Posted 5:07 PM by Gene

We wonder if the public is engaging in an active rebellion against BIGMEDIA. Not in television or the movies, at least not outwardly; visual media have a hypnotic effect, and their Pavlovian fans have no taste. But the news business's badness cannot hypnotize itself away. Nor with recorded sound and its allied art of stench making, radio. The sound biz is hurting because many of its buyers are casual partakers -- and female; and they increasingly resent paying for one song and filler, and not a very good song at that. Moreover we'd bet [C]RAP has done it mighty damage; so much of recorded sound's output is [C]RAP, and people may figure that's all there is to it -- which in a sense, may be right. One of the big secrets of recent years (which those secret-exposers the HACKS naturally won't tell) is that [C]RAP has lost market-share big time. How many ways can one have an attitude reciting slant rhymes like Hitler? We cannot take comfort in the alleged comeback of the classics as it builds from a tiny base; but we would hope conscience and intellect would gain a small foothold with the people, and then improve all of music. Nonetheless we fear the rot is so great it's not only taken the ground out from beneath our culture, but the universe from around it.