anything goes with emma chamberlain - is creativity dead? [video]

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

[video available on Spotify] i’ve been asking myself for a long time, have all creative things been done before? has every piece of clothing been created? has every movie been made? has every song been written? humans have been expressing themselves creatively for thousands of years and part of me is starting to wonder if we’ve hit our limit. have we created everything that’s possible to be created? i know for a fact there are incredible creatives today, but as a whole, it seems like a lot of what’s being produced on a mainstream level is not up to the standard that mainstream creativity used to meet. now, I also need to mention that everything i’m about to say could be complete bullshit. When in doubt, remember that everything i say is a hypothesis and i’m so open to other opinions and people telling me i'm wrong. let’s get into it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ah, hello. I've been asking myself for a long time. Have all creative things been done before? Has every piece of clothing been created? Has every clothing trend been worn before? Has every movie been made? Has every song been written? Has every piece of art been painted, obviously nothing can

ever be exactly replicated again in the creative sphere, right? Somebody could exactly copy a painting, but it would still never be the same painting as the original painting. But humans have been expressing themselves creatively for hundreds of years. And part of me is starting to wonder if we've hit our limit. Have we just created everything that's possible to be created? Is there anything we have yet to discover in these creative categories? Or is something else going on? Okay, before we start getting too deep into this, everybody hold your horses. Because before I continue, I have to make a few statements. I don't want this to get lost in this conversation because this is really important. There truly are incredible creative people today.

And I'm going to be talking negatively about all of these different categories. But the thing I want you to remember is that I'm not talking about everyone in these categories. But rather, I'm talking about the overall feeling about these categories, because like you can't look at the category of, say, film and think of it on an individual level, on a movie-to-movie basis, because it's like impossible to even comprehend that. So instead, for the sake of this conversation, I'm looking at the average quality overall of what's being

produced. If you were to put all of the music that's being created today into a pot and mix it up, how good is it? What would the quality of that be? Versus, you know, taking all the music from the 80s, putting it in a pot, mixing it up, and seeing what quality it is. Now I also need to mention this. Everything that I am about to say could be complete bullshit and could be a false sort of perception of today's mainstream creative output based on the fact that I'm here living

it and the fact that we're all here right now living it and we're seeing things as they come out, et cetera. Whereas when you look in retrospect at creative output of the past, you know, a lot of times we're just seeing the best of the best. We're not seeing the shitty movies that came out, the shitty songs that came out, because those kind of disappeared into the abyss of the past and stayed there. They didn't stand the test of time. They didn't make it into our conversations of today. And that could be the reasoning for all of this. But the reason why I'm still going to talk about this today

is because I'm not fully convinced that that's the case. And I think the main reason for that is because of the internet. Okay. The internet has changed our society in so many ways. It's shifted our priorities. It's altered our attention spans. It's changed the way that we're able to be famous in creative industries. And it's sped up the cycle for trends. And I think that that could be part of the reason why people are so dissatisfied today with the creative output on a mainstream level. When in doubt, remember that everything I say

is a hypothesis. And I'm so open to other opinions. I'm so open to people telling me, am I your fucking wrong, bitch? You got this all wrong, babe, you're dumb. I'm open to that. Like I'm excited about that. And that's why I love having these conversations

is because I don't know. I just, I like to theorize about things. And even more than that, I love being told that I'm wrong and being given another analysis of a given situation. So anyway, okay, now let's get into it. I'm gonna shut up now. Let's just get started.

There's definitely something going on in these different creative categories, fashion, film, music, and art, because you talk to almost anyone about these categories and everyone pretty much says the same thing. Oh, you know, fashion was so much better in the 60s and 70s. Film was so much better in the 90s. Music was so much better in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s.

Art was so much better in the 20s, you know, whatever. The conversation is overwhelmingly insulting to contemporary creativity. And to be honest, on a personal level, I agree. My favorite fashion trends are from 60s, 70s, 90s. My favorite movies are from the early 2000s. My favorite music is from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and early 2010s, maybe. My favorite art is from a hundred years ago. There's some modern music that I love. There's some modern movies that I love. There are some modern artists that I think are incredible.

