You're asking somebody who, in '78, named his radio show, "Jagged Edges". I've been comfortable with the use of "edgy" for quite a while. Overused and always subjective, it still seems to convey what it was intended to convey -- challenging content. If some people only mean "sensational" by it, that's their loss. I have no idea what publishers may be thinking, I only know what I would be thinking if I was in their position and that is, how do I become a content creator, since there is declining need for specialist in publishing. Content rules now, creators are having all the fun. Artists, writers, musicians -- all content creators are able to go direct to the public. Publishing magnets, media moguls, and gatekeepers are rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. They better be thinking of what they want to do for a living.
The content creators in all the arts should learn from history and realize that the audience wants something it hasn't seen before, it doesn't know what it wants, only that it doesn't want any more of what it's already getting. A creator needs to follow their own voice. They should only say what they need to say. If a creator is trying to please an audience, it's for sure, the audience won't like it. The audience wants to find the content themselves. An artist is not a sociologist. Taste trends are for losers. No one can predict the future.
Art is best when it brings insight into our common experience. The universe of our common experience cannot be reduced to a few constituent themes like sex, violence, death, disease, fear, joy, health, birth, caring, or love. "Edgy" should describe fresh content. Sex and violence is always interesting, but is not, by itself, edgy. Content with unique, important insight, that's what's edgy. It can be hard truth, brilliant concepts, deep pathos or a million other things, but it must bring clarity, it must bring life-improving realizations, if it does, then it's edgy.
Old school media companies trying to make a buck by editing "news" on a on-going basis produce 90% crap, if you pay attention at all, it's to get the worthwhile 10%. CNN adding to their early Katrina coverage is a good thing. Crime statistics going down while media coverage of crime increases is evidence that media reports do not cause crime -- another good thing.
Public billboards, bus signs, because they are unavoidable, are a public concern. Civic government should exercise control to keep them appropriate to all ages, cultures and tastes. But any media content channel, such as books, newspapers, magazines, TV, radio or internet requires a gesture of invitation before the individual may consume it, therefore not a public concern.
Last night, for the first time in my memory, the Academy Award for best picture went to a movie I liked, "Crash". I must be losing my edge.
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