The Cheese Factor

Extreme conservatism, the suppressing of free expression and corporate media consolidation have created a perfect storm that has sucked the life blood of creativity out of our culture. The result: music, film, art, literature and fashion stuck in the mud. New genres have not evolved and our culture couldn’t be more boring. We need a political and cultural revolution in this country.

I’m often asking myself, “Why is American art and culture so stagnant nowadays?” Music, movies, television, Broadway, fashion, literature and the visual arts all seem to be a mass-produced rehash of things done much better the first time around. Now I’ll admit nothing can be really new. Every story must follow the rule of arc and form originally laid out for the Greek tragedies. Music is limited to 8-note octaves plus flats and sharps. But my experience is that art has always changed and evolved, spawning new genres.

In music, over just a few decades we went from Big Band to Swing, Elvis to Motown, British Invasion to Acid Rock to Hard Rock, Metal, Punk, Disco, R&B, Hip Hop, House, Dance, Pop, Rap and Alternative. What new musical genres or moreover, any artistic genres, can you think of that have cropped up in the last 10 years? It’s like creativity has skidded to a halt. Of all the many things that are wrong with this country right now, this one is probably close to the top of my list. It is art that ultimately expresses who we as a society. If you want to see what's wrong with this country, just look at the art that is being produced. Art today tells me that we are a shallow, empty culture adrift. I feel bad for young people today and what they miss by not living in a creative, energetic, inventive and ever-evolving culture. I am so very glad that my youth was spent during an explosion of artistic creativity in our country!

So why is art so bad today? The best analogy I can think of is what I like to call the “The Cheese Factor.” It goes something like this: Big corporations don’t make cheese, they make pasteurized, processed and homogenized cheese food (Many of these products aren’t even allowed to be called “cheese” by the FDA). Conversely, small dairies in Vermont, Wisconsin, England and Ireland make some of the best cheddar you ever sank your teeth into. Apply this analogy to the music or movie Industry and you see what I mean. Run by huge corporations, with boards and stockholders, they don’t give a hoot about art. They simply want a return on their investment.
This is not to say that something great isn’t occasionally produced in this environment. Star Wars was the product of an imaginative moviemaker constantly fighting for his vision against skeptical and impatient media moguls. The movie was so successful it spawned a new genre and revolutionized the entire industry. It was also a great movie because it was a morality tale that reflected the cultural mood in America just after the end of the Vietnam War.
Great art mirrors life but bad art can mirror life as well. Take the onslaught of reality TV. I can’t fathom people’s fascination with Donald Trump and everyones favorite air-headed party girl Paris Hilton (Donald, you're not hot and Paris, you're fired). Apparently, their greed and narcissism are so extensive they require an ever-larger audience to fill with envy. In any case, reality TV is a perfect mirror of today’s culture. It reflects a society where people infested with greed will eat bugs, wallow in sewage and jump off buildings for a few thousand dollars while voyeuristic audiences watch enthralled.
Other "reality" programs consist of completely phony stories made up by studio writers and produced on a low budget in the guise of “I was there with my handi-cam”. Fake tension, squabbles and drama save this cheap, mass-produced form of entertainment from immediately putting its audience to sleep. Does this not reflect the lies and phony veneer that are the foundation of Bush’s presidency? It is all unpleasantly surreal when reality = fantasy both on TV and in society at large.

One oasis in this cultural desert is the Internet, which I believe, holds great potential. Blogging is to media what microbreweries were to the beer industry. It de-conglomerates the whole endeavor and challenges the Goliaths to get their act together.
Politically, conservative eras have always been synonymous with repressed artistic expression. Most of us, especially those who lived through it, know what a cultural explosion the sixties were. This creativity paralleled one of the most liberal eras in our country. Society and culture do revolve, around and around, hence the word revolution. There is no doubt that another cultural revolution will eventually take place, albeit hopefully not like China’s. In the business world, mega corporations will realize they are too big and unwieldy and will eventually unwind, reversing the Cheese Factor and spawning a better environment for creativity. In fact, once there are no more good mergers left, investment banks will push spin-offs again so they can justify their purpose and continue filling their coffers simply by switching gears.
Similarly, the extreme conservatism in our country has already probably outlived its desirability (if it ever had any). It lately appears that Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with it. Once again, the cultural repression inherent in conservatism will dissipate and after a decade of artistic doldrums I expect (nay, I demand!) an artistic revolution.

But for now I think I’ve said enough and besides, my Cheez Whiz has finished heating in the microwave.