From the inside of my mind...

I was watching Ayumi's "Born To Be..." music video just now, and it got me thinking--but before you Ayumi haters write me off, hear me out.

As some of you already know, I was especially impressed by her latest music video, "Born To Be..." But what got me thinking during the video is how consistent she has to be as an artist--how consistent all great artists have to be. Whether it be Do As Infinity, m.o.v.e, Green Day, James Newton Howard, or any artist, the key to being a success is to continuously impress. Not to just settle for being a good artist, but to do something that people will remember you for; to rise above normal expectations of putting out "solid" work, but to work your butt off to do something special. Even if it isn't to the liking of everyone, or even to the liking of your normal audience, you've got to try to get people's attention. That is to say, don't pump out random crap and see how the audience reacts, but to try your best and to get your audience talking. Because if you try something new and fresh, where some people love it and some people hate it, you've at least created what media and message boards are all about-discussion. So for all of those artists, it elevates beyond just being consistent, but having to be consistently impressive.

It's one thing to consider how tough it has to be for the artist/artists involved in the creative process, and it's another to actually be a person involved in the creative process. I happen to fall on both sides, really. No, I'm not a professional, and no, I'm not yet an up-and-comer. But I'm at least working my way on becoming one-a director, to be exact (my dream? To direct videogames. Believe it.). I can't imagine the pressures I'll face in the future, but I at least have experienced some of it. To be honest, I even worried myself sick (literally) this past Thursday to Friday afternoon. In high school, I acted and wrote for three years (didn't do a whole lot Freshman year); in my first year of college alone, I directed, edited, and worked behind a camera (as camera man, which I found isn't my strongest area...). And my video team now puts out weekly newscasts to on the school's news channel (in which we get most of the editing done at the eleventh hour due to our schedules). I'll even pull news anchor duties in the near future, something I practiced in high school, to a limited extent.

It's tough, but it's a learning experience-one that I'm glad to go through. I'm finally working my way toward that dream, as hopelessly lame as that sounds. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that a lot of us are somewhat in artist's shoes, even if we're not artists ourselves. We're aiming to impress that teacher, that parent, and that girl or guy that we have our eyes on. We've got the pressure on us to really live up to, and surpass expectations. I'm not saying that these expectations are always reasonable, or even sane, but they're there. I dunno, but if you look at it like that, we've all kind of got that pressure going on (even if we don't have hundreds of thousands fans eagerly awaiting our next move). I wonder if I'll be able to consistently impress people with my work in the future?

I don't really know where I'm going with this, but I just had some of this stuff on my mind as I was watching the video, and the thoughts grew as I wrote this post. Since it's more of more like some sort of rant than it is anything else, I'll end it here. O.o