As consumers, this sounded great to us! And it’s created a wonderful buffet of art and media for everyone. We pick and choose. We take only what\u00a0we want, nothing more. And not only that, we\u00a0gained the ability share right back to each other what we chose and why. We\u00a0could now evaluate each other’s opinions. YouTube and social media\u00a0came along\u00a0to allow each and every one of us to have our own “TV Channel,” so to speak. Every single one of us\u00a0could post to the ENTIRE WORLD what we thought of a show or movie, seconds after we’d seen it. And we\u00a0got feedback from others just as instantly. WE\u00a0were\u00a0the critics now, with our reviews instantly published.<\/p>\n So now here we are, a couple decades into this new mentality… a mentality that says that if an artist presents us with art, our immediate response is to evaluate it. To be a critic. To instantly respond with the thought, “Would I<\/em> have done it that way?” “Is that the best choice for me?<\/em> For my<\/em> sensibilities?” “How does this art serve me?<\/em>”<\/p>\n We have forgotten how to be an audience. We’ve forgotten that another way to respond to art is to just… take it in. Listen. Watch. To sit before the storyteller at the fire and say, “What do you have for me today?” Whatever the artist wants to show us, we can receive it as\u00a0the choice that artist decided to make, even if it is surprising or weird to us, or not at all<\/em> the choice we<\/em> would make in that story.<\/p>\n If we cannot accept the contract between artist and audience anymore, we are rarely satisfied. We are disappointed that the artist did not “do what we wanted.”<\/p>\n “That’s not my<\/em>\u00a0Luke Skywalker.” “That’s not my<\/em>\u00a0James Bond.” “How dare they ruin my<\/em> childhood with this version of Ghostbusters!”<\/p>\n![\"Audience\"](\"http:\/\/coryedwards.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Audience.jpg\")
<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>I could easily blame this on social media or even as far back as iTunes. But it’s a groundswell of numerous factors. About 15 years ago, the biggest media corporations in the world (Yes you<\/em>, Apple) started catering to our sense of SELF.\u00a0Technology\u00a0made it\u00a0possible to\u00a0cater to\u00a0all\u00a0of our unique, singular, microscopic choices and opinions.\u00a0Your point of view and\u00a0YOURS ALONE became\u00a0the target\u00a0— not just a wide demographic. You no longer had to buy a whole album. You could make your OWN album of\u00a0just the five songs YOU liked from that artist. The artist no longer decided\u00a0what 12 tracks you should listen to, or in what order, to take you from the beginning of that album’s experience to the end. Nope. It’s up to the listener. Hey, you don’t even\u00a0need a radio station to tell you what the “hit singles” are. You ARE the radio station. You’re the DJ who decides what playlists are playing in your car or headphones. It\u00a0went beyond making a mixtape. iTunes and Spotify changed our philosophy on\u00a0how we even consider<\/em>\u00a0music. An “a la carte” mentality prizes the individual’s tastes above the general consensus of trends, age groups, social groups, etc. It’s all about YOU and what YOU want.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>It felt so good to be heard and validated!\u00a0If we love something, now we’ve been told it’s good<\/em> that we love it by lots of others! But the weird thing\u00a0we also\u00a0discovered is that, in a sick way, we kind of like arguing with people who\u00a0don’t <\/em>like our choices. Sparring in the dusty arena of Twitter and Reddit can be addictive. If someone punches back, it releases a similar rush of dopamine, and makes us dig deeper into our opinions.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>This all hit me again as I left the IMAX theater from seeing “Dune.” Denis Villeneuve’s version of this tale feels slightly foreign and strange and off the beaten path\u00a0from my own instincts. So many moments of the film were entirely at odds with my own sensibilities. He did things I would not have done with this story. And it was great! I sat there saying, “Whatta you got for me, Denis? Hit me.”<\/p>\n