When art is consumed, it tends to obliterate the artist's intent.
As illustration, it's hard to beat Jacek Kaczmarski and Poland's most famous song. In his own words (well, and my so-so translation):
Conversation
'I wrote "Mury" in 1978 as a piece about distrust of all mass movements. I heard Luis Llach's recording and the singing crowd of many thousands, and imagined the situation - as an egoist and a man who values individualism in life -
Replying to
that someone has created something very beautiful - because it is beautiful music, a beautiful song - and then he is deprived of his work, because people take it away.
The work simply ceases to be the property of the artist, and that is what "Mury" is about.
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And the ballad predicted itself, because the same thing happened to it. It became a hymn, a song of the people, and ceased to be mine.'
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Kaczmarski was indeed a hugely egotistical individualist, who was in many ways a pretty terrible person.
But that doesn't detract from his point, or the musical accomplishment inherent in the song. No small irony in that it was his own version of another's song, though.
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("Mury", for the record, became a marching song for the Solidarność movement, so it's exactly as Kaczmarski said - the song became its own prophecy.)
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