Innovative, and that's just the start
Anyone else struck by how innovative this show is? Watching the first episode, I can't help feeling like it's a big deal. Not commercially, but from a social standpoint, a media and technology standpoint, and even a cultural and philosophical standpoint.
I found this show engaging, positive, and so inspired that by the time the closing credits rolled, I felt a sense of pride, gratitude, anticipation and possibility for what people can do. I feel like I've watched something that could change the way we think about the relationship between us and pop culture (audience vs. artist), the dominion of art (who does art "belong" to?), and even the way we form connections in this digital age (e.g., the relatively anonymous, unidirectional, and less invested nature of "following" and subscribing and commenting to things vs. creating art together in an open, fully transparent forum, resulting in something that could potentially be publicly broadcast into the cultural consciousness). It feels like an opportunity to bring down a lot of traditional walls in the way we shape and are shaped by pop culture and each other in these times.
Will it start a revolution? Who knows, but it deserves to! A combination of the strengths of so many great media innovations while standing out with its quality, resources and values. It has the do-it-yourself can-do spirit of YouTube, but has artistic integrity because it's directed by a creative vision and backed by collaborating talent both inside and outside traditional industry. It's mass connective like Twitter and Facebook, but for the purpose of creating something, and allows for anonymity. And it's taking down the barriers to entry to creating public entertainment similar to the way Wikipedia has done for public information, but it shares its profits. It's new, new media that respects both the artists and the audience and is fostering a global art community on an ambitious scale.
It's groundbreaking! And I'm really looking forward to the future of this show and hitRECord.