Incomplete Thoughts: Cliche
The cliché or clichéd device does not just make the piece of art weaker, but also has a reciprocal effect. In its use, the cliché itself is attacked, removed from its original context and meaning and dropped into a new one, the arena of the slogan and the platitude. Take “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye:
Who under the age of 30 can hear that opening wah-wah-wah and not recall some movie, or TV show, or commercial, where this song has been used to cheap and terrible effect? Mr. Gaye wrote this song to be judged as a song, but it has been reduced to the level of the laugh track, a quick button to push to elicit a Pavlovian response. Thanks to the hacks who choose to speak in clichés (see: nearly all Hollywood directors and writers, all artists on mainstream radio, almost every writer in TV or on Broadway), unique and potentially beautiful pieces of art become just another catchphrase, rather than something meant to be truly felt and experienced. New languages must be created; every second the old languages are being co-opted and stripped of meaning. This is entropy.
