Seconds on the Whine

I'm still not through whining about media. My first glass of whine today is another round for the music business.

A song once claimed that 'Video Killed the Radio Star' but for me the real killer was greed. Radio died because nobody paid the talent. Why pay a DJ when you can play a canned program for a fraction of the price? Why pay ASCAP and BMI when you can have a talk show instead? There's an infinite supply of ranting jerks willing to call in for free.

As a result, music moved to the Internet, where paying customers and talent spend entire lifetimes trying to find each other in the midst of a world's worth of content. As reported previously, I'm not having much luck as a paying customer.

My second glass of whine is because of TV. TV has jumped onto the 'let's not pay the talent' bandwagon in a big way. It's called 'reality TV' and there's not much of it to like. They cut corners in all the wrong places. Where are the good scripts, the good acting, and good old-fashioned production?

I do understand that it's a big investment to do a TV show. For a producer, it's a long, expensive trek from pilot to pitch. When there's nothing left in your pocket but lint, will the network even listen to your pitch? You have no guarantee. I get why corners are cut. It just seems like maybe scripts and actors shouldn't be in those corners.

Well, at least there are movies. Special effects are better than ever. There is no shortage of top-notch professional actors on the silver screen. There are