Bouncing around YouTube I came across this. What that is is an effort to burst into the scene riding an e-wave of popularity. A band makes a song which they want to have included in the upcoming Scott Pilgrim versus The World movie. They uploaded the video with the song to YouTube in march at which point the movie was pretty much done by then, so they haven't got a prayer. I'm not going to say much about the song. Its about Scott Pilgrim. I don't care about Scott Pilgrim. The song isn't good enough to make me care about it despite being about Scott Pilgrim. So, onward.
There's two sides to entertainment: producers and audience. The people who make the things that are for our entertainment create content (music, movies, television, video games, etc.) for money or art or whatever and throw it to the masses. The masses being of course, the audience. So the audience will either ignore it, not like it, or like it. In the cases of the first two, the people making the content usually go back to the drawing board. Or they quit and go home crying. Or they keep doing what they are doing thinking that they are right and everyone else in the world is stupid and will eventually realize the brilliance of the work. Hello Joplin. But if its the latter then the work continues, word spreads and its a success. Success can be in the form of money, fame, or even just mass approval.
So, something comes out, like say a comic about a guy with no super powers in a world where everyone has a super power (;D), and this thing begins to build an audience because it manages not to suck. People tell their friends. They'll mention it online. Sales continue. Popularity grows. And it hits a certain level where it masses out in coolness. It trumps COUNTDOWN but doesn't quite hit that coolness rating of WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE CAPED CRUSADER. No problem. Said project is followed up, and maybe it does as well. Maybe it does better. Maybe it tanks.
But what happens when word spreads that there will be a follow up? What happens when fans of the first story get up the gumption to start one of those internet petitions? What if thousand of people on Twitter demand that some character is killed off? What happens if a Facebook group with thousands of people demands that the character gets brought back from the dead? What if some nut blogger writes that the character that died and came back should TOTALLY hook up with this other character to help her deal with her cheese fixation? WHAT IF THAT BLOG GETS FEATURED ON YAHOO AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE COMMENT DEMANDING A THREESOME WITH THE NOW NOT DEAD PERSON, THE GIRL, AND A WEDGE OF CHEESE?!
You see the problem?
Its totally the cheese.
And this phenomenon is popping up more and more. Black Spidey anyone? And we've seen what happens when an audience starts grabbing for creative control of a movie. You get SNAKES ON A PLANE.
But audiences should be listened to. Feedback is important. Otherwise you'll just be doing your thing and beating your head against the wall wondering why you're not selling. Criticism is a good thing, and people not caring about your work is indeed a form of criticism. However, an audience caring a little too much and trying to change your work is going a bit too far. That's why there's things like fan-fiction. You can't have too many chefs in one kitchen. If you're the one making the content, you are the head chef. And if people aren't coming to your restaurant, you call Gordon Ramsey. You call that person you'll look at what you are doing and knows enough about thing to get you on the right path. But you can't go and do everything every last customer thinks of.
That'll leave you with no business.
And that'll leave the audience with a big ol' wedge of cheese.
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