Creativity Quote by Kate Smith

“It’s up to the audience” is the kind of line that sounds humble until you notice the steel inside it. Kate Smith, a mass-media vocalist whose fame was built on radio and early television, is pointing to the one force no performer can out-sell, out-sing, or outspin: collective attention. In an era when careers could hinge on a single broadcast and when “public opinion” was less an abstract metric than a literal dial being turned, Smith frames art as a negotiation with listeners who can reward you with devotion or switch you off mid-chorus.

The follow-up, “It always has been,” does two things at once. It knocks down the romantic idea that artists are ever fully in control, and it punctures the mythology that the industry’s latest gatekeepers (labels, critics, network executives) are the true arbiters. Smith isn’t denying power; she’s relocating it. Managers can book the slot, but they can’t manufacture that private yes in a living room. The subtext is both empowering and cautionary: audiences give artists legitimacy, but they can also demand comfort, familiarity, and emotional service.

Coming from a singer associated with patriotic performance and wide appeal, the remark reads as a pragmatic credo. It’s not the “fan-first” slogan of today’s creator economy; it’s older, tougher realism. If you want longevity, you don’t just perform for the audience. You accept that you work for them, even when that makes the job messy, compromising, and profoundly democratic.