{"id":1124,"date":"2006-12-16T16:10:44","date_gmt":"2006-12-16T21:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/?p=1124"},"modified":"2008-04-17T15:37:10","modified_gmt":"2008-04-17T19:37:10","slug":"manufacturing-the-pop-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/?p=1124","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturing the Pop Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object><\/p>\n

The above video, part of a promotional campaign for the movie “Before the Music Dies” (Link)<\/a> and found over on Gems Sty (Link)<\/a>, beautifully illustrates why I selfishly and emphatically argue against shortsighted activities like downloading pirated content and gleefully supporting the mindless cracking of DRM which, while often poorly implemented, is no more “bad” than any piece of code. As I’ve said before, the corporations whose music – signed over to them by willing creators – is being downloaded illegally, will still figure out a way to make money off of people’s Attention. In fact, quite a lot of the business world is driven solely by an attempt to get<\/em> consumer Attention; over a half-billion dollars now famously up for grabs just to get our Attention for Wal*Mart. So while the mentally-unimaginative mistakenly believe they’re stickin’ it to the Man, guess what? You’re helping him.
\n
\nThe band Tool once eloquently pointed out the kind of cluelessness of which I’m speaking in a song about some kid who, though branded with the trappings of capitalist activity, somehow managed to accuse them<\/em> of selling out:<\/p>\n

\nAnd in between
\nSips of Coke
\nHe told me that he thought
\nWe were sellin’ out,
\nLayin’ down,
\nSuckin’ up
\nTo the man.<\/p>\n

Well now I’ve got some
\nAdvice for you, little buddy
\nBefore you point your finger
\nYou should know that
\nI’m the man,<\/p>\n

‘n if I’m the man,
\nThen you’re the man,
\nAnd he’s the man as well
\nSo you can point that fuckin’ finger up your ass<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Before people go thinking they’re somehow exacting their due by downloading stuff for which they don’t pay, think again. And realize that those of you doing so are in reality funding the activity and promoting the adoption of the practices on display in that video… because that’s how the Man is going to ensure he stays on top. By tracking your downloads, by observing your spending habits, by collecting and collating and analyzing everything about you which they can gleen from brick and mortar statistical data to information purchased from the social websites you join, they will figure out what the masses will accept and feed it to you like Soylent Green. From the movie clip (which you should watch):<\/p>\n

“Who gets signed are the ones who fit the existing formula, because they’re the most likely to have a hit the quickest, the most immediately, and the most risk-free<\/strong>” – Alan Light, Rolling Stone<\/em> writer.<\/p>\n

That’s the name of the game today. And the one’s who lose in this game now being played out on peer-to-peer networks will be the indy bands trying to go it alone without the financial backing and support of corporate overlords, and all of us, the consumer collective too unimaginative and uninformed to realize we’re shafting ourselves.<\/p>\n

It’s only after we collectively become sufficiently selfish to understand<\/p>\n

– 1) our Attention has more value than the no-cost replication of content being illegally downloaded, and<\/p>\n

– 2) our Respect for the creative effort has the power to embolden creators to remain independent,<\/p>\n

that a true reordering of the current, lopsided System can occur. Only when and if this happens will the formulas and the people who use them finally be broken and unbridled creativity {potentially} flourish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The above video, part of a promotional campaign for the movie “Before the Music Dies” (Link) and found over on Gems Sty (Link), beautifully illustrates why I selfishly and emphatically argue against shortsighted activities like downloading pirated content and gleefully … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administrative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}