In editing this episode, I realized that both Sam and Sophia talked about major turning points in their identities as artists coinciding with making someone cry. I once had a conversation with an actor I know who told a similar story. After a listless preadolescence, he was cast as Macbeth at age 14. When he discovered that his performance had caused members of the audience to cry, he knew he had found his calling.
It’s a compelling lens through which to view ability and creativity. The desire to move people, especially through music, has become gamified and memefied by songwriters online—jokes about needing increased dosages of SSRIs after an indie musician releases new content are common. But there’s more to art than simply generating a physiological response. I have often thought that in order to be qualified as art, content must meet two of the following three criteria—it must have aesthetic value, academic value, and/or affective value. Good art need not be educational and also beautiful and also moving, but it should be at least two out of the three. (I should probably do an entire essay on this theory…but that’s for another day).
Enjoy my conversation with Sophia about TikTok and musical theater and American Idol and the collisions of galaxies!
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