Apparently it doesn’t have to be. 

On the New Yorker website you can watch a recent Malcom Gladwell lecture on predicting blockbuster hits. The science of art, the patterns of popular culture, the stories that strike a chord, over and over again in the hearts of, well, maybe everyone. It’s most certainly a compelling lecture, though the doubts that arise over the integrity of art as art versus maybe, say, art as media, and art as commerce - well, you get the picture. It’s worth sitting down for an hour and getting into, and luckily for those of us with shorter attention spans (or lunch breaks), there are a few clips of the highlights as well.