It is simply not possible to put into words HOW MUCH I hate/loathe/detest/despise/abhor the band Dashboard Confessional. They are the quintessential example of just how out of touch the music industry is with music. Dashboard Confessional is the proof that if you take a piece of Dogshit, spraypaint it gold, and put many, many layers of lacquer on it, and shine it up, then people will buy it. Sheryl Crow is another gleaming example, but for some reason she doesn't disgust me as much. Kid Rock, and everything Metallica has done since the Black Album...et-shitera... Is it any wonder that even your averagely talented 'Indie' band like the White Stripes can make it big?

I, for one, am glad to see the end of the music 'industry', and good riddance. Instead of being told what is good, we can find out what we like for ourselves. Now we can look towards resources that indiscriminately mark, tag, sort, parse, grep, query, and list all the independant sources, and we can make our own decisions. Isn't that part of the fun, to sift through recordings of bands you never heard of, and find some piece of art that 'clicks' for you?

Oh, I forgot, here in America, we need to be told what is good. Usually by the people who are selling it.

A trend to note is how trends in the video/movie industry tail along behind the audio/music industry, usually by about 5 years, give or take. But already I can say 'Is it any wonder that even your averagely talented 'Indie' films like Clerks, Napoleaon Dynamite, and Shaun of the Dead can make it big?'

Hmm. It gives one pause, but it also makes one think...

We can follow the path of consumer audio format from tape to CD to mp3, and the path of video from VHS/Beta to Laserdisc to DVD to DV. We can see a shift in the distribution of audio moving away from the large conglomerates, and back to the hands of the artists where it rightly belongs, through websites like www.garageband.com

Hey Hollywood, guess who's next? (Smile)

Of course, Hollywood will not be destroyed by the Indie Filmmaker Invasion of 2008, because many Americans still need old, fat, rich, white men to tell them what is good. But there will be significant pressure to increase the quality and entertainment value of the finished products, and to do things that Indie films cannot do, or cannot afford to do. (3D projection and interactive viewing of the finished product comes to mind.)

I'm looking forward to it. But in the meantime, we will have to suffer through movies like 'The Dukes Of Hazzard', 'Aliens Vs Predator', 'Alone In The Dark'...

...et-shitera...

Blog on,
-CZ

Labels: Business Phenomena, consumerism, Hollywood, indie movies, Music Industry, Predictions