technology has stifled creativity

[sucka4chix]

I am so tired of this seemingly uncreative period in time. Because of computers and technology ( I guess ), people don't think any more. The arts basically don't exist!!! Every song is a sample of something someone already did (some are even samples of samples),tv shows are just cameras filming everyday stuff, and movies are remakes of crap that never should have been made into a movie (see UNDERDOG, the movie). Are there any creative people who can think up their own shit left!!!???

[Ecstatic]

I don't think there's less creativity today, but more that we're totally inundated with the non-creative, from youtube to network tv. IOW, the ratio of the banal to the creative is higher.

[francisfkudrow]

I don't think you can blame technology for it. Technology can be a tool allowing artists to be even more creative (the Matrix movies for example).

I think music is doing fine right now. Maybe the stuff in the Top 40 isn't always what I would choose to listen to, but all in all the creative state of music isn't bad.

Television is in dire straits, but I blame that on the reality TV trend more than anything.

Movies are doing OK, but there is a mindset in the movie studios that they need to find something inexpensive to film that will make a lot of money. They don't take the big risks to bring truly new ideas to the screen.

[sucka4chix]

I don't think you can blame technology for it. Technology can be a tool allowing artists to be even more creative (the Matrix movies for example).

I think music is doing fine right now. Maybe the stuff in the Top 40 isn't always what I would choose to listen to, but all in all the creative state of music isn't bad.

Television is in dire straits, but I blame that on the reality TV trend more than anything.

Movies are doing OK, but there is a mindset in the movie studios that they need to find something inexpensive to film that will make a lot of money. They don't take the big risks to bring truly new ideas to the screen.
It's a double edged sword:you can do alot with technology, but I think people rely on it too much and think the word digital means better. Working in a digital realm opens up more options than the real or analog world, but it also is only a "mimic" or approximation at it's best.
If you look at some movies (spiderman), they look like they were done on a computer... not even as realistic as miniature model photography. How can you put out a major motion picture with the main character flopping around like he's on a planet with twice the gravity of earth and say "yeah that's it". Didn't someone in post-production say "that doesn't look real, matter of fact it sucks!"?
Any goofball can go out and buy software that will compose a song for him, in any style, and because he put in the parameters, he "wrote" it. Does this make him more creative? Nope. Less. What has he learned? He has learned that he can write a song without any musical training what so ever, so why should he study the art when he can let technology DO THE ART for him.

[a994]

Personally, I think the problem is not technology (although some do use it as a crutch). The problem is the overall decay of our educational system, especially public education. With the budget cuts that have affected public school systems within the last 30 years, classes in the creative disciplines, most notably art and music, have been the most likely to be eliminated or reduced to a mere few minutes per week. Other classes in the humanities have gotten short shrift as well.

Even when it comes to college education, with skyrocketing fees and class cuts there, the situation does not look encouraging. Also, many people who attend college only do so for utilitarian reasons--in short, merely to get a good-paying job. When one attends for this reason, actual learning is not a neccesity--good grades (however achieved) in the right field are. Without having the opportunity to learn about the arts and what it takes to be productive in this milieu, it is easy to listen to a popular song on the radio or watch the latest CGI-laden movie or video game, and think that anybody can produce the same thing with little or no effort and knowledge.

Also, the fact that particularly in terms of music, commercial music stations only play the same thirty contemporary hit songs or so-called classic hits over and over (this goes on within each genre) effectively limits what one is exposed to, thus creating a situation where the musical influences upon people who get all of their information and culture from the mass media produce inbred art. When there are not many people who search out non-mainsteam sources (as well as those who are simply unaware that such sources exist), and those who do are generally deemed too uncommercial for the United Clear Channel of America, homogeneity insidiously burrows its way into the hearts and minds of a people.

Thank goodness there is the Internet, where non-conventional ideas and art can proliferate. Also, the alternative/underground press and non-commercial radio stations (such as those that are listener-sponsored or are college radio stations) are important and encouraging.