The Web, unlike every traditional medium, is basically free. Sure it costs a little to post a site, or create some music, or make a movie on your home computer—but not very much. Not anywhere near what it costs to publish a book, produce an album, or create a TV show. So just about anyone can post almost anything for the whole world to see and hear. This art from the audience is changing art.
Recently I wrote about advertisers letting their customers create their own ads, which more and more advertisers are doing. Someone dubbed it brand democratization. What’s happening is not just that people are having fun doing their own ads, they’re doing ads that make sense and are effective, totally not slick or polished, and have that crude, primitive look of an artist who doesn’t really know what he or she is doing; and this isn’t only happening with TV spots. What we’re seeing is not only a lowering of the bar on art in general. Bad art is becoming “good” and, in some ways, preferred by some people.
