two writers from the washington post have just published a book titled "The news about the news: American Journalism in Peril" that in a large part addresses this issue of LCD marketing, and the fallacy that highbrow news has no audience.
the two were on fresh air the other day. you can listen to the show at: http://freshair.npr.org/dayFA.cfm?display=day&todayDate=02%2F28%2F2002 -----Original Message----- From: Peter Leidy [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 11:32 AM To: laura gavoor Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [313] The Great White Hype...was IT'S ABOUT TIME!!! First of all, this is one of the most thought-provoking threads I've read in a while (nit-picking over curse words aside)- I'm glad the opinions are being voiced and I'd like to hear more from those like Laura who have a lot of direct industry experience with these issues. > firing off cannons. Recently while watching CNN, there was a news segment > covering Elton John FLAMING the music industry for lowest common denominator > marketing. He said that the good musicians and music were actively being > passed over in favor of the rubbish msuic the industry was putting out...He Last night I saw a great PBS special that focused on this same problem of LCD marketing- but in the realm of Film-Making- its called "The Monster that ate Hollywood." There are tons of interviews with industry analysts, journalists, producers and directors up on their site at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/hollywood/ I think these issues of Pop Culture, Global Economy, LCD Marketing, etc. are common across the various realms of Arts & Entertainment & similar things are happening in each field right now from an economic standpoint. In terms of dance music getting serious attention- I think the problem with house and techno is that there is not a good stereotype of techno producer to market to teenage kids. I think the Major Labels like to market stereotypes of Rebellious, Subversive, Cool, and more recently pop-conscious-satiric characters that middle-class suburban teens can relate to. The problem with house and techno is that when you look for stereotypes- you have the gay club scene, the middle to lower class minorities- but without the hip-hop egos and fashion, then also the computer and synth geeks, none of which are sexy or cool to todays teenagers. But when the London Rave scene appeared- here was something more marketable- white kids sneaking out at night, taking drugs, and partying to rave music, not to mention new marketable fashion trends to go along with it. And of course, once they found something marketable, they further bastardized the music into formulated candy-coated crap, just as they did with disco 25 years ago. PS- I'm not even going to bring up the race issue- a whole other can of worms- but I agree that the "race card" is not over-used- it is still a serious problem with deep roots in the social and political policies that govern our country. People need to be aware of this especially as it becomes more subtle and disguised by other issues. -p --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
