1. The Luminato Festival just wrapped up here in Toronto. It seemed to come out of nowhere to be something quite huge. I read a criticism of the festival in a major newspaper. The journalist wrote that the festival really wasn't authentic; that it seemed more an example of how a corporation would design an arts festival. He was of the opinion that Luminato was something that did not originate from natural artistic expression and was therefore inauthentic.
2. I heard an executive of the new Toronto FC soccer team describe how they wanted to create an authentic soccer experience for the fans of the new team. They decided to do this by copying most every obvious cultural marker of European soccer teams. The name, the uniform, the logo, as well as the songs that are song by the fans would all be quite at home in the English Premier League.
3. I heard a VJ say that the most important thing for young music fans is authenticity. She said that they can easily see through someone who is putting them on and only respect authentic artists.
4. I heard an advertising executive say that the most effective advertising is one that has an authentic message.
There is a lot of talk about authenticity lately. What does it all mean?
4 comments:
You seem authentically perplexed by all this.
I could write so much about this and I probably will soon. I want to say something about Heidegger & Sartre, Madonna & Bjork, sports chants & war songs etc etc.
and middle-class kids with baggy pants and Christian missionaries in Papua-New Guinea, and opera houses in the jungles etc. etc.
Authenticity is simply the quality
or condition of being genuinely authentic.
Now stop your blabbering and return to your prefabricated lives.
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