Working on Posts and Getting Old

The last couple of weeks have been difficult, so none of the reviews I’m working on have progressed very far. Dad simply isn’t showing any signs of getting better or a willingness to work at it, so I’m trying to push him to do things. That’s been difficult, not to mention time consuming.

As I’m typing, U2’s new album, Songs of Innocence, is playing in the background. A free download until the middle of October, it is proof that the music industry is in trouble. CD sales have dwindled to nearly nothing and now digital download sales are in free fall. Streaming from Pandora and Spotify are being blamed, however the quality of product is more to blame in my opinion.

Songs of Innocence illustrates this well -- for you get what you paid for it. It isn’t even mediocre. Only The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) is interesting at all, the rest is banal. In fact, the album sounds like a band trying to sound like U2.

With neither the music or movie industry putting out much in the way of high quality, I’ve been reflecting lately on past decades. This has had the decidedly annoying side effect of making me feel old. Things really were better back then though nostalgia does hit me from time to time to create an emotional bias.

What’s killed things is the risk adverse micro managed formulas used to create songs, movies, and television shows. Declining viewership, music purchases, and theater attendance indicate this no longer works in parting consumers from their dollars. Times are tight and a lot of entertainment is boring. Plus the youngsters coming up aren’t watching TV or buying music like that treasured demographic traditionally has.

Not to say that entertainment was always a free wheeling era of experimentation. I’m highly aware of the old studio system, payola, and graft that’s always been a part of the industry. The big change today is the risk aversion preventing a certain amount of taking chances that kept creativity fueled. Simply put, there is no test laboratory bringing out new and different ideas these days.

Highly disappointing, since the Web was supposed to unleash creative types while allowing them to reach audiences the suits wouldn’t allow them near. The reality is that consumers are lazy and take whatever is given them rather than search out new experiences. At least the old studio heads knew you had to take chances once in awhile and factored it into their budgets.

So people have grown bored with the current products while waiting for somebody to spoon feed them the next big thing. Since both the producers and consumers are locked into the same old pattern, everything is dying.

No risk, no gain. That time worn adage is being proven quite correct right now.

Between catching old TV shows on MeTV and my slow project of filling out my movie collection, the quality of older material has been getting my attention. While some shows such as MASH, Big Valley, and Perry Mason have not held up well, others have been surprisingly excellent at living up to their appeal.

Cheers, The Rifleman, The Andy Griffith Show, The Rockford Files, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, and Outer Limits are just as good today as they were way back when. Solid writing and good acting withstand the test of time.

Given the lack of those two vital ingredients, I have to wonder if any of the shows on today will be watched decades later? My guess is probably not. Likewise, how many movies being put out will still be watched down the road?

Time will tell and you’ll have to get old to find out.

In the mean time, I’ll be throwing a revamped review up in the next couple of days. Blu-ray releases of old favorites has ramped up this year, which is leading me to renovate reviews as I can. They’re also faster to do than brand new reviews sometimes. Getting back into the flow of it will increase posting production hopefully.