I have often said that the relationship between an artist and their audience is like a parent and a child at dinner time. Bear with this metaphor.
The kid wants to eat candy for every meal because it’s tasty and fun. As the parent, you have to feed them vegetables because it’s good for them, even if it’s challenging for you to feed it to them and it’s challenging for the kid to swallow. The kid thinks the vegetables taste gross. They may try to spit it out, they’ll make faces of disgust, they’ll cry. But this is good for them even if they think it’s icky.
You know what else a kid thinks is icky to eat? Dog shit.
If you’re judging how nutritious your meals are based on how gross the kid thinks it is, you might assume vegetables have the same nutrition as dog shit. But you’re very wrong. Sometimes your audience doesn’t want to swallow your content because they’re not into the flavor, despite its nutritional value, but sometimes they don’t want it because they recognize it as a steaming pile of dog shit. You can’t measure artistic value by how offensive you are. Offensive for offense’s sake isn’t a challenging message, it’s just abuse. You must present something of value that is good for your audience, helps them grow stronger bones. And sometimes when the kid has choked down all their veggies, it’s not bad to give them dessert. It’s okay to give your audience something fluffy and enjoyable and easy from time to time.
I’ve cut ties with so many edgelord artists who just reveled in upsetting people without regard for who was upset and why. Their job was done once the average blood pressure in the audience reached a certain point.
Also, you don’t have to be a trained chef to have an opinion on whether or not dog shit is appropriate to put on a plate, and we don’t give Michelin stars to chefs who do that.
