It's a fundamental, social attitude that the 1% supports symphonies and operas and doesn't support Johnny learning to program hip-hop beats. When I put it like that, it sounds like, 'Well, yeah,' but you start to think, 'Why not, though?' What makes one more valuable than another?
Interpretation
The quote questions societal values that prioritize certain forms of art over others.
David Byrne's quote reflects on the inequitable support artists receive based on societal perceptions of value. He challenges the idea that traditional forms of art, like symphonies and operas, deserve more funding and appreciation than contemporary art forms such as hip-hop, prompting us to reconsider our biases about artistic worth.
In practice
In a panel discussion about funding arts programs, this quote highlights the importance of supporting all forms of music equally.
Forces that you might think are utterly unrelated to creativity can have a big impact. Technology, obviously, but environment, too. Even financial structures can affect the actual content of a song. The making of music is profoundly affected by the market.
When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can't bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke.
I certainly agree that putting everything into little genres is counterproductive. You're not going to get too many surprises if you only focus on the stuff that fits inside the box that you know.
You create a community with music, not just at concerts but by talking about it with your friends.
Real sadness is such an all-encompassing intense thing that it takes you out of your humdrum existence. If you can still function, you want to show it while it's peaking. So when people tell you to cheer up, it's not always the best thing.
I find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
Good art theory must smell of the studio, although its language should differ from the household talk of painters and sculptors.
A good picture book can almost be whistled. ... All have their own melodies behind the storytelling.
I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.
If gaming were seen as an art, the important question would be not whether games are good for us but whether they are good, full stop.
Every experience shapes your writing, being stuck in a car on a lonely bridge, or dancing at a prom, being the it girl on the beach, all of those things influence your life, they influence how you write, and the topics you choose to write about.
Writing is a demanding profession and a selfish one. And because it is selfish and demanding, because it is compulsive and exacting, I didn't embrace it. I succumbed to it.
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