I define art as any creation that reflects something about the artist or creator whether it be an interest, a feeling, a fact about their life, their dreams, etc. Art can be a painting, a film, a book, or even a drawing that you give your mother for mother’s day. Just the concept of using resources around you to create something that, without you, would not exist is impressive to me.
While reading Alexis Mardigal’s article on The Atlantic named “How Netflix Reverse Engineered Hollywood,” I found myself intrigued and amazed by his quest to make a list of all the altgenres (a term Madrigal uses to describe the various genres found on Netflix) that the streaming service has to offer. However, there was one sentence that caught my eye in which he describes a conversation between himself and Todd Yellin, Netflix’s VP of Product. Madrigal says, “‘It’s a real combination: machine-learned, algorithms, algorithmic syntax,’ Yellin said, ‘and also a bunch of geeks who love this stuff going deep.'” I also have a definition for geeks: anyone who is very passionate about something whether it be movies, video-games, data, or any other field of interest.
This quote resonated with me, reminding me of a conversation I had with one of my friends a few days ago when I showed him a video on Youtube by a Poketuber (someone who makes videos about the media franchise, Pokemon), Nathan Smith, who goes by the name of “natewantstobattle.” Smith has over 200,000 subscribers on Youtube which he has garnered through his “Let’s Plays” and song parodies. Below is one of his parody videos called “Hoenn’s Out,” based on the song “Love Runs Out” by American pop band OneRepublic.
Smith’s song, “Hoenn’s Out” talks about the excitement Pokemon fans felt upon hearing that Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire were confirmed for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. Smith has used what many would call a “geeky” interest to create these parody videos that many people enjoy listening to and watching. Other Youtube users leave comments expressing how they feel about his parodies. Here are a few:
TyranitarTube: “I’m gonna jam to this as I drive to BestBuy in November.”
Taylor Nordman: “I heard the original song for the first time today, and in comparison to this, I thought it sucked.”
Blaze The Mincraftian: “Cant stop listening to this song.”
When Yellin mentioned the people who watched the movies for Netflix to stream and rated the movies based on violence, the level of romance, etc. to create altgenres for Netflix, he described people who were passionate about the subject and committed to doing the work. Even Madrigal, who followed road they left behind by giving each genre a certain title, was passionate enough about creating a list and data to work until the it was complete. Whether you call these people geeks in a good way or a bad way, I call them artists for creating something they believe in.