There's no accounting for taste...
Well at least not on the Internet. Maybe I'm just a grumpy old man but all these
new creative outlets have left popular culture in chaos. What else can explain over 2 million YouTube views of a flatulent dog let alone that
Miley Cyrus gets even one ITunes download.
Even commercials are senseless. I mean c'mon, 80's hair metal to sell a Honda
Minivan? I may be old enough to remember
what MTV was like before Rap music but even I'm not that lame. The rise of Reality TV in the last century
certainly didn't help either. Maybe it's
the cause of all of this.
It's got to be tough to be a TV writer these days. The opportunities are few and far between
when the big networks are crowded with such "gems" as Survivor and
Big Brother.
I guess we didn't know how
good we had it when we were wondering who shot JR or whether Fonzie was going
to make it over that shark.
Maybe that's when popular culture jumped the shark. Oh yeah, in case you don't know, the Happy
Days episode where Fonzie jumps a shark
on water skis is commonly regarded as the point where the series finally lost
popularity with viewers.
It seems that was also the point where popular culture developed
a severe case of ADD. Take a look at
your local TV schedule these days and you'll soon find that if you want something
other than reality TV or infomercials there's going to be a monthly charge
attached.
Ok, ok I know. Ol' Grandpa
hates that evil rock and roll and Elvis is corrupting our youth and you can get
pregnant from sitting on a public toilet.
Though before you judge me too harshly, let's look at a few
examples of popular music from the past
few decades. I happen to believe an
era's music says more about its popular culture than any other medium.
1970's - Go Your OwnWay, Fleetwood Mac. At least we were thinking above the belt on
this one.
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
Hey, it's a great song and all but it might as well be the
ADHD anthem. Soon to be followed by a
pop culture confused by its own identity
or a lack thereof. Gender bending
pop-stars pushing limits nobody cares about anymore and talentless hacks that
even their peers can't stand. I'm
lookin' at you Bieber...
I'm not even going to bother with the 2000's, they're part
of the problem with so-called popular tracks like "Poker Face" and "Give it 2 u" which never get above
the bikini line let alone the belt...
Oh but the great equalizer that is the Internet, where
anyone with a YouTube channel can be "discovered." It's led to gushing pundits proclaiming the
end of the "gatekeepers" and "curated" entertainment. Evidenced by 2.7 million views of a bad fart
joke.
Funny thing is that you're never going to see anyone get a
Grammy or an Oscar based on YouTube views or ITunes downloads.
Maybe we need the gatekeepers. For all their rumblings over piracy and
copyright their real problem is that they don't know how to read the public
anymore. It's true that business concerns should never trump talent but we've
gone too far in the other direction. The
entertainment industry has become more
flaky than a Wall Street broker with oil futures.
However, it's still a fact that nobody becomes successful
without the blessings of the gatekeepers no matter how fickle they are.
Some of them have even moved into the "New Media" space but in
the end the new media is really just an extension of the same old construct.
That's a problem, because the gatekeepers have lost their
focus by trying to entice a popular culture that doesn't know what it
wants. The result is a product only
marginally better than YouTube fare. It
caters to the lowest common denominator and that part of the equation has
gotten lower.
We're literally awash in cat videos, Jackass wannabes and
bad movie trailers. Hollywood is
clueless, stuck in an endless cycle of formula sequels and kid friendly animation
that would be better suited going straight to video. They've become so bereft of creativity that any
recent list of the top ten movies will undoubtedly include films based on
either comic books or games.
The rest usually involve vampires, werewolves or somebody's
organs violently being removed from their body.
Let's not forget the new trend of "reboots" that Started with
J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" and has moved on to 80's slasher flicks.
Maybe I am too old but it seems I've managed to find a lot
of things to like about every generation of popular culture. Even those I wasn't around for.
Something's different now.
Even with the overwhelming quantity of content it seems the
quality has become insignificant. Make
no mistake, every era has had crap. Face
it, there was good reason why most of the hair metal bands didn't manage to get past their first album.
Now imagine if all those bands were still around clogging up
Pandora or Spotify. You'd waste a lot of
time wading through crap just to hear what you like.
Art needs curation and entertainment deals with
artists. Pop culture is inextricably intertwined
with art. That means there needs to be some level of quality
control. Even if it runs against the
whole "free and open" argument .
Imagine the alternative.
Would any museum be worth visiting if any hack with a
paintbrush could throw up their paint by numbers portrait of Elvis?