There are actually modern clothing trends, I don't know. But overwhelmingly, I'm excited more by these creative creations from the past. I'm not the only one that feels this way. And I feel like this shift happened within the past 15 years. Now I want to talk about today why this is. Why is it that it's so rare to find true creative expression that's unique and fresh and exciting in 2023? Why is it so rare. Why is it less celebrated as well? Why is it that true creativity is not getting the same financial backing as the sort of disposable shit that's just coming out now? Why is that? So first, let's talk about the theory that everything has been done before. I think the internet that everything has been done before. I think the internet is definitely responsible for this feeling of staleness in these creative categories.

Because the internet allows us to see anything from anywhere all the time. We're seeing infinite different forms of creative expression every day, whether it's on our Instagram Explorer page or it's on TikTok or it's on YouTube. We're being bombarded on a daily basis in a level that we've never experienced before in history. You know, seeing people's creative expression used to be more of a novelty prior to the internet because the only way that creativity could be spread in mass was if it went through the industry first, you know, fashion magazines were responsible for spreading fashion trends. You had to go to a gallery to see art.

You had to look at an art book to see art. You had to go to the movie theater to see a movie. Television shows were not as easily accessible. In order for music to get pushed into the mainstream, it needed to go through the radio. The internet has allowed us to see so much creative expression all the time that it's easy to start to feel like everything's been done

before because we are so overstimulated by the amount of creative expression that we're seeing that it's almost impossible to try to come up with something that you haven't already seen at some point online. You know, for example, when I'm going to get dressed in the morning, if I made a decision in my head, hey, you know what, I want to do something different today. Do something I haven't ever really seen before.

That would be an incredible challenge because the likelihood that I've seen any given combination of clothing paired together on Instagram before is high. I've seen so many different creative expressions of fashion online over the past few years that I've been on Instagram and social media in general that it's so hard to think outside of the box at this point or try to do something that hasn't already been done before because I feel like I've already seen everything on the internet. And to be honest, I'm going through my own little fashion confusion stage, if you will, on a personal level, because I just feel like there's nothing that hasn't been done

before. And that's what excites me about fashion is like trying something new, trying something weird, trying something different. But I don't even know what to do because I feel like everything's been done before. So I don't really feel very inspired whether or not it's true that everything's been done before. Whether or not that's true, everything's been done before, whether or not that's true, I think a lot of people are feeling that. What I've noticed is that in these creative categories, a lot of people are starting to

create our music fashion, movies, etc. for shock value or for virality rather than creative integrity. I think so many creative people are feeling discouraged by this feeling that everything's been done before. And so as a result, they're like, well, if I can't come up with something that's interesting and fresh and new, then I'm just going to throw everything into the bin and I'm just going to create something that I know will go viral, will gain a lot of attention and a short amount of time, will probably make a lot of money.

You know, instead of creating something with creative integrity and something that is innovative and interesting and artistic and beautiful and thought provoking and never been done before, you know. I think maybe what's going on today is that quality of a project doesn't mean quality of a project doesn't mean money anymore. And I think prior to today, quality of a project meant money. You know, there was a motivation to create high quality, creative output because that had value in the industry. You know, that made money in the industry. Whereas now, virality of a project means money. Shock value of a project means money. Because humans have a shorter attention span now. It takes a lot more to emotionally, mentally stimulate us.

Because, again, as I mentioned earlier, we see so much creative output on a daily basis on the internet that in order to catch our attention nowadays, I think things need to be shocking. They need to be interesting. They can't be subdued and less in our face. They need to be in our face, loud, shocking, bold in order to get our attention and get us to pay attention to said creative project.

Recently, I think creative industries have become infiltrated by people who are manipulating the industry for money. Because obviously there's a lot of money in these creative categories. You know, there's a lot of money in fashion, there's a lot of money in music, there's a lot of money in art, and there's a lot of money in film and movies. And I think a lot of people have started to realize that and say, hmm, how can I get in there? Even if I don't have a particular talent in these areas, how can I get in there? And I think that, you know, there are some people who are approaching these creative categories with money in mind, and that's it. You know, how can I make the most money in these creative categories? rather than how can I create something that is raising the bar in these categories that's innovating in these categories that's creating something that's truly of value to humanity which sounds ridiculous but it's true.

