I wrote this, about the growing tension between "art" and "content", nearly 15 years ago. Makes the era of lifestyle brand sponcon and flag-planting bloggers seem... remarkably inoffensive and vaguely nostalgia-worthy compared to today's streaming service ubiquity? medium.com/@mattlemay/a... - ThreadSky

mattlemay.com • 53 days ago

I wrote this, about the growing tension between "art" and "content", nearly 15 years ago. Makes the era of lifestyle brand sponcon and flag-planting bloggers seem... remarkably inoffensive and vaguely nostalgia-worthy compared to today's streaming service ubiquity? https://medium.com/@mattlemay/art-vs-content-9-years-later-42eeec3f041d

Comments

mattlemay.com•53 days ago

Like, 15 years ago "branding and curating content is ultimately more impactful than creating new content" felt kinda weird and dirty to write. Now, the business model (and it's always the business model, isn't it?) demands a constant flow of nondescript, fully-owned background content. Hmph.

wdavidmarx.bsky.social•53 days ago

If you had said that sponcon was a slippery slope towards nondescript fully owned background content, you would have sounded sensational and being fully correct

mattlemay.com•53 days ago

The thing I'm still struggling to make sense of is that 2010 felt so much like "these cool artists have credibility and brands want adjacency to it" and 2025 feels so much like "the engine of creative commerce no longer generates or recognizes credibility as a thing of any value".....

wdavidmarx.bsky.social•53 days ago

Yes. And the meager value it's creating is different. I think there was authentic excitement about Charli but it was about being in tune with the zeitgeist rather than having your own cool thing

mattlemay.com•53 days ago

... and even then, it seems like the Charli collab didn't exactly turn around H&M's commercial fortunes.

wdavidmarx.bsky.social•53 days ago

Brat should have done 300 collaborations like Wicked

wdavidmarx.bsky.social•53 days ago

*been fully correct

craigsj.bsky.social•53 days ago

is that wavves

mattlemay.com•53 days ago

surre is

craigsj.bsky.social•53 days ago

final boss of indie rock capitalism

mattlemay.com•53 days ago

I guess "commissioned background music as blank canvas for monetized consumer attention units" is the new "chillwave as blank canvas for blog discovery and lifestyle branding deals"?

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply