#creativity

One quick question about music: do constraints of genre enhance creativity, or stifle it? I think the correct answer may be "neither," and that the creativity of a work of music depends almost entirely on the creator. There are swaths of genre-bending music that fail to inspire the listener, and likewise swaths of music created almost exclusively according to the conventions of a given genre, equally uninspiring. A good musician can inspire within or without genre.

Idea for a cartoon: make a character out of an animal that is typically reviled, and give him or her endearing, or at least somehow sympathetic, qualities. It could be a cute cockroach, for instance, who enjoys peacefully feasting on food debris in a movie theater. The drawings would try to make the animal lovable, to the point where someone would want a stuffed animal version of the character.