Rant about music, movies, pop culture

Perhaps I am starting to become a curmudgeony old man, but I am probably not alone in saying that today's music and movies are mostly garbage. (Yes there are exceptions, but they are mostly garbage.) I know my parents said the same thing, and their parents said the same thing, but I think this generation is different.

The major problem with movies, music, and pop culture these days are illegal downloads. It is difficult for certain sectors of the entertainment industry to make money of the works they produce because of illegal downloads, so they end up producing music and movies that are crap.

In the movie industry, many people are not going to the threaters or otherwise legally buying movies. The movie industry has countered this trend by producing movies that must be seen on the big screen because they have all sorts of special effects that do not come across as well on a laptop. If you happen to like 2 hour long cgi and explosion fests, that is great. But this squeezes out a lot of the relatively low budget comedies and dramas that one can enjoy on a laptop.

The music industry has put out a lot of pop-garbage because of illegal downloads. Record companies have a difficult time making money on safe-bet pop acts. Record companies are not willing to sign and promote bands that have a unique sound that may only target a limited audience if they are successful.

If you live music, movie, and other arts, pay for them legally. I do not want to live in a world where artists and musicians cannot dedicate themselves to their craft because they cannot make a living off it. If you want to get an idea of what the world would look like if people could not make money off of arts and music, go to youtube. Look at all those silly videos posted by bored teenagers and tell me if you want these videos replacing professionally made movies and music.

reply to post by hotpinkurinalmint


The only problem is that there are more movies, TV and music being made today than ever before. You have to sift through the crap a bit

Ever heard of Radiohead? They put out albums now that you can download for the amount of money you choose to pay. They have been very successful with this, and they are some very talented musicians.

Sure, a lot of reality TV is a steaming pile but don't ignore Breaking Bad, Mad Men, HBO, etc.

Don't ignore intense, thought-provoking films of today either (like Inception, The Dark Knight, Looper, etc.)


It's not all Beibers and Kardashians out there

Ignorance is rife when it comes to what it is we are supposedly protecting when applying copyright. What happens on the day copyright is claimed on the English language? Ownership is an illusion. To enable people to say a number is their's and only their's is ridiculous.

One of my many rants on ownership: www.abovetopsecret.com...

No rant here from me. I'll just give you an eargasm:

It's important too, to remember that pop culture is just like an internet forum like ATS. You get out what you put in.


If you think today's music is awful, find a guitar and learn to play. Sure, no one likes the Bieber, but his popularity started out with his own homemade Youtube vids.


Today, more than ever before, you get to participate directly with pop culture, all you need is an internet connection. The Paranormal Activity franchise has made millions of dollars and are some of the cheapest movies ever. You could always take some initiative and make the art you feel our culture lacks today

I'm going to focus on the music industry portion of your rant. Seriously? You speak of the record companies as though they care about art. They don't. They want money. And the big greedy machine is never satisfied.

Somewhere back in the past, there may have been a time when very talented and creative artists actually created commercial art. I'll use Pink Floyd as an example, regardless of taste, we can at least agree that they were a huge success. Dark Side stayed on the top 100 selling albums for over 30 years. And you would think this is the sort of huge selling success a record company would want, but it's not. Look at David Gilmour or Roger Waters today. They can completely write their own ticket. There is not an executive that could have any sort of control over them. Also, since they have been in the business longer, they have learned a few things, which means more money for them and less for the record company.

Now compare that with someone like Brittany Spears. An naive kid turned paper towel. Use it and throw it away. A handful of overnight cash, mostly for the record company. And tomorrow, a new naive kid for some more overnight cash.

Boycott the record companies. They have ripped musicians off for years.