Advanced Theory
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Advanced Theory (also called Advancement Theory) is a semi-humorous theory of pop culture invented by Jason Hartley and Britt Bergman and popularized by Chuck Klosterman. Hartley and Bergman invented it as an "optimistic" antidote to overly rigid taste trends among rock hipsters. According to Klosterman:
"Advancement is a cultural condition in which an Advanced individual—i.e., a true genius—creates a piece of art that 99 percent of the population perceives to be bad. However, this is not because the work itself is flawed; this is because most consumers are not Advanced."[1]
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[edit] Core concepts
An artist is Advanced when they do something that is neither expected of them nor the opposite of what is expected of them. The latter is called Overt and may superficially resemble being Advanced. True Advancement stems from an artist following their own idiosyncratic genius (but not willful obscurity or guile, which are Overt).
In practice, the distinction between Overt and Advanced is an important but sometimes difficult one. Being Overt may resemble irony, whereas Advancement may just seem weird (or terrible, to an audience that is not Advanced).
According to the theory's proponents, many artists who eventually become Advanced first undergo a period of being Overt.
[edit] Advanced artists
According to proponents of Advanced Theory, a partial list of Advanced artists (and examples of their Advanced acts) would include:
- Lou Reed, for rapping about AIDS, Louis Farrakhan, and waffles
- David Bowie, for forming Tin Machine
- KISS, for creating the soundtrack to a nonexistent movie
- Val Kilmer, for virtually every career move he has made
- Sting, for reasons even Advancement Theorists do not understand
[edit] References
- ^ Klosterman, C: "Real Genius An introduction to the highly advanced theory of Advancement, an entirely new way to appreciate Sting, Val Kilmer, C-Murder, and other profound artists", Esquire, 2004, reprinted online and in the book Chuck Klosterman IV.