I think these industries have kind of become corrupted by people who are just trying to succeed for money, not for their love of creativity. It's really unfortunate. The thing about high quality creative output is that high quality creativity doesn't beg for your attention. It's not loud. It tends to be quieter and more subtle, and that's what's so magical about it. It also takes a lot more time and consideration in order to be appreciated. For example, I remember when I was growing up

My dad who I would say is a connoisseur of all things creative. He's a very creative man you know, he is obsessed with music, obsessed with art, obsessed with clothes and he's obsessed with movies like he's obsessed with all those things. He has incredibly good taste and I remember Growing up he would show me things. He would show me a fashion trend. He would show me a movie. He would show me a song He would show me a piece of art. He would show me something and at first I would look at it and say, I don't know and I wouldn't get it at first But then it would stick in my mind and I would think about it again and then maybe I'd return to it like a week later. I'd listen to the song again. I'd look at the piece of art again. I'd look at the piece of clothing

again. I would watch the movie again and then I would start to get it and then a year later I would have a realization and be like, wait a minute, that shit is fucking good. And then five years later, I'd be like, holy shit, that shit is good. And it's a process, things that are truly creatively innovative, challenge your perception of reality, challenge what you think is good and bad, challenge everything in a way. And it's complicated. It's complicated. It's not easy to understand. It's something that you almost have to grow alongside with in order to eventually understand it and fully be able to appreciate it.

And that's what's so magical about music art fashion of the past is that it had that effect. Not all of it, right? There are fashion trends, music trends, blah, blah, blah, blah, in the past that were shit. Don't get me wrong. But there's a lot that perfectly represent what I'm saying here, where they're complicated, they're weird,

they're first of their kind, and they challenge you in a way. And they weirdly help you grow as a person. They help your identity sort of form because they open up a new corner of your mind that you'd never seen before. Like, I remember the first time I heard a David Bowie song. I was like, this is so bad and gross and weird. I was probably 10.

My dad played David Bowie for me. I was like, this sucks. Five years later, I heard it again in my art class in high school. And I was like, wait a minute. This shit is so good. And the reason why I hated it when I was 10 years old was because it was complicated.

Like the way that the song was created was not what I was used to, you know? The way that David Bowie sings is unlike what I was listening to at the time. The way it sort of feels jagged and sharp, the way that it's written, or the way that he writes in general, was not something that came naturally to me. It was not something that was easy for me to digest. It took me five years to digest it.

But then once I did, it was inspiring to me. You know, it kind of made me want to think outside the box in a way. And growing to appreciate something like David Bowie, someone like David Bowie, help me open my mind in a way. Overall, there's a feeling of fatigue, there's a lack of excitement, there's a lack of intrigue, and there's a violent level of oversaturation in all these categories. Most of the things that are heavily pushed to us, in the media or whatever,

feels kind of cheap and overdone. Okay, so now let's get into the nitty gritty of it, right? I wanna discuss the impacts on these creative categories as a result of the feeling that everything's been done before. First let's talk about fashion. The first thing I've noticed is on the runway. Okay, now runway fashion, couture fashion, it tends to be

more of an artistic expression than an actual trend report for what's going to be seen on the streets, but it's a huge part of the fashion world, so we must discuss it. I've noticed two things, and I might be wrong, so please feel free to say, I'm a year wrong, this is just my hypothesis and my observation, so take it with a grain of salt.

But number one, you have brands playing it so safe, and just doing the same thing over and over again. Okay. You know, you see certain brands just putting out the same exact vibe every single season and nothing is changing, nothing is evolving, nothing feels fresh and nothing feels different. It just feels the exact same. And people are getting fatigued and bored and they're like, I can't even look at this brand anymore

because they're just so fucking boring at this point. I can't even watch this runway show anymore. It's actually like, it's nails on a chalkboard watching the show because it's so boring. I've seen this a thousand times from this brand. I can't see it again. That's one thing that we're seeing in runway fashion. But then another thing I feel like we're seeing

is breaking all of the laws, if you will, that the fashion world has followed for years ever since runway shows started happening. And you're seeing a complete rejection of all of the fashion rules, you know, for example, I would say runway shows have always been classy and elevated and chic, you know? But you see some brands leaning into doing weird shit,

like one runway comes to mind where the whole runway was like mud. And they were just walking through mud. That's an example of, you know, going against the status quo of fashion shows. But then you also see things coming out on the runway that are just straight up so weird and so bizarre, like more weird and more bizarre than anything we've ever seen in the past. Because don't get me wrong, runway shows have always had sort of a weird artistic flair to them compared to what we see on the street. But I think even more now, we're seeing some stuff that's like even weirder than we ever

