’s not just about authenticity but about the resonance, like finding harmony in dissonance. What if the real magic lies in those niches where sincerity meets obscurity, forming the unsung ballads of our time?
Silent revolutions are happening elsewhere. Each person makes their own response at home. From one artist speaking to millions, we are moving to a model where artist and audience are one. In the middle is the machine.
Warm regards,
Eva
H! Thank you! I like that phrasing: resonance. Agree.
I agree with niches getting more popular because they “speak” in place of us, but I think a piece of the puzzle is informed consent (or something like that if it even can exist). With this I mean the audience being informed of the influence placed upon them. Barbenheimer is a great example: Both movies (individually) had the potential to be what you talk about, an organic mix between what the public at large wanted to be said, and a truly mainstream popular product.
The Barbenheimer phenomenon, however, I think took away this magic, precisely because it was so clearly manufactured “upstairs” out of fear of failing movie theatre sales. No informed consent, the public was mostly guided like sheep to the “event” by paid influencers, empty media pieces, and actors working overtime to shove it down your throat on social media.
It worked as a short term solution, which is what matters to the production companies, but I hardly see either Barbie or Oppenheimer being talked about as anything other than two other expensive movies of the year 202X, with as much cultural impact as Furiosa, or the latest action comedy starring John Cena.