Some thoughts about popularity vs. quality...

[prisoner_24601]

I am constantly fascinated about what makes a story popular and how does and doesn't relate to the quality of the story in question. Sometimes the stars align and you end up with something amazing that is both popular and well written (Heroes is a good example of this). Unfortunately, it seems that far more often they don't and that something is either wildly popular and sucks ass or is freaking brilliant and criminally overlooked.

I don't really mind that the stuff that I find mediocre is popular. Although I am baffled by it, I tend to write it off as a subjective taste thing. And I also realize that not everyone is going to agree with me about what a quality piece of fiction is - and that's okay. If everyone had the same taste, that would be horrible really. And hey, as I've gotten older, my tastes have totally changed. When I was a teenager, I loved wanky romances and poorly written fantasy novels staring blatant mary sue characters, and I don't think there is anything wrong with that, but the older I got and the more that I read, the picker I've gotten. I think partially that's because the more you read, the more you realize how certain things are clichés or just ripped off of other writers who did it better in their story (yes Robert Jordan… I’m talking to you, you asshat.).

When it comes to my own personal taste - it seems like if I like whatever it is - it's doomed to early cancellation or obscurity (I like to call this the Prisoner24601 effect). I keep waiting for Battlestar Galactica to get canceled because I really love it (especially now that the wanky Starbuck/Apollo romance seems to be over).

I admit that I find it frustrating when I stumble across stuff that's so brilliant and no one is watching or reading. There are tons of examples of this in popular media and hell even in our own little tiny fandom. I mean, we live in a world where Firefly was canceled but a show like Everyone Loves Raymond (which I admit - I could never stand) was the number one show for years. In television and movies, it seems like the more bland the entertainment is, the more likely it's going to be popular.

There are some truly amazing pieces of fan fic in our community that that have been criminally overlooked (and I'm not talking about my own stuff - which I think gets a nice amount of feedback actually) or aren't even as remotely popular as they should be - and I just don't get it. It seems like if something isn't a romance, light side or fluffy, that people simply tune out. And I don't see anything wrong with people wanting those kinds of stories - it's just that I wish people would be more open to other kinds of stories too.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Comments

[affirmation26.livejournal.com]

I whole heartedly agree. I've seen some wonderful stories on KFM and even FF.net. They either have one or two reviews and sometimes none at all. The same could also be said about art. I've seen really fantastic pieces, but there are others that are not so great get more praise.

I think it would be awesome if on websites that host stories could do a featured story of the week or something. Maybe more people would notice them.

[midnight-hawk.livejournal.com]

I think that when, in popular media, things that are critically acclaimed and are cancelled because of bad ratings, it means that in five or ten years time all the popular shows in the same genre will be emulating them.

I think it's similar to how each generation sees a certain movie in a different way: Something that was subversive, controversial and original for the generation of its time, can become ordinary for the next.

I'm stil pissed that Angel got five seasons that I found sucky, while Firefly didn't get a full one.

[maddcoffeybrown.livejournal.com]

Popular media is a fickle thing. The good stuff sometimes gets canceled, sometimes it goes on to for years. I wish it was true when comes to my animated shows. How could you cancel Samurai Jack? Granted sometimes the creators/writers just run out of juice. That's rare in toon land. The really crappy ones get aired and the quality ones get killed. Why are the good ones killed and bad ones allowed to run. Advertising! Emmys seemed to no longer matter. If a show can't cross over to other media its doom to fail. If the demand for a show about dogs that talk to ghosts, then that's what coming next fall on ABC.

[athenaprime.livejournal.com]

Not everybody gets the brilliant stuff. Popular stuff is, by nature, that which appeals to the broadest swathe of people. Romance is hugely popular not because it's brilliant or not, but because it focuses on themes that a great quantity of people can relate to. And if you want to get meta about it, romance as a genre, transcends genre (you can have a romantic thread in a space odyssey and it falls under the SF category, but you can't have an historical set in space).

As for the "why the LS fluff?" My answer is that people can get depressed by reading the news, and prefer their fiction with happy endings and noble characters. My personal taste for leaning towards LS fluffiness is that I don't have the brain cells these days for emotionally investing in characters that are just going to end up either dead or asshats at the end of the story. :D

[plutospawn.livejournal.com]

You know, I've thought long and hard on this one, but have concluded that you'd probably have better luck trying to cure cancer with only some glitter and a gluestick than to try to figure out trends in popularity and taste.