I don't mean to sound like a pretentious, semi-old person trying to use nostalgia to make an entire generation out to be inferior, but something is seriously awry nowadays when it comes to creative part of the spectrum.
Justin Bieber is just a small part of the desicration of not only rock and roll, but of entertainment in general. With is cheesy lines and generic titles. There is no art in his music, just platitudes designed to cajole the female persuasion into buying his albums. A long time ploy used by record labels, but at least with the Beatles you had substance along with sex appeal.
It's not just the Bieb, music has become increasingly banal with limited material (sex, partying or love) and ridiculous stretch rhymes (floor and low DON'T RHYME, it's a lyrical copout).
Movies are almost as shameless. For years now originality has been about as scarce as unicorns. For the most part the theatre's are dominated by remake's and sequels.
That's not all.
Yes, I am a comic book geek, shut up. Instead of focusing on the unique qualities of comics, companies are on a mission to emulate cinema ((Particularly Marvel who have blatantly ripped off movie posters for their event "Siege") which ultimately will do nothing other than make comics more of a joke, riding on the coat tail of film as they regurgitate classic plots and call them new. Why? Because they are out of ideas. They'd rather mimic than try and be original (a very capitalist way of thinking that goes back to AT LEAST the 80's).
Not only are they panamiming cinema, but they are trying to take advantage the reality entertainment crowd who could care less about plot and characters and only want something flashy and "real". They don't care how stupid the people on Jersey Shore are, they eat it up. Therefore Brian Michael Bendis (one of the biggest proponents of realism in comics) make the characters look "real" with run on sentences and over the top drama, that are usually out of character or a misrepresentation of the character, he manages to capture the realism crowd.
Ironically, the only place you can really find something interesting and compelling nowadays is one hour TV with shows like House and Dexter (who, in all honesty, use The Sopranos and Oz as templates, but they are still brilliant).
I say it's ironic because TV is where it all began with stupid reality shows like the Real World and American Idol. There are exceptions of course, I still think the Osbournes is one of the best shows ever. Regardless I still hold reality tv responsible for the zombification of the American audience (and beyond).
I guess I can't blame the industries for playing on the low standards of viewers and readers, nowadays. I can only blame the people.
My theory is that is that 9/11 shocked us into an Age of Reality just as the Civil War shocked people into the Age of Realism. So disenfranchised with the world, people don't want to see or hear fantastic tales, they want relatable accounts. Something they really believe in. I get that, I do, but when it gets to the point of sheer stupidity then I become resentful.
I can only hope that stagnating fear that we allowed to rob us of our wits after The World Trade center soon passes through our system, along with all the other waste, so that we can regain our appreciation of the artistic.
No comments:
Post a Comment