(no subject)

[andrewducker]

Remember the old days, when you'd arrive in to work and discuss the latest episode of XXX that had been on the tv the night before?

The days when everyone would have seen the latest big thing, when you could count on half the country all watching the same TV?

Those days are over.

The advent of Tivo means that there is no longer much relationship between when TV is on and when I watch it.

The advent of cable and satellite means that there is more tv on than anyone can ever watch, by a factor of thousands.

There is no genre of music which has ever been created which doesn't still exist somewhere.

Not to mention that there's practically a century of media incredibly well preserved and slowly becoming available.

I have more choice than I've ever known what to do with.

If I want to watch, listen and wear nothing but that which was popular during the 60s it's possible. and with the wave of social networking that's currently going on, I can choose to speak largely to those who feel the same way I do.

The monobloc of popular culture isn't dead. But it's dying.

Warren Ellis' take on this can be seen here

Comments

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Quietest occupied waiting room I've ever been to...

Me: .....
Old lady: Did you see last night's episode of Seinfeld?
Me: Ma'am, I don't watch teevee.
Old lady: .....
Me: .....

Now I just make sure to bring a handheld with me.

[heron61.livejournal.com]

This fact pleases me beyond my ability to easily express. I was utterly thrilled when I read several years ago that teens no longer watch the major networks any more often than any other networks and literally the only network they all watch is VH-1. Watching the previous monolithic and deeply conformist culture disintegrate into a multitude of smaller niche subcultures is wonderful for me because I love diversity and I very much like the idea of a larger culture that consists of a groups of wildly divergent subcultures. Examples of ideals along these line can be found in the 1970s novel by Katherine MacLean The Missing Man and in the recent novel by Keith Hartman, The Gumshoe, the Witch, and the Virtual Corpse (which is far better than the title suggests).

um

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

I don't mean to rain on your parade, but the popular shows are still the popular talked-about shows that they were...

At work on a whichever day, people will still talk about the new episode of whichever show was on last night.. they'll still talk about how they have to wait a week for the next one...

Re: um

[andrewducker]

This is pretty much what I said too. At my work (which is academe, so pretty AB1 or whatever the hel the phrase is, uie not just people who spend their lives watching soaps) people still say"did you see last night's ER?" or "last night's Six Fet Under?". Al that's really happened is that to the existing lits of mass-view TV channels (BBC1,2, ITV, Ch 4) has been added E4 and Sky 1. in Edinburgh whwere almost everyone has acces to cheap cable TV/phone/net facilities, this is no big fucking change. As you know yourself Andy, it wasn't even economic to go on selling Tivo in the UK.

Most people WANT to remain part of the herd & dislike too many choices and too much individuality. I quite like a bit of community myself. I go in and discuss ER with sandy and feel ever so slightly cheerful at the bond we have in common.

Re: um

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

It does have to be said, that lots of channels doesn't mean lots of programming, oh god I wish it did.

At chez Rob n Clare, I've seen one of them flick through all the music channels over the course of several hours, and they almost (but not quite) all have the same playlist, just as all the "pop" radio stations have the same very short playlist.

Luckily VH1 satisfies my 80s pop urges :-)

I bond with people at work because we're all sarcastic.