Know your audience

When a scientific discovery is made, it hits the news instantly, a bunch of equations are derived and verified, a series of tests are conducted to prove their authenticity, and a number of awards are bestowed upon the person who discovered it. A work of art, however, is not met with the same unanimous appreciation. Everybody has, at some point, said “This book is terrible!”, “What a boring movie!” or “You call this music?!”.

Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, and that’s why the success of a piece of art is decided solely by the opinion of its audience. Then again, what is “success” to an artist? It could be a number of things varying from money and fame to appreciation and feedback. A director who wants his movie to connect with people emotionally may consider it a success even if he makes no money but gets a bit of the audience to shed a tear or two. And a singer may be perfectly happy with all his viewers sniggering about his lack of talent as long as he gets thousands of hits on Youtube.

Take books, for instance. Anybody who has read The Lord of the Rings knows that JRR Tolkien loved creating images of majestic kingdoms and spinning tales of history and lore. He planted in every reader’s head, a picture beautifully adorned with castles and forests and a detailed back story to all of it. He adds an authentic touch with his effective use of archaic language, which strengthens the “once-upon-a-time” factor in the fairy tale trilogy. It is true that a large number of people find it very hard to get through his books, what with heavy reading required and the lack of a gripping story. But avid readers will always love him for the world he created, for his bountiful imagination and his evident passion for writing, as will creative writers. And that in itself is quite a success to his credit.

If the target audience is one that likes fast paced, exciting stories with twists and turns in every page, then George R. R. Martin is a winner. His latest work, A Song of Ice and Fire, is a series of books about the battle between many dynasties for a kingdom. Martin has made the books very unpredictable, exhibiting the courage to kill off many important characters, something that most authors would never venture, out of fear of losing a huge chunk of the story. But Martin knows no fear, and the story gets wilder and wilder with surprises at the turn of every page. Another thing that keeps readers totally hooked to this series is the lack of a well-defined “good guy” and “bad guy”. It is impossible to pick a hero or a villain, because every time you try, a brave knight commits treason, or a baseborn thief saves a life. And since there is no good guy or bad guy, there is no saying who the real winner is, in the game of thrones. And this uncertainty keeps the reader interested through every page of the voluminous series.

Chetan Bhagat’s success as an author has always been challenged by many who claim that he does not have the gift for writing. But there is no denying that he did shoot to fame through his books. His books are entertainers, the easy-to-read types, which are more dialogue and less narration, and his topics are very relevant to everyday life. He caters to that section that prefers light reading and less to think about, which, fortunately for him, happens to constitute a large part of India’s youth these days. His idea of success, one could assume, is fame. And he is certainly one guy who became a success by knowing his audience.

Music also is always met with a volley of contrasting opinions, and there are umpteen bases on which a piece of music can be judged. There are so many ways in which music can reach a person. Many people judge songs based on the lyrics – some look for use of language, some look for the poetic touch, and some look for lyrics that they can relate to personally. Some people are more interested in the instrumental part of the song. The right usage of instruments can be very powerful in setting the mood of a song. A song, purely with proper use of instruments, can touch a person deeply and bring a smile to the face or tears to the eye. And when a song can achieve that effect, it is met with high appreciation. Some music lovers look for the overwhelming power of technology to edit a song to make it just perfect, while there are equally contrasting opinions in people who believe that technology shadows talent, and a song performed with nothing but simple instruments and the vocal abilities of the singer is of more musical value. This is again a situation where the artist needs to pick the audience he wants to cater to. For most Indian music, a huge difference is made to songs purely by the singers. A singer with a great voice can turn a boring song into one pleasant to the ears. A singer, with a trained and practised control over his/her voice attempting hard notes, can create awe in the musically literate. A singer who expresses the lyrics with the intended emotion in his/her voice can touch many people, even when one does not understand the lyrics.

And of course, there will always be those worldwide hits like Kolaveri and Gangnam style. These numbers, though seemingly devoid of anything extraordinary, got into every one of our minds and refused to leave until they got our heads nodding to the white-u skin-u girl-u, and our feet tapping to Psy’s random exclamations!!

I suppose the same holds good for movies, paintings, fashion designers and the like. We are all constantly judging and deciding the success of different people every single day. What with being made to accept all scientific facts as infallible, art is the outlet for freedom of expression, both for the artist, and for the heavily opinionated audience. Because after all, only Phoebe Buffay is at liberty to challenge the concept of gravity – “Lately, I get the feeling that I’m not so much being pulled down as I am being pushed”.