could have comprehended before. Completely unwearable, completely ridiculous at times. Actually I'd use the word ridiculous. I went to a fashion show a few months ago where half the stuff in the collection was like so ridiculous and weird. I actually, I loved it. I found it interesting and fascinating and fun,

but it was so weird and so unwearable. It was like hilarious. It was almost like a joke, you know? It's obviously almost impossible to sort of include all types of runway shows into two categories, but I'd say the two main categories that I'm seeing are number one, brands not sure what direction to go next because they feel like everything's been done before, what

other direction is there to go. So they're just playing it safe and doing what they've been doing for God knows how long. And then on the other hand, you see some brands completely trying to get weird, weird in a whole new way that we've never seen before in order to try to stand out and do something that hasn't been done before. And maybe for good reason, question mark, but we don't know yet. Maybe we'll look back in 30 years at the show that was in a muddy room and be like,

wow, that was really genius. I also think that there are brands that are lightly innovating on the runway and kind of changing it up a little bit and coming out with pieces that are beautiful and stuff like that that are maybe in evolution for their own sort of brand identity, but that's not really fascinating. Shut up.

I actually feel bad for saying shut up. It was one of my parents calling me, and I love my parents. So now I feel bad. I love you, mom and dad. I did not mean to say shut up. I'll call you later. Anyway, I've been noticing a lot of people

who are into fashion, particularly. Leaning into a sort of maximalism type of thing, you know, mixing a lot of colors and patterns, wearing like a western belt with classy, preppy New England style tennis skirt and button up top with a backwards baseball cap that says Las Vegas on it. Like you're seeing people going to the extremes, mixing and matching things that make no sense together or necessarily. And by the way, that's not an insult saying that they make no sense together is not me saying that them wanting to pair these things together are wrong or something. Just saying that if you look

at say the origins of each of these fashion trends, putting them together doesn't make sense. But I do think that the thing about fashion is that, you know, fashion is sort of the art of using clothes to sort of tell a story about yourself. Clothing evokes a feeling, it evokes an attitude, it evokes a side of you. And I think this sort of obsession with maximalism is interesting because it sort of rejects all of that. You know, people just mixing and matching a bunch of things together in an attempt to create something that's never been worn before, I think can be cool and can be a form of self-expression in a way, but can also kind of lack direction. And I'm reading it as people who are into fashion feeling like they don't know how to do

something new and different and innovative. So they're just kind of throwing as many things together that don't make sense together as possible in order to create something that's never been done before. But what lacks there is the storytelling that I think is so exciting about fashion. I've also noticed with fashion that there's sort of an obsession with viral clothing pieces, like a few years ago, two or three maybe, there was this green dress that went so viral. People know it today as the house of sunny dress

because the brand that made it was house of sunny. And it was this green dress, kind of a tank top silhouette on the top half, but it was a long dress, went down to sort of mid calf ankle area. It was green, it had green swirls on it, and everybody became obsessed with it. I went viral, and everybody bought it, okay? And then by the time everybody got it in the mail, everyone was like, if I see this dress one more time, I'm gonna freak out.

It lost all of its allure within the span of a month. Another viral clothing example would be one that's happening right now as I'm recording this and it's this weird pair of red boots. I think they're called like the mischief boots. Wait. Yeah, okay, so they're called the mischief big red boot. Mm-hmm.

They look like a cartoon character style boot. I actually think they're kind of fun. I don't hate them, to be honest. They're silly for sure, but I'm kind of obsessed with them. I'm not gonna buy them, ever, but I get it. But mark my words, you know, these big red boots that everybody's obsessed with right now. You know, give it a month, everybody's gonna be like,

those big red boots are fucking stupid. If I ever see them again, I'm gonna burn my eyeballs out. So we also are seeing this influx of fast fashion in order for people to keep up with the trends, because the trend cycles move so fast, because of the internet and because our attention spans are so short. But that also speaks to the larger issue, which is that we cannot stay excited about a clothing

trend for more than a month. I swear to God, we can't. And I think the industry of fashion knows this about us now. And so I think they're sort of scrambling to figure out how to cater to us. The last impact on fashion that I've seen is that there isn't necessarily a lot of innovation and if when there is innovation, it's like bizarre, you know, it's like the big red boots that I just talked about, you know more of a viral moment because Everything else that we're seeing coming and going in the trend cycles are things that have existed for that we're seeing coming and going in the trend cycles are things that have existed for 100 years sometimes.

