Monday, January 02, 2012

Expansive Obscurity

Popular culture is more than immersion in entertainment and celebrity.  It is more than a vehicle for the communication of social and political viewpoints, more than a combination of business and industry.


 Pop culture is itself an art medium.  While the entertainer by necessity gives the audience what it wants, the artist expresses a vision.  In the context of mass media, the vision of the artist may gain common currency beyond the demand for entertainment.

For the most part this is a transient and superficial phenomena and retains public interest for a short while until being replaced by another, but from time to time there appears a work or body of work that alters the cultural perspective, becomes influential in diverse ways, and transcends the scenario of the "overnight sensation".

Ambient music in its numerous forms, while remaining relatively obscure over time in popular terms, has nonetheless changed the sound of the cultural landscape, and its potential to continue to do so appears unlimited.

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