The Customer Isn't Always Right

Creatives Gonna Create + Haters Gonna Hate

I’ve heard from a few folks who don’t like it when I talk about politics…or queer history. To them, I say: Oh. Well. Life goes on.

For the record: I create and post what I want, when I want.

While I'm grateful to my fans, followers, and patrons, I can’t and won’t be beholden to anyone’s (oft-patronizing) opinion of what my work should or shouldn’t be.

This type of feedback isn’t unique to me. Most creatives lucky enough to find an audience deal with it at some point.

Creators are constantly pressured to cater to audience expectations, and for every artist who’s celebrated for pushing boundaries and reinventing themselves, there are countless artists punished for daring to stray from what’s familiar.

Take The Chicks. In March 2003, before performing their cover of “Travelin’ Soldier,” lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience, “Just so you know, we're on the good side with y'all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”

It was a brief remark, but it sparked an intense backlash among conservative country music fans. The band faced an avalanche of public criticism, CD burnings, and even death threats.

The fallout became the subject of Shut Up & Sing, a documentary that followed The Chicks as they navigated the backlash and recorded their follow-up album, Taking The Long Way.

Shut Up & Sing is a raw look at the cost of speaking out as a creative, especially when your voice isn’t what (some) people want to hear.

WATCH FREE = ON YOUTUBE

Maines herself admitted that she hadn’t anticipated the level of vitriol her comment would provoke, but Shut Up & Sing reveals her and the band’s refusal to apologize for holding personal political opinions.

By circling their wagons and standing united against the hateful rhetoric aimed at them, they set a precedent in a genre of music that rarely embraces dissent.

NATALIE RESPONDED TO TOBY KEITH POPPING OFF

The truth is creators don't exist just to please audiences. Before (and likely after) the audience, creators created for ourselves. The “shut up and entertain me” crowd likes to forget this part of the equation.

“Some people say, "Give the customers what they want." But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do. I think Henry Ford once said, "If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, 'A faster horse!'" People don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research. Our task is to read things that are not yet on the page.”
Steve Jobs

As a creator, my goal is to express something personal. Whether it’s a blog post or a collection of vintage photos, some people will connect with it, and others won’t.

Either way, my job is to keep coloring outside the lines, creating and curating—first and foremost for myself. If I’m happy with what I make, then at least someone is.

I can’t control how anyone else responds to my work, and trying to please everyone is a guaranteed way to fail.

While audiences and customers play a crucial role in the popularity and/or success of a work after it’s created, they aren’t always right. Neither are creatives.

As screenwriter William Goldman famously said, “Nobody knows anything.”

Creative work can entertain and enlighten, but creativity is inherently political. It challenges comfort zones and disrupts the status quo. It isn’t here to conform to anyone’s expectations.

To those who’d rather I “shut up and (insert opinion here),” I thank you for your time and support, but I can’t and won’t be told how to create or curate. I had more than enough of that shit in art, film, television, and writing classes.

If you like some of what I do, cool. If you don’t like some of what I do, cool.

We’re all free to do (and like) whatever we do (and like).

That’s the beauty of creativity: it’s big enough for us all.

Thanks for reading!
Clint

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NEWS + VIEWS

• 2024 Pre-Election Cold Open (Saturday Night Live) 📺

• Banksy’s Right-Hand Man Cashes In (artnet News)

• Kurosawa Kiyoshi, Japan’s Prolific Genre Auteur, Is Still Experimenting (Variety)

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ON THIS DAY = NOVEMBER 3

BIRTHDAYS

• 1500 = Benvenuto Cellini = Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author

• 1793 = Stephen F. Austin = American businessman and politician

• 1921 = Charles Bronson = American soldier and actor

• 1930 = Lois Smith = American actor

• 1938 = Terrence McNally = American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter

• 1949 = Anna Wintour = English-American editor

• 1954 = Adam Ant = English singer-songwriter and actor

• 1957 = Dolph Lundgren = Swedish actor and filmmaker

• 1959 = Hal Hartley = American independent filmmaker

• 1962 = Gabe Newell = American businessman, co-founded Valve

• 1987 = Colin Kaepernick = American football player

CELEBRATIONS

• Movember

EVENTS

• 1956 = The The Wizard of Oz is televised for first time—as part of the Ford Star Jubilee—on CBS.

• 1957 =The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.

• 1972 = James Taylor and Carly Simon get married at her Manhattan apartment. Later than night, they announce the nuptials and celebrate after his Radio City Music Hall concert.

• 1975 = Good Morning America premieres on ABC.

• 1975 = Kennedy’s Children, by gay playwright Robert Patrick, opens on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre. It runs for 72 performances.

• 1975 = The Wall Street Journal runs a front page story on the growing influence and success of The Advocate, the nation’s leading gay publication.

• 1976 = Carrie is released in theaters.

• 1976 = Diff’rent Strokes premieres on NBC.

• 1992 = Democratic Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton defeats Republican President George H. W. Bush and Independent candidate Ross Perot in the 1992 election.

• 2014 = One World Trade Center officially opens in New York City, replacing the Twin Towers after they were destroyed during the September 11 attacks.

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PHOTO + SONG + QUOTES OF THE DAY

“I wanted to make good records. But my problem is I've got a low boredom threshold, so I wanted it to look and sound different with each album, which is really tantamount to suicide, cause people lose it, they lose it - they say: 'I like that, and that's not this.'“
Adam Ant

“If it is art, it is not for all, and if it is for all, it is not art.”
Arnold Schoenberg

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