You know, like, for example, sweater vests were all the rage. Sweater vests have been around since probably the 20s, probably even before that. I don't know when sweater vests were invented, but they've been around forever. You know, loafers. We're seeing a lot of trend cycles repeating instead of us creating our new thing. But also then again, we might look back in 50 years, 100 years at the 2020s and say, they kind of had their own thing going.

And maybe we just can't see it right now. So this is just my observation, but again, like I don't know for sure. Next, let's talk about the impact on film, TV, and movies. I've noticed a lot of people are so disappointed with movies and TV recently, and I keep hearing stories about movies just bombing in the box office, and by the way I don't really know what that even means. I just know that that means the movie didn't do good and didn't make a lot of money. That's all I know.

But I keep hearing about these sorts of failures in the movie and TV industry. And that's fascinating to me. But I've never been particularly drawn to catching up on the newest TV show, the newest movie, because I usually end up disappointed. And it's been that way since I was a teenager. I've just never been that excited about what's hot and coming out because historically, I've always been disappointed. So it's interesting to see now that everybody feels this way because I've been feeling

this way for years and years and years, but now everybody's sort of feeling this way. And I think there's a lot of reasons for this. Number one, I think a lot of movie and film companies are focused on creating quantity over quality. You know, to go back to what I was saying about fashion, our attention spans are so short. We're so bored of everything, we need to be overstimulated in order to feel stimulated, if that makes sense. And so, you know, movie and TV companies, a lot of them are pushing out movies left and right, TV shows, left and right to satisfy our short attention spans and our hunger to constantly have something new to watch. But the problem with that is that all creative endeavors take time. It takes time to write a complex and genius movie. It could take 10 years to create and write a movie. That's really good.

It could take 20 years. Creativity takes so much time. And the pressure that the movie in TV industry is feeling is due to our short attention spans in the hunger to constantly have something new to watch. They're feeling this pressure, and they're like, we don't have time to develop genius concepts. We just don't have time because the people are going to get

bored and they need more. And they'll watch anything as long as it's new. So we just need to come out with something that's new and shiny. And it doesn't matter if it's mediocre at best. And so I think that that's why it's so rare that we see like a good new TV show come out, a good new movie come out because this stuff takes time. You know, this stuff takes so much time and it's unrealistic to expect, you know,

the creatives behind a movie or a TV show to constantly be pumping out these genius ideas. You know, it's so hard to come up with something new. Like, reflect inward on yourself right now. Imagine having to come up with an innovative concept for a TV show or a movie. Hello, so fucking hard. It would be a hard thing to do over the course of five years. But imagine these movie studios, TV studios, are giving their writers six months to come up with a story and say, you've got

to come up with something in six months. And then after that, six months is up and you have a story for us that we can turn into a movie or TV show. Okay, now you have to come up with another one and you have three months to do the next one. It's like they're speeding it up so much that creativity is being stifled by this sort of time limit. And I didn't really mention this in regards to fashion, but I think it's the same thing with fashion.

In fact, I also think music struggles with this as well, but we're not talking about music yet, so we'll get there. But this sort of pressure to have a quick turnaround with these creative endeavors is detrimental, truly, to these industries. I think another thing that's making us bored of TV and movies is this sort of reuse of a generic storyline over and over again. You know, I do this funny thing sometimes when I'm watching TV shows or movies with people where I'll start to just guess what I think is gonna happen next

when I'm watching a TV show or a movie. Like, okay, three, two, one, something's gonna jump out of that closet. Oh, boom, something jumped out of that closet. Okay, three, two, one, they're gonna go in for their first kiss, but then something funny is gonna happen and they're not gonna be able to, you know, something's gonna get in the way.

