Week 6 Post 2 - Intentions and Inspirations

   When examining the creative process of artists, it is crucial that you know the artist's intentions, the "why" behind their creations. These intentions are very often tied to impactful experiences in the artist's life, but inspiration can come from anywhere, even something as insignificant as a conversation you overhear or someone you pass on the sidewalk.

   The deepest intention behind the hip-hop/R&B artist Kid Cudi is "to help kids not feel alone and stop kids from killing themselves". Cudi has this grand intention because he himself has dealt with depression, loneliness, low self-worth and suicidal thoughts for most of his life and for him, there was no one to guide him or coach him to get better and stop feeling that way. Cudi expresses this in his work, notably in "KIDS SEE GHOSTS", by creating lyrics that communicate how he has felt in a way that his listeners can relate to. Here are some lyrics from "Reborn":

I had my issues, ain't that much I could do
But, peace is something that starts with me, with me
At times, wonder my purpose
Easy then to feel worthless
But, peace is something that starts with me

Kanye's intention behind entitling his 2018 album "Ye" was to communicate the idea that this album, which delves deep into Kanye's personal life and his struggles with mental issues, is a reflection of his listener's feelings. "Ye" means "You" in the bible and is literally part of Kanye's name, and this is to say that when Kanye is speaking about his issues, he is speaking about your and everybody's issues that they face every day. While Kanye's and Cudi's intentions are serious and thoughtful, Jerry Seinfeld's intentions are much more lighthearted. As you know, Jerry Seinfeld is a comedian and, unsurprisingly, his intentions are to make his audience laugh. As a successful and creative comedian, Seinfeld's advice to creatives is that they should get a calendar and mark an X on every day that they engaged in creating. Once you start a string of Xs, you should have a goal of never breaking that chain. Another comedian, Larry David, carries a small notebook around with him to jot down ideas whenever they come to him. Then he transcribes these ideas to another book where he can connect different ideas together to produce a show, movie, scene, etc. These could be from his imagination or stem directly from his life experiences, no matter how mundane. Larry does not make scripts for his episodes, but he makes outlines that convey the general idea of a scene to the cast. He does this because he wants the actors to have authenticity and spontaneity that is not present when there is a script. Larry also purposefully has his directors shoot in a way that lacks style and seemingly lacks professionality so that the audience is focused on the story of his show rather than the direction.

   Creative artists often intend for their art to make their audience feel a certain way, which is sometimes a feeling that the artists enjoys and wishes to communicate or it could be a feeling that the artist wished someone would make them feel. Kid Cudi's core motivation for creating music is to make something that speaks to the kids and makes them not feel alone and to stop them from committing suicide. This stems from Cudi's life experiences where he has dealt with these feelings in the past. Kanye West also derives motivation to create from his life experience. Kanye struggled with personal and mental issues, and in "Ye" he strives to make the listener feel like Kanye is no different than them, because they both deal with problems in their life and find ways to overcome them. Kanye used "Ye" as the title because of it's use in the bible as "You" as well as from his own name, to show how he cares for and loves everyone in his life and his fans. On a lighter note, Larry David's creative intentions are to make his audience laugh. His creative process is comparable to that of musicians, he always carries a notepad around with him to jot down ideas to then transfer them to a bigger book, where he puts ideas together to craft a scene. David does not create scripts for these scenes, but rather an outline to tell the actors what they are trying to achieve. This allows the actors to be authentic and spontaneous. David also does not want his directors to shoot in a stylistic way, he wants the shooting to be done in a way that people would not care about as to not draw attention away from the actual story.