Cult of Mediocrity

This is the opening statement from the site "mashupciti.com" and the link is teaching people how to make a "mashup".  How lazy and rationalizing can we become when we have to justify the amateurish and lazy practice in the opening notes of the instructions.  This is like a cult that says "you can have your own ideas as long as you agree unconditionally with ours and support our mediocrity".  Sad.

How to Make a Mashup

Mashups, remixes, subs, and online parodies are new and refreshing online phenomena, but they partake of an ancient tradition: the recycling of old culture to make new. In spite of our romantic cliches about the anguished lone creator, the entire history of cultural production from Aeschylus through Shakespeare to Clueless has shown that all creators stand, as Isaac Newton (and so many others) put it, “on the shoulders of giants.”

From Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Videos by Peter Jaszi

Word to the wise... when someone describes art as refreshing, offer them a glass of sparkling punch in the face.

The Cult of the Amateur

I have to wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment of Andrew Keen, that the availability of information and technologies as well as the ability to build social networks or groups around amateur industry such as mashup music for example have contributed greatly to declines in technical expertise as well as cultivation of talent.  Download sites have not only taken the ability to make a living from the artist through massive copyright infringement and piracy, but the demand for such a mediocre product has poisoned the well and put the audience in charge of the direction that art takes.  It's almost as if the music industry has become some kind of crappy choose your own adventure story rather than a theater of expression.