is claim a character is one of the greatest songwriters/poets/artists/etc of all time, or claim some work of art is the most legendary thing to ever be made, found the greatest work of art ever, and then they post that poem or song or speech or painting or whatever and it's
middling at best, often just flat out bad
it's just the worst feeling. it makes the entire story feel fake, as if everyone in it can only aspire to this level of bad taste lol
so what are some examples where you think the author actually DID create art that holds up to it's legendary description? it actually IS as good as the story claims, this play DOES sound compelling enough to drive humanity insane, this painting COULD sell for 200 billion dollars, this poem COULD cause an entire alien race to decide on love instead of war or whatever the story wants?
Or if your story is actually engaging with what it means to compose a song that makes you pee and poo and barf and explode, then don't actually play the song because the story is not about that, it's about everything else around it.
If you're writing about one of the greatest artists ever, don't make them objectively the best ever that literally everyone loves. Make at least one character not "get" it, or disagree with how good they are. Or have the art be commercially successful but critically panned. Or the other way around. Or have a character be bored of the art because it's everywhere now. Or something, anything, that actually connects with our experience of art in the world.
Or make alternative explanations for the thing's power that don't rely on the audience loving the art in order to be believable.
Have the play actually be a cover for a demonic ritual on stage.
Have the painting be by an artist that disappeared and there's a conspiracy/rumors around it.
Have the aliens like a poem for mysterious arbitrary reasons no human actually understands.
TL/DR: Don't tell your audience "prepare to have your tits blown clean off by this piece of art" before showing them the art, because I guarantee the tits will remain firmly planted on your audience's chest regardless of how good the art is. And then your entire narrative kind of falls apart.
Legitimately the only way I can think to pull it off is to intentionally make any and all of the framing narrative around it intentionally shittier. And that is garbage. It's bad. It is a fool's game. Don't do that. Do what Noel says instead.
I swear there's a piece of media that is "the exception that proves the rule", but the fact that I cannot pull it from memory suggests that maybe it doesn't exist in the first place. I can think of a few things that imply it, but...
perhaps they are unable to reproduce the greatest art in the world and must merely present a tribute
Yall gotta see Hadestown. It pulls this off so well actually haha. In fairness it isnt that the somg in question is Just So Beautiful but rather that it has some kind of magic to it.
Hadestown good