On Today's Hottest Artists/Styles/Movies/etc.
Oftentimes, in advertising one runs across the phrase that titles this entry.
TV Guide might claim to highlight "Today's hottest shows!";
Entertainment Weekly, "Today's hottest stars! (And all the stuff you have no business to know about their lives!)";
LaunchCast Radio, "Music by today's hottest artists!";
New York and Company, "Today's hottest styles!"
As one who believes that beauty and value are not time-dependent, such phrases peeve me. They seem to indicate that a hot artist today will be a cold artist tomorrow. If an artist's work is dependent on the time of year, than it's probably not that good.
What is it about we humans in culture who are so affected by what is considered "hot" at that time? Why do we judge the quality of something based on how "hot" it is said to be, on some (probably false) sense of how many other people like something at any given moment? Why must something be "new" (or old enough to be nostalgic) to be good?
TV Guide might claim to highlight "Today's hottest shows!";
Entertainment Weekly, "Today's hottest stars! (And all the stuff you have no business to know about their lives!)";
LaunchCast Radio, "Music by today's hottest artists!";
New York and Company, "Today's hottest styles!"
As one who believes that beauty and value are not time-dependent, such phrases peeve me. They seem to indicate that a hot artist today will be a cold artist tomorrow. If an artist's work is dependent on the time of year, than it's probably not that good.
What is it about we humans in culture who are so affected by what is considered "hot" at that time? Why do we judge the quality of something based on how "hot" it is said to be, on some (probably false) sense of how many other people like something at any given moment? Why must something be "new" (or old enough to be nostalgic) to be good?