Oh, look what just happened, you know, we're all getting to a point where we can predict what's going to happen in movie and TV shows because they're all following the same general structure of a storyline. There's nothing new to see. It's so rare that you see someone make a movie or make a TV show that is completely unexpected in the way that the story unfolds. You know, and I think

it's rare because it's more challenging. It's more challenging to go against the grain because number one, it's less reliable. so you might have less financial backing from large companies if you're trying to go against the grain. And number two, it just takes a lot more time to develop a concept that's polar opposite to what's out there today, because you have to create something from scratch in a way, rather than following this basic storyline, plot line that's already been done a thousand times, it's just so much easier to follow that. Last issue with film and movies is product placements. I remember a few months back, a movie came out, and I remember seeing all of our social media,

everybody complaining like, this is just one big advertisement. Like the entire movie is just, oh, now they're holding up a bottle of smart water. Oh, now they're holding up a bag of Doritos. Oh, now they're holding it, you know, and it was like, the whole movie was one big advertisement. And the thing about advertising is that, don't get me wrong, to a certain extent,

you know, I think it's necessary in these industries to utilize advertising in a way that makes sense because there's just a lot of money there and I understand that but I also think that people are getting kind of lazy with how they integrate brands and product placements into TV shows and movies because it's just easier to be lazy. It takes a lot of thought and creativity to figure out a way to sort of integrate a product into a TV show or a movie in a way that feels organic and that doesn't feel like an advertisement. But I think some movie TV companies have just sold their soul a little bit and been like,

you know what, I don't have the time or the energy to figure out how to organically integrate this product into my TV show or movie. So I'm just going to shove it in there, make it look obvious, and just say, fuck it, and get my check and run. Let's move on to music. So I think the music industry actually might struggle the most with creative time restraints. Obviously, I already talked about how it plays a role in movies TV in fashion, but upon thinking about it right now, I actually think the music industry suffers the most from this. I think the reason for that is is that

musicians feel so much pressure as an individual to be constantly producing new music because their fans are begging for it at all times. And instead of fans begging a movie or TV company or a fashion brand, which are companies, not people, right? With music, people are begging the musician, the band, the music group as individuals. There's like a demand that's directed straight at one person or one small group of people, rather than begging a whole company.

And I think that's why the music industry suffers the most, is because musicians are expected to be constantly putting out new music. And again, as I said, nothing stifles creativity more than a deadline. Nothing ruins a creative person more than a deadline. It's so hard to create a meaningful piece of music in a time restraint.

The thing about good music is that good music comes from the songwriters' soul. That's what makes you connect with music. You know, the sound of the song comes from the musician's soul, the lyrics come from a musician's soul, and that's when you feel the song. You're like, fuck, I feel it in my bones because this came from somebody's soul. You know what I'm saying?

It's like something you can't explain, but something you can only feel. You can feel when a song came from someone's soul. Even if the subject matter of the song is not super deep, even if it's like a more upbeat song, it doesn't matter. There's something about music where you can tell when it's coming from someone's soul and when it's not. And you might enjoy a song that's not coming from a musician's soul. you might enjoy it, but it won't stick with you for as long. It's disposable in a way. The thing is creating music that comes from your soul requires so much self-reflection. It requires so much time to develop yourself as a person, to understand yourself as a person to understand yourself as a person, to understand your view on

the world as a whole, you need to understand yourself on a whole nother level, possibly more than the average person, because you need to figure out a way to take everything about you and turn it into a song in some way. And you need to have a keen understanding of the world around you in order to write about it in a way that connects with others. So the problem is if you're forcing a musician or a band to be constantly coming out with music, they're not going to have time to do that self-reflection, to do that work on themselves in order to have these sorts of epiphanies that cause them to write an incredible song.

This rush to keep going, going, producing, producing, producing just lowers the quality and the depth of music in a lot of ways, I think. And then, you know, the artists who do take their time, who take years off in between dropping albums or even dropping singles, whatever, they get forgotten or they never get enough notoriety because the industry doesn't value them because they're not money making machines like the people who are coming out with surface level pop hits on a monthly basis, whatever, or even a buy yearly basis. I mean, making music takes so much time. I hear interviews with artists that I love and they're like, it took me four years to write this album.

You know what I'm saying? That takes so fucking long. So the people who take their time and allow themselves to have the proper creative process might end up getting underappreciated in the industry in some ways, or sort of forgotten, or their career never quite picks up because, again, they're not a money-making machine. That's not to say that this is always the case.

I can think of a few artists who are huge, super famous, super successful, makes so much money, are highly valued in the industry, who put out an album every five years. But I would say that that's much more rare. I don't know. I've also noticed with music that there's this influx in newer artists trying to get famous on social media by writing songs that are shocking, viral, worthy, super mega trendy, you know, not timeless, trendy by using trendy words, trendy verbiage, you know, just trying to go viral for all the wrong reasons, maybe, shall I say, dare I say.

