I've seen NFT artwork across the board, from excellent to subpar to downright awful. In fact, some NFTs are so distasteful that they lack aesthetic appeal. Why then do some ugly NFTs succeed, earn praise from their owners as PFPs (social media profile pictures), and fetch high desirability? Why are NFTs so ugly? Why do all NFTs look the same?
Why are NFTs so ugly?
The first well-known NFTs were unsightly when NFTs initially emerged. In actuality, the very first NFT isn't that attractive. From there, early NFT initiatives like Cryptopunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club started to outline what an NFT should resemble.
A culture of people who take great pride in being "degens" may find greater humor in ugly NFT art than in work that is visually beautiful.
Even more repulsive visuals started to be celebrated and linked to already popular ugly NFTs with the debut of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
Hilarious works well with the NFT and web3 folks, and ugly is funny.
Usually, generative art initiatives don't result in stunning artwork.
It's amazing how popular ugly art has become in the NFT scene, with some of the most repulsive artwork garnering exorbitant prices. You might wonder who is paying for these unsightly items and why they are drawn to them.
It helps if we trace the spectacle's history back to the most expensive NFT initiatives available at the time: the Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club has a comparable plot and adheres to uglifying artistic trends. Despite having graphics with higher resolution than the Cryptopunks, the Bored Ape Yacht Club is not more beautiful.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club, which elevated unattractive to a new degree, has a sibling project called the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. Wait until you see the Mutant Apes if you thought the Bored Apes were awful.
The 20,000 apes that make up the Mutant Ape Yacht Club were produced after the Bored Apes were introduced to mutant serums. With the help of these serums, the bored apes were transformed into the bizarre Mutant Apes. The most valued serums created the ugliest mutants in addition to making the Bored Apes more hideous.
One of three serums, each of which would mutate a Bored Ape in a different way, was airdropped to every owner of a Bored Ape. An ape would be altered by the M1 and M2 mutant serums, but would retain most of its distinguishable traits.
Because Mega Mutant serums were the rarest, so were the resulting Mutant Apes. And rarity is valued in NFT culture. What you got as a result was a small number of the most repulsive apes being valued far above the majority of other Mutant Apes simply because of their rarity. People began to value ugly as a result of this, which led to a large number of more NFT ventures.
So, why are NFTs so ugly? Why do people like ugly NFTs?
Just as ugliness is subjective, so too is beauty. Even if the definition of ugly is "unpleasant or disgusting, especially in appearance," it is still a matter of opinion. You are free to make your own choices. You can constantly ask yourself , "How unpleasant or repulsive is this image?" while keeping the term in mind. And this should help you understand how hideous something is (to you).
