Surviving the Hits (2008)

I've been there. Some article or art really lands with me, falls completely flat with friends or when I post it.

I've also experienced the opposite--a focus of this very article actually--creating something that catches on much more than I expected.

It's surreal being able to create something that people love and not being able to exactly know why that one bubbled up in particular.

Feeling a profound connection to some work and not having others see what you see is the brother of that confusion.

If you want a surprisingly deep meditation on popularity in art, Chris Rock's Top Five has some interesting dialogues on it. And Chuck Klosterman's "But What if We're Wrong?" is a good book basically about how unfathomable popularity is.