Artists Love the Industry ...Until They Don't
So I was listening to the Sway interview and i got perturbed when DJ Khaled started complaining about magazines and hip-hop media not nominating him or he feels like, respecting what he does. This is a refrain that always happens at some point during the cycle of an illustrious career, the media, and the critics get bored or want to see you do some new tricks and his entire monologue about how award nominations are handed out doesn't make sense.
I'm going to start there. When you look at the most respected of awards in any field, they are never, ever given or dictated by the public. You know why, the public in general isn't expert enough to be able to do so. People within a given industry will know and understand to a greater extent the work ethic, the difficulties, and the final product because they live with it. This goes for contemporaries as well as the media who study and cover these things. Here is why, critics by and large love whatever form of art they are critiquing so much that they notice the minute details the average person overlooks when it comes down to it. That's why the Oscars are never given to the most successful movies in the theaters because there are things they use to draw in the public that aren't always the best techniques and are 'dumbed down' for the lack of a better term, for the mass audience.
Now, looking at someone who believes they have a long track record of success, a critic generally rewards that early on when it is new, fresh and exciting. Part of the reason that it doesn't continue is because at some point critics and audiences too start to look for something different, or even more. Denzel is one of the greatest actors ever but the point where he switched his roles up to something no one expected and yet convinced you that he had become that character was when he won an award, and why, because he proved he could move beyond a singular comfort zone into a new area. In music when a certain producer has a certain sound it becomes popular, rides a wave and then everyone gets used to that and the copycats and you can tell that they have a formula to do the same thing. At some point, that is no longer innovation and greatness, but an assembly line.
Now Khaled seemed to be upset about not being nominated for best collaboration at some point and feels like the fans would have changed this. I doubt it, but maybe it's just the arrogance that one needs in order to be successful that makes him think not, "It wasn't good enough" but instead "We don't want him to win again". At the same time, it should be a warning to switch it up. From Kanye to Taylor Swift, people who ride the wave for a while seem to feel they are entitled to that wave and not realize that like everyone before them, it is only theirs for a moment in time.
I'm going to start there. When you look at the most respected of awards in any field, they are never, ever given or dictated by the public. You know why, the public in general isn't expert enough to be able to do so. People within a given industry will know and understand to a greater extent the work ethic, the difficulties, and the final product because they live with it. This goes for contemporaries as well as the media who study and cover these things. Here is why, critics by and large love whatever form of art they are critiquing so much that they notice the minute details the average person overlooks when it comes down to it. That's why the Oscars are never given to the most successful movies in the theaters because there are things they use to draw in the public that aren't always the best techniques and are 'dumbed down' for the lack of a better term, for the mass audience.
Now, looking at someone who believes they have a long track record of success, a critic generally rewards that early on when it is new, fresh and exciting. Part of the reason that it doesn't continue is because at some point critics and audiences too start to look for something different, or even more. Denzel is one of the greatest actors ever but the point where he switched his roles up to something no one expected and yet convinced you that he had become that character was when he won an award, and why, because he proved he could move beyond a singular comfort zone into a new area. In music when a certain producer has a certain sound it becomes popular, rides a wave and then everyone gets used to that and the copycats and you can tell that they have a formula to do the same thing. At some point, that is no longer innovation and greatness, but an assembly line.
Now Khaled seemed to be upset about not being nominated for best collaboration at some point and feels like the fans would have changed this. I doubt it, but maybe it's just the arrogance that one needs in order to be successful that makes him think not, "It wasn't good enough" but instead "We don't want him to win again". At the same time, it should be a warning to switch it up. From Kanye to Taylor Swift, people who ride the wave for a while seem to feel they are entitled to that wave and not realize that like everyone before them, it is only theirs for a moment in time.
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