Essay talk:Thoughtless in a day of action is what's happening to America

"Thousands of years ago, people spend their days looking at classical art and graceful plays. Now people spend hours a day watching Tiktok."

This doesn't make sense. If we ignore the last two years, never in the history of mankind visiting the Louvre was so easy. Fine arts are more easily available than ever. Until not so long ago very few people could enjoy painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and poetry. Now you only need a phone or a computer. I'm pretty sure there are more people alive that saw Mona Lisa or Venus de Milo (either in a picture or by visiting Paris) than in any time in history. GeeJayK (talk) 04:48, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Also, plays were considered anything but graceful/fine art for much of the history of theatre. Watch a production of Titus Andronicus to understand why.-Flandres (talk) 04:59, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

Right so 30 second TikToks are now just as good as fine art. Point noted. Jah (talk) 06:47, 2 November 2021 (UTC)

My little troll friend, only the archivists and collectors will give a shit about the dumb Tiktok memes in 100 or even in 10 years time, that is if copies still exist. Just like the Vine videos and MySpace pages of yore, or old VHS tapings of America's Funniest Home Videos that are rotting on some elderlies shelves (the former even more ephemeral, I really wonder what percentage of Vine videos people will have saved in the future, it's probably very low). Going back further, who remembers much of the millions of copies of trite 19th to 20th century salon sheet music where even best sellers of the time are semi-obscure? How many Tin Pan Alley tunes are in the public conscious today? 99% of entertainment falls by the wayside. A select few is remembered as classic from the beginning. Occasionally an artist pulls a Bach and rises from a semi-obscure place back into prominence. Obscura collectors take on the rest (noting that there are some diamonds among the crap) and no one remembers the rest.

The nice thing is that, with the entire history of entertainment so much more readily available now, I think people play mixing and matching a lot more. It's not like ridiculous silos and tribes don't exist in art anymore, but it's easier to escape the gatekeepers and do your own thing, so historical gatekeeping, ranging from university departments frowning on anything tonal in their classical tunage, to record labels insisting that you add synths to your pub rock band to ride the New Wave trend isn't as big of a deal. Of course, it means far more volumes of crap, but hey, it's probably better to make crappy art then rant about the youth on Tiktok. PanGalacticGargleBlaster (talk) 13:46, 2 November 2021 (UTC)