Metro

Saturday night a friend and I went to a concert at Metro. We saw Male Bonding, Free Energy, and Best Coast. We also were privileged enough to run into the massive crowds outside of Wrigley Field who were there for the Jason Mraz/Dave Matthews Band concert.

My friend and I talked about music but our conversation had a lot to do with art in general and it got me thinking. Every band markets to a certain crowd. They produce a certain type of music so their consumers know what to expect. They make money.

The bands and the crowd kept cracking jokes about the Dave Matthews concert, but in reality we were doing the same thing: we were consuming a certain type of music. We came there to see the songs we expected to be played, played. There was no surprise, no real art making in that, other than the skill of the musicians.

Visual art is the same way. Someone like Kehinde Wiley produces the same type of image with the same message because that's what makes him money and that's what people come to expect. The art world, the music industry, the fashion industry, are all looking to make money. Once a certain innovation has been popularized it becomes a money making scheme.

I enjoy money making schemes, though. That concert was awesome.