I've mentioned in this blog before that I think the digital revolution will contribute to a broadening of audience's creative appreciation. That online distribution will allow artists to refine and define audience tastes in a much more direct way than we've experienced in the past. Because the traditional routes of distribution required that artists convince executives to review and approve of the artist's media creations. Only now, we're going to be exposed to the unusual, bizarre and the brilliant without the filter of some guy in a suit with questionable judgment. It's up to the audience to decide what has merit. And with increasingly fractured niche audiences within an artist's grasp, in some ways EVERYTHING has some merit.

In the old days, creators of music, literature or film had to convince some label, publisher or studio to approve of their creations before the work would get out into the world. But online digital distribution is now instant and entirely within the hands of artists. And despite the proliferation of shallow, meaningless YouTube prank videos, we're also increasingly exposed to a much broader range of artistic expression than ever before. And I just happen to think that audiences are hungry for something inovative, new and different. This song, Chocolate Rain, by Tay Zonday (aka Adam Bahner) is a case in point. The track is a YouTube phenomenon with more than 6 million views. It's odd. But listen to it twice and you get swept up by it. Hypnotized by it. It's certainly different, and there just ain't no way a label would have had anything to do with it. I fully expect the next wave of music and filmmaker stars to come out of the DIY digital revolution.