Film and music have been inextricably linked since silent films were originally accompanied by bands and orchestras during their displays. This relationship moved forward as Jean Renoir, using in-camera effects, sought to push his medium forward much in the same way Lou Reed and Andy Warhol married disparate elements of art culture. The later discovered that entertainment seekers were able to digest more than one mode of expression during a single instant. The concept behind the merger of Reed’s music and the short films of Warhol are in many ways directly applicable to the way that people now seek to integrate variegated technologies within a web-based environment.

At the same time that motion forward in any art form begins, there are those that have in some way become commentators, (so the dichotomy is innovator/commentator? How exactly does this work). Where a Dorothy Parker might comment comedically and a Camille Paglia may examine social aspects, new media and an almost universal utilization of the internet has created legions of commentators that count only a few who are able to reach above the din and posit credible insight. One of the by products of greater access to technology is a relationship between artist and commentator that can potentially occur in moments. If both are using similar digital formats to express ideas, there becomes a difficulty in separating the two.

In all too many ways the innovator and the commentator have come to occupy a similar space in the dominant culture. Commentators like Chuck Klosterman have become powerful arbiters of taste. Klosterman has gone from small town music critic to personal essayist in just short of a decade. A plausible reason for this is the expanded exposure new media has afforded Klosterman. This relationship, in addition to being complicated by absolute awareness of each other, results in an inter-dependence. Using Klosterman again as an example, he depends on musical acts from the ‘80s or another by-gone era to reform and perform, otherwise his personal essays have no frame, no jumping off point. Without the assistance of these musicians, all he would be left with is a series of stories detailing a childhood on a farm.

In recent times both artistic creativity and art criticism have become more and more similar. Commentators become celebrities for perceiving art in a singular manner. But similarly each new art, music or literary movement has to be discovered and eventually spread across the globe. These commentators need the same avenues for their own expression. The digitized American has provided both creator and commentator with miraculous choices by which to leave personal markers on and in the dominant culture.