A recent survey has shown that artist is considered to be the most non-essential job.
In a survey commissioned by The Sunday Times, artist role topped a list that also featured telemarketers, social media manager/PR specialists, business consultants and human resource managers. 71 percent of those asked believed that artists were the most non-essential of jobs, with the results having been collated from approximately 1,000 participants who were aged 16 and over. The Sunday Times noted how the survey, conducted by the Singaporean consumer research firm Milieu Insigh,t was a “nationally representative sampling across age, gender and income groups.” Conversely, the top five jobs Singaporeans believed to the most essential included doctors and nurses, cleaners, garbage collectors, hawkers and deliverymen.
Having seen the survey results, Singaporean comedian Rishi Budhrani shared his thoughts on how people viewed artists, positing that if artists and the art they create are so unimportant, those who hold that belief should delete their Netflix accounts, cancel their Spotify subscriptions and sell their TVs. He also challenged them to stop showing their kids an iPad to occupy them, stop listening to music during their workouts and break times and cease watching any movies or music videos on YouTube.
“And, when the theatres, restaurants, cinemas open up; please do not go to any of them,” he wrote. “Only go to a restaurant with no music, no paintings and focus on the food. Go to a bar with no LIVE band or screens and just focus on drinking. Spend private gatherings with only natural sounds. Play charades at home; who needs movies?”
“If we, as a nation, can successfully move forward without any of these things, then perhaps we can start taking this survey more seriously and believe that the sample is actually a ‘national representative’ group,” Budhrani continued. “But, If during the circuit breaker, you’ve gone out for a run with your wireless earbuds when you were stressed, Or if you’ve watched that comedy before going to bed on a Monday cos it was the only thing that made you laugh all day, Or, If you’ve left a cartoon on for the kids so that you can have 20 mins of peace while the weight of the whole world comes crashing down on you..Then, an ARTIST HAS BEEN ESSENTIAL for you to get through this difficult time.”
As more people have been staying indoors, self-isolating due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, more and more have been turning to streaming services and online digital platforms for entertainment and distraction, whether it’s for movies, music, comic books, novels or video games.
