That statement is taken from a secondary school report of former Who drummer Keith Moon. Now largely considered to have been one of the best of the best rock and roll drummers, his chaotic and violent style took a while to be appreciated by critics.
I guess many artists have had that problem throughout history. A solid vision, a concept of a style that is absolutely crystal clear in their minds but nobody else seems to get at all.
Very frustrating. Am I insane? Or is everyone else?
The problem is that there are many, many artists caught in that crack. Most turn out to be talentless after all, insane, or worse, mediocre. But a very few end up proving to everyone else that they were blind all along. That there was something truly new in there that they missed utterly.
History is filled with people who were maligned, ignored, and even punished in their time, and who are now revered as geniuses.
Take Nicolo Paganini, for instance. Tall and gaunt, with a crazy head of hair, he traveled from town to town with his violin and terrified people everywhere he went. He didn't play the violin as much as attack it, with a look on his face so focused and fiery that it, in the opinion of those who saw him, could only be caused by demonic possession. Today his 24 Caprices are the gold standard of virtuoso violin. There are few people in the world who can play them at all, and fewer still (some say none) that can really pull them off with the intensity with which they were created.
So next time you see something really different, something that you can't immediately attach a presupposition onto, relax. Don't immediately throw it out. At least consider it.
You may be looking at genius, and not yet know it.
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