Popular=Good?

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<p>Art and artists are not only there to unite; their far more important task is to create a form, to expel the sick trends and make room for the healthy to develop. ... I therefore cannot recognize the dividing line you hold to be the only one, namely that between good and bad art. Art must not only be good, it must also be conditioned by the exigencies of the people or, rather, only an art that draws on the <em>Volkstum</em> as a whole may ultimately be regarded as good and mean something for the people to whom it is directed.<br>

-- <em>Joseph Goebbels</em></p>

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<p>[<em>this comment is a response to the initial post; it is not a response to any particular comment above</em>]</p>

<p>Somewhat chilled by Göbbels (thank you, Julie Heyward, as always, for a powerful prompt to thought) I'll come back to my earlier assertions that there can be no objective and universally valid definitions of "good" and/or "bad" (in art, at least).<br>

That is one true difference between "popular" and "good" − it is possible to frame objective and even quantitative definitions of the first, but not of the second.<br>

It is possible to meaningfully argue that "good" and "bad" are meaningless terms in art − that, in some important senses, <strong><em>all</em> </strong> art is "good" within art's frame of reference. Faced with Göbbels' view of art, I suddenly find that argument vividly seductive.</p>

<p>Do you like pop music and regard it as the zenith of that field? How about the p.net photos of the week? Will they make the all time classic lists in 50 years time? Is Harry Potter the new War and Peace? Remember the Bay City Rollers? They were pretty popular...</p>

<p>Popularity does not even begin to be a major criterion for excellence - it is, rather, merely a fashion, a trend, a sugar-coated distraction, a fad.</p>

<p>Like the heavily vignetted, HDR'ed, over-saturated, weirded out, Draganised, Adamus-ised images that are so popular with some people in the present day. Remember what Warhol said (and there was a man who knew what he was talking about) : "art is what you can get away with..."</p>