Watching the Water Walk performance allowed me to see and understand what the times were like when Cage was living. Cage is on a game show in which no bad language was used and the content was whole-heartedly good-natured. The audience laughs at the little amusements in his “music” -- some to the point of hysteria. Wow, have times change. Now, people won’t give a television 5 minutes unless the presence of vulgar language or obscene violence is present. It’s outrageous! John Cage’s simplistic entertainment reflects the type of society which we have evolved from.
Back in Cage’s time, shows like Leave It to Beaver were loved by the entire nation. Today there are only handfuls of people that still enjoy that genre of entertainment. This is what I believe happened to Cage in his music and art. The art of Cage is filled with goofy components that people of that era found funny. Today, the average person does not distinguish his humor as enjoyable entertainment, but instead some come to find it silly and obnoxious. As Daniel said, his fan base has diminished to mere handfuls of people due to the fact that times and interests have changed.
I have come to realize that I wish that our society could go back to its old ways of some good-hearted entertainment. Instead of watching attention-hungry people party and embarrass themselves, it would be nice to experience a new form of music or be introduced to different philosophies of thinking. Entertainment needs to be upgraded. Even though Cage’s music may not necessarily have purpose, I enjoy the thoughts that it provokes and the realizations it brings.
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