And sometimes it works. And the problem is, because it sometimes works, now it's becoming a norm that artists are trying to go viral on social media with their music. But in order to go viral, you might have to sacrifice some creative integrity because it's very rare that something goes viral just because it's really fucking good. A lot of times it goes viral because it's shocking or it's ridiculous, et cetera.

I don't know, overall, I just think a lot of pop music, lacks depth. Music is also super overly produced, which makes it feel a lot less personal. It feels so sterile when you're listening to it, it just sounds perfect. You can't hear the strumming of the guitar anymore, a lot of times.

You can't hear the hitting of the drums and the echo that comes with it. It just all sounds so produced and so perfect and so clean. Instead of having this sort of homemade feel, which I think was something that made music so much more charming in the past, was the fact that it sounded like real people were making it. It didn't sound like a computer generated, you know, bundle of sounds. Okay, you guys. Oh my god, I'm like getting tired because I'm ranting. Whenever I like rant about something, I get so exhausted, like I'm all tense and shit.

I'm taking like a chapstick coffee break real quick. Okay. Last but not least, let's talk about art. Art is an interesting one. Okay. Last but not least, let's talk about art. Art is an interesting one. Okay. It is interesting. When I'm talking about art, I'm talking about what you'd see in a museum. You know, I'm talking about paintings, sculptures, etc. I think the first thing that we're seeing is a lot of copying the classics. People sort of choosing an era of art from the past and just doing that today. But I also think that people copying the classics is necessary to a certain extent, you know? But on the other hand, you have people who aren't copying the classics, who are going a whole new direction, right?

Doing something that is completely avant-garde and weird. But to me, it usually just looks like laziness with a huge price tag. Now listen, that might sound really mean and really insulting, but I have to talk about this one time that I went to this art event in Los Angeles. And it was the first time I was in the presence of contemporary art that was highly priced, you know. I think a lot of contemporary art that has a large price tag is lazy. And I saw it firsthand at this LA art event, okay.

It was like the type of shit that we make jokes about, you know, like a big plain white canvas with like a tiny red dot on it, $2 million. A drawing that looks like it was done by a seven year old, $4 million. Something completely abstract that makes you feel nothing. Okay, like it doesn't even have any sort of like, doesn't evoke any feeling whatsoever. Because something so abstract that's just like splatters and lines and shit, And it's like really?

There's nothing here. And you know what, people are standing back and looking at it and being like, this makes me feel like when I had a nightmare, when I have a nightmare, but then I wake up in the middle of the night and then I go to the bathroom and I poop a little bit and I'm like,

I've never pooped at midnight, this is weird. I was poop early in the morning, it's weird that I'm pooping at midnight and then I'm like, wait, I've never pooped at midnight. This is weird. I was poop early in the morning. It's weird that I'm pooping at midnight and then I go back to bed and I have the best sleep of my life. Like trying to kind of turn something that's nothing into something to try to seem sort of like they have unlocked this understanding of art that nobody else has.

It's this whole pretentious gross situation that we're seeing that is ridiculous. And it completely goes against all of the principles that make art such a beautiful thing. I'm not saying that all artists like this. I'm like a lover of art. Okay, I love art. You know, I think that there are artists today who are incredible, who are making pieces that evoke emotions, etc. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but it's a lot less common at this point I will say for sure. It's very rare nowadays that I see art that evokes a feeling in me, whereas when I go into an old museum and there's

paintings, you know, plastered all over the walls, hundreds of paintings, and I feel like there's more soul in these paintings. And I know that somebody might say to me, well, Emma, it's because that's a collection that's curated of like some of the best pieces of the time, fair enough, but I don't know. I think that art used to be a lot more genuine, maybe. And maybe I'm wrong. I should probably do more research on art history before I start talking about this, because I'm just guessing,

but I've just noticed nowadays that when it comes to art, you know, there's a lot of manipulation going on. Okay. Especially in the, you know, expensive contemporary art industry of it all. You know, you're seeing a lot of people slapping something together that's kind of lazy, but then them trying to tell a story about it that makes you think that they know something about art and about the world that you don't. When in reality, I would argue that there's some con artistry going on here. People are sort of taking advantage of the fact that not everybody is a creative person.

