There was a shallow and inaccurate article: Aerosmith made more Money from Video Games.  The article is bogus, beginning with its premise:

> Guitar Hero: Aerosmith generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album

Many commenters showed the errors of it.  Would people have bought the “video games” if not for the albums?  My purpose, though, it to call attention to the societal myths the article reveals.  Let’s start with these:

Myth:  Aerosmith generated the revenue

That’s just a way of looking at it. Really, Aerosmith generated little or none of the money. The money came from labels (record producers) and concert organizers and managers and a whole industry set up for a very modern idea (that started in the 1960’s), to generate money from music as copyrighted property. What Aerosmith contributed was music, passion and a struggle to make their particular “rock star” life work, as they navigated the culture. Aerosmith generated something of value. The industry generated revenue from it.

Another way of seeing that this is a myth is to look at songwriters and performers before the modern music industry began in the 1950’s and 60’s. Artists and performers were mostly poor.

The article conclusion is also bogus if it’s interpreted that Guitar Hero was a success based on Aerosmith’s fame, rather than their efforts:

> who you are may be more important than what you do.

First, notice the meaning, that “what’s important” is “revenue generated”, money. These are (self-reinforcing) societal myths, that fame and wealth matter. Another is that Aerosmith’s contribution is more than yours, or mine, or anyone’s. Granted, these seem very true to most of us, since they are our cultural myths. They color what we think is true or false.

While measures are often invaluable when working to accomplish something, they’re measures of something arbitrary. We humans often forget that each of us defines what’s important. When we forget, it’s easy to just reinforce the shallow interpretations of the definitions that our culture hands to us.

> who you are may be more important than what you do.

The myth is that they’re separate, so one can be more important. This hides two possibilities. 1- Perhaps what Aerosmith did was an expression of who they were.  2- Perhaps doing it empowered them to more strongly be the Aerosmith that evolved its further expressions. In both of these, “who you are” and “what you do” are intertwined.

Another societal myth is that “who you are” somehow exists. Maybe you get to say who you are in every moment. Others also get to say who you are. And what they say influences their actions, such as buying music and games. But this myth hides that “who you are” is created. It’s created by others, and it’s created by you saying it and expressing it in action.

In one sense of the phrase, “who you are” means your reputation. It seems to me, too, that after someone is famous, that’s often more important. But even so, the stated myth leads many people to blame their lack of success on lack of fame. Granted, winning American Idol brings a lot of success. But at the same time, without practice and great performance, people won’t win.

Another lie is that there really is a “what you do.”  While our actions are real, their significance is up to each of us. Often the significance of our actions changes over time, and later we see what a huge contribution something was, or discover huge consequences. So there’s no telling, today, the importance of what you do. Or we could look at it as, the telling of it is everything, and gives us who we are.

We can choose what we say, and we can choose what it means

Like the author, we have complete choice in what we say. You can buy into the myths or see the lie in them. You get to create who you are and what you do.

To me, this article was shallow and inaccurate.  Junk food.  Kudos to the author for giving us food for thought.

PeopleCount.org was born out of seeing our societal myths around government and politics, and creating a way we can all work together harmoniously to create together the future we desire. See societal myths everywhere. Choose your life, your actions, and your future.