Wednesday, September 03, 2003
Sowing and Reaping
This isn't an original observation, but it's still worth reflecting upon: the entertainment industry is reaping what they have sown. The Recording Industry Association of America in particular has been throwing fits about file swappers whom they blame (probably correctly) for the continuing slide in music CD sales.
But who are they to complain? After all, they have spent decades promoting performers spewing out lyrics that extoll the virtues of vice: everything from drug dealing, pimping, whoring, all the way to cop killing. Now they want to act indignant about the relatively inncocent theft of a little intellectual property?
Of course, the RIAA wants to pursue its remedy thru lawsuits and other lawyerly manuevers. I doubt the thought of elevating moral contents of their products even crossed their collective minds. After all, the immoral is so much easier to sensationalize, and thereby market.
For an example, I suppose we need look no further than the Antics of Madonna Ciccone, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera during the 2003 Video Music Awards. Don't just focus on "The Kiss"! It got all the headlines, of course, but it's not the key. Neither are the "gay marriage" and "group sex" motifs, nor the S&M undertones, though of course they add to the spectacle. No, the point of the entire performance was to use Madonna's old song ("Like A Virgin") and a couple of Madonna follow-ons (Aguilera and Spears) to re-invigorate Madonna's image and promote Madonna's new song / Album, "Hollywood".
Not surprisingly, the key to the whole thing is the buried in that song's nonsense lyrics.Don't take my word for it - check the lyrics out yourself, and try to make sense of them. You'll see that the only line that stands out is the last line; the line that was also the punchline of the VMA performance: "I'm bored with the concept of right and wrong".
Have a generation of kids shouting that out for a while, and then try to tell them what they should and shouldn't do.
But who are they to complain? After all, they have spent decades promoting performers spewing out lyrics that extoll the virtues of vice: everything from drug dealing, pimping, whoring, all the way to cop killing. Now they want to act indignant about the relatively inncocent theft of a little intellectual property?
Of course, the RIAA wants to pursue its remedy thru lawsuits and other lawyerly manuevers. I doubt the thought of elevating moral contents of their products even crossed their collective minds. After all, the immoral is so much easier to sensationalize, and thereby market.
For an example, I suppose we need look no further than the Antics of Madonna Ciccone, Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera during the 2003 Video Music Awards. Don't just focus on "The Kiss"! It got all the headlines, of course, but it's not the key. Neither are the "gay marriage" and "group sex" motifs, nor the S&M undertones, though of course they add to the spectacle. No, the point of the entire performance was to use Madonna's old song ("Like A Virgin") and a couple of Madonna follow-ons (Aguilera and Spears) to re-invigorate Madonna's image and promote Madonna's new song / Album, "Hollywood".
Not surprisingly, the key to the whole thing is the buried in that song's nonsense lyrics.Don't take my word for it - check the lyrics out yourself, and try to make sense of them. You'll see that the only line that stands out is the last line; the line that was also the punchline of the VMA performance: "I'm bored with the concept of right and wrong".
Have a generation of kids shouting that out for a while, and then try to tell them what they should and shouldn't do.