You know, not everybody is a creative person who wants to make art. Not everybody understands that sort of neuro pathway, right? Not everybody has that capability. And I think there are some people out there who are really smart and who know that and who are like, you know what, I'm gonna pretend to be in our autistic genius. I'm gonna do something that takes me, you know, medium to low effort.

And then I'm gonna put a $4 million price tag on it. And kind of pretend to be in artistic genius so that people who are rich and want to have expensive art believe that I'm a genius and that they just don't understand it and then they'll fall for my con artistry by this $4 million dollar painting thinking it means something and thinking that they're getting in on some sort of artistic genius. When in reality, it's all a sort of con. This might, this honestly, this could have been happening for God knows how long. This could be something that is undeniably a part of the art industry of it all.

But I just have noticed that more recently, a sense of laziness in art. But I really, really must clarify that that is not all artists. There are artists today who are making the most incredible paintings that truly, truly do represent what art is about, which is creating a painting that evokes an emotion in the person who's looking at it that tells a story that makes you feel a type of way that means something to you. Like, I'm not trying to say that that doesn't exist, but I do think that the industry has been sort of poisoned by people taking advantage of hype and the idea that creative artistic geniuses know something

that the rest of humanity doesn't. And it's sort of getting in the way of truly meaningful good art from people who just create art because it means something to them and it's their passion. So I don't know. In conclusion, do I think that everything has been done before? I don't. I don't think everything has been done before. But I think that it feels that way sometimes. And so I think it's not in a relevant question to be asking,

because even though not everything has been done before, there's always more that can be discovered. There's always a different way that you can do something. There's always a different interpretation of something, a different take on something. If a lot of people feel like everything's been done before, then it might as well be true in a way, because what we believe is what is true in a weird way, you know? And so if a lot of creative people are feeling like, everything's been done before, and they're feeling discouraged by that, then it might as well be true because we're all gonna behave as if it is.

Has money kind of destroyed the creative industries? Yes. Yes. I think the biggest issue with these creative industries now is that they prioritize money over quality and over genuine artistry. That's a huge issue. Is the speed in which we expect these creative people to create detrimental to these industries? Yes. Is the obsession with going viral and being famous?

Causing less attention to go to real artists who are creating really cool shit, to be not the topic of conversation as much because viral shocking shit is what's in the front of our minds at all times and is what's being pushed to us the most and is what's gaining our attention the most. Yes. What did I even just say? I don't even know anymore. I think that it's not a myth that creativity as a whole is suffering today. I don't think that that's a myth. I think that that's an accurate feeling. I don't think that it's us romanticizing the past at all.

I don't think it's us misvaluing our pop music and our big movies, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's true. I think that it is true. But what I also think is true is that there are people making incredible pieces of clothing. There are people making incredible pieces of art. There are people making incredible pieces of art. There are people making incredible music. And there are people making incredible indie films, indie TV shows, indie series, whatever. There are people out there making these things.

It's not that that's not happening. But the problem is, is that our culture is not as focused on that, because we don't have the attention span, I guess, to dig through the weeds and find these things that aren't as obvious. Industries don't care as much about putting their money there because the money might not be as big there. It's more of a risk maybe because it's less consistent or it's less shocking or it's less viral, et cetera.

So that's what I think. Let me know what you think. You can tweet me at AG Podcasts and me a message on Instagram and anything goes. Let me know what you think about all of this. I'm so curious. This is obviously just based on my own sort of experience and perception on what's going on. You know, you might have a completely different opinion. You might see things completely differently to me. That's okay and that's appreciated. And I love if you shared it with me because I'm always trying to grow my sort of knowledge in my own opinions and where I stand on these things. So please feel free to share your thoughts with me.

Thank you so much for listening. I love you. I appreciate you. I love hanging out with you. We are just the cutest, aren't we? Aren't we just the cutest you and me? We're just the freaking cutest. Just hanging out, you know.

Check out my coffee company, Chamberlain Coffee, if you want, go to Chamberlaincoffee.com. I'm drinking a cold brew right now in my cup, my cute little cup. You can use code AG15 if you want a little discount on the Chamberlain Coffee website. And that's it. That's all I got today. Thank you for listening. Check in every Thursday and Sunday for new episodes. And I'll talk to you later. and I'll talk to you later.