The difference between innovation and novelty
Many people don’t understand why certain songs win a Grammy and why certain films win an Oscar.
Hi,
When I watched the Oscars during my childhood I always thought …. Why was Harry Potter not nominated for an Oscar? It is without a doubt the best film I have ever seen. But after a while, I realized that the academy chooses the nominees and the winners based on much deeper technical judgments than we can imagine. Let’s face it, watching a box office success is much better than watching an Oscar winner. We often don’t even understand the end of the film, which is frustrating.
The same thing happens with the Grammy. Who has never found it unfair that Britney Spears only has 1 Grammy and that One direction has never been nominated?
However, we can understand better when we distinguish innovation from novelty, both in the world of music, in the cinema and in any other area, novelty is something exciting, but society does not understand very well the innovative ideas, because they are totally out of the standard, this standard that we use to guide us in decisions of what to listen, watch, read, use and etc.
Innovation means creating something new. The word innovation is derived from the Latin term innovatio and refers to an idea, method or object that is created and that looks little like previous standards. Novelty, on the other hand, means a condition of what appears, what presents itself for the first time, that is, it does not necessarily have to be outside the standards, it generally follows the standards, like a boy band, which exists within the boy band standards, even one different from the others, or a pop star, or a dramatic movie.
Tell me why the hell Leonardo DiCaprio won the Oscar for best actor for The Revenant and not for Titanic or the millions of other films he made. Well, the only thing that comes to my mind is that no one has watched the film The Revenant, at least no one I know. What characterizes the human being, we like news, but not exactly innovations. Who has never wondered why the most famous painters are considered incredible only after they are dead? Or why do writers who create new genres of literature take decades to be recognized? But the consecrated in the existing genres have guaranteed success in life, or you will say that you never read Twilight.
This is what the mind likes, new things, but that do not challenge or undo its learned and sure pattern of judging and categorizing things. What makes your life difficult is changing patterns, as you lose your point of orientation. It is clear that after a while the majority of society realizes that the change of that standard was a blessing, but even today there are people who do not have the courage to fly on airplanes, think Picasso is ugly and do not know who invented Rock’N ‘ Roll was a black guy.
Being new guarantees attention, but being innovative guarantees fear and distrust. But as soon as you prove your point, the sky is the limit, just hope it is while you’re still alive.
