Back in high school, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. Not just any lawyer however, but a big corporate one, where the people you work for basically own your entire life, but give you a quarter of a million dollars in return every year. I interned at a law firm and my employer said, “why are you here? Why do you want to be a lawyer, for the money?” and I said “Yep.” (Needless to say I was a silly little girl, and I have grown since then, but lets continue with my story). My employer then told me something that I will probably never forget: “If you do something that you love and that you’re good at, then the money will come.” This idea was astonishing for me. Money became something that was more of a reward for a job well done, rather than an outcome of being a slave. She opened my eyes and made me realize that you don’t have to be a slave to money, and that money will come by itself if a person is deserving of it. This concept can be applied to most careers, and I think it greatly applies to artists.

Artists often spend so much time and effort on their work, and many of them not only attempt to express their own feelings into their work, but touch the feelings of others with their art as well. I not only believe that artists can produce commercially successful work that also has important social or political value, but I think that when they do incorporate social and political issues into their work, it is what draws attention to it and makes it a success. All of the films we’ve watched through out the semester touched on either social class, race, or other social issues that exist in New York City. A film such as Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, talks about the “scum and filth” that roamed the city, and gives harsh opinions on topics such as prostitution, racism, politics, and many of the other issues that surrounded New York City during that time period. The film was totally and completely about social and political issues, and was also considered one of Scorsese’s best films.

With that being said, there are also artists who produce commercially successful work… just to make them commercially successful. Some people call it “selling out”, I call it making a living. Yea, I bet a lot of these “commercially successful” pieces of work may not be exactly meaningful or touching, but hundreds and thousands of people like it so why not produce it? I find myself not listening to a lot of commercially successful work that has no social or political value, because I often don’t see the point of it, but if other people like it, which they definitely do, then who am I to be against it. The artists make money, and some people enjoy it. Sounds like a win-win to me. Making it big in this industry is hard, and these artists are people too. If they do what they love and are good at it, then maybe the money will come to them on its own. But we live in reality, and growing up I realized that although what my employer said was very nice, it might not always be the truth.