All Art is Content & All Content is Art. Sorry, Wait What?
For reasons complicated and some might say, unknown, the word “content” has become taboo in many circles. However, we can’t avoid the c-word. It’s everywhere. As creators, it haunts our dreams and some would say has marginalized skilled artists and deflated their incomes along with it. Of course there’s always two sides to the coin. Many would counter argue that there’s more avenues for artists to make a living now than ever before. That’s certainly true but what is considered art and the standards of quality have seemingly become all the more nebulous. Perhaps we’re too caught up in linguistics and definitions and should solely focus on the act of creating. However, overlooking the language that shapes our reality could be detrimental for many. We’ve all heard the age old frustration of cinematographers being called videographers and videographers who deem themselves as cinematographers. Our self described job titles can either hinder our ability to get work or potentially transform the kind of people we want to become. When diving into the semantics of any paradigm, the debate will be heated but for those with their identity and livelihood on the line, the fight may be essential. So, let’s explore this newfound enigma between “art” & “content”.
Why and when did we even start dubbing all things media adjacent content? Is all content art? Is all art content? Why and when did the quantity of content become more marketable / valuable than the quality of content and is that even true? All highly heady questions that are plausibly unanswerable but worth exploring…
The internet has rewired our brains to crave more content on a minute-to-minute basis. Some would say we’re living in a perpetual state of anxiety, constantly scrolling for the next best thing. That aside, the amount of content being created is only going to increase, and we can likely trace the inception of user-generated content to the birth of Instagram and of course, YouTube. IG was launched in 2010 and within two months it had one million registered users. By the end of that same year, IG had 10 million registered users. By 2018, one billion users, and now in 2023, there are over 1.4 billion users. Youtube’s story has a similar trajectory, with over 2.6 billion current users. These social behemoths have been changing our brains and reinventing culture for the last 17 years or so.
The interesting twist came about somewhere around 2015 – 2017 and we’re not sure why. Users on both platforms (more so than ever) began turning their cameras and camera-phones on themselves, resulting in the creation of content that other users couldn’t get enough of, and eventually making profitable careers out of it. This is right around the time that the expression “content is king” became re-popularized. The term, originally coined by Microsoft founder Bill Gates back in 1996, was meant to describe the internet as a, “marketplace for content.” Billyboy knew it the whole time!
Now, getting back to why (we think) the c-word evokes distastefulness among artist-types and how that relates to the aforementioned growth of user-generated content. What that immense growth of user-generated content did was level the playing field. In other words, a joe-schmoe that films selfies with his hairless cat can garner more weekly views than a highly produced Netflix original. Thus, hairless-cat-dude unabashedly calls himself a content creator and Netflix-director-person likely calls themselves an artist. But hairless-cat-dude is an original so we can call that art, right? He’s creative, he’s evoking feelings from his viewers, and he’s making money, just like the Netflix director. We believe this is wherein the art vs content dilemma lies.
If you’re an “artist” that strives to create “art” and not “content,” you may be out of a job and or limiting your employment potential. Nowadays, companies are so accustomed to acquiring content on the cheap (and tons of it) that they’re hopscotching over high-brow production and opting for user-generated content that gets more eyeballs. But we’re not here to bum you out nor can we solve this conundrum in a 500 page blog piece.
As creators, we need to move in the way that culture is moving with unbridled optimism, and most importantly, with creative fervor. Sure, quantity may be king right now, but quality will forever rule the land. Regardless of where the culture is in 2023 and what it’s currently devouring (crap or not), the path to authenticity through creating quality work will always be the righteous one.
There are no easy answers here, but with that said, we’re all still humans behind all these screens. Continue to do great work and forge great connections with others that do great work. It’s way too easy to acquiesce to market demands that may lower your standards and crush your soul, but the harder and often wiser choice is to be impossibly one-of-a-kind. Embrace your imperfections and value your uniqueness. And with that, who gives a holy hell if you’re creating “art” or “content,” just create something that is wholly singular and is yours. Creativity for the win!