Popular vs mainstream

I went to see the latest Superman film yesterday. I was in Tartu, so a film like Superman is relegated to a rather small screen at the small hall of the only cinema here. At a time of lavish outdoor alternative ethnic theatre performances one wonders whether in today’s Estonia popular music and film is an underdog thing. Ethnic, edgy and alternative is cool, so it is popular.

Big Hollywood movies, pop artists etc are not really creating art, are they? They are simply a businesses which are meant for those average people with their average lives. But the local bands and rock music, they are in it for much more than that. The create real art™ and their emotions are real, whereas everything is else is manufactured or cheesy.

I do not get it. I love pop songs, I do not differentiate between movies based on where and by whom they were produced. I do not enjoy some local high school bands more than I do people who have succeeded in the world stage. I do not get why extraordinarily talented people like Michael Jackson are considered somehow less artistically valid than some small town ethnic rock group. Is it about being able to relate to the performer? Is it about kicking down celebrities and valuing “regular people”?

I do not get it at all. The people who despise the “commercial” and the “mainstream” are now in the majority, so they are what they despise.

I feel sorry for people who do not allow themselves to love or like something just because it is not liked or liked by other people. I love the music, films and art that I can feel good about. Like I have said before, I cannot choose who I love, and in a similar way I cannot choose the music I like or films that I love. I just like some and dislike others and I do not feel that I need to somehow justify this to anyone.