Matt, Trey, and the appeal to a wider culture.

Hey Rogueites,

Short post today, but an important one. Thanks to a good friend, I was able to read an article on Matt and Trey, the creators of South Park.

You can read the article for yourself, but a few points struck me:

-Matt and Trey started their South Park empire by doing it all themselves. They basically took bits of cut out paper, animated and created a media empire. They didn’t really start with an agent, a deal, or go through the supposed “normal” process. All they did was tell the stories in their head.

-They rode the wave of pop culture by telling stories people wanted to hear. Often, they make some very valid cultural points along the way. They appealed to the “broader” culture and told RELATABLE stories.

The result of all this? They now have their own media empire to do whatever, whenever they want. They have the ultimate creative freedom because they dared to tell “popular stories”.

So, the question then is this, what stories do you like? Are they popular? Why do some creative folks look at popular appeal with disdain? Should artists appeal to a large audience? Is there a lesson for Christians trying to break into media?

Pitch in on the discussion. As for me, I’ve always said, I don’t want my novels taught in literary classes. I want them to be come lego sets. What say you?

Will you be the voice of a generation?