John Mayer And The Search For Content

"I hope you like it... it took me 90 minutes to make it." That's John Mayer's pitch for the "New Light" video, which he teased on Instagram the day beforehand with endless discussions on "content".

As usual, John's on to something. We live in the era of "content" rather than "creation". Creation takes time, but the Internet isn't hungry for creation. It's hungry for content, which is ephemeral by nature and by design. It takes a while to interact with creation, but content is the equivalent of the Burger King Mac N' Cheetos. You consume it, perhaps glancing at an advertisement as you do so, then you move on.

This didn't happen by accident. This situation was created by reasonably smart people who had some reasonably smart ideas regarding creation versus aggregation. For a meandering and fairly spergy but still perceptive insight into the gap between creation and aggregation, take a look at this article about the never-ending battle between Yelp and Google. Yelp was designed to take advantage of Google Search, but in doing so they made themselves hideously vulnerable to Google's every whim. Furthermore, they serve as a living example of "the commoditization of content" in favor of aggregation.

John Mayer doesn't need Google. He has a built-in fan base who pay attention to his every move, even when that move is eating hot wings while wearing a $75,000 watch. You can look at this video as an example of authentically aristocratic disdain for "content pushers", or you can see it as his wink and nod to an aging fanbase. Hell, it might just be a chance for him to show off some rare and expensive pieces of Japanese street style. I don't know. The rest of us out there aren't so lucky. We need to keep generating content the way a child needs to tread water once he's too far off shore to come home --- and for the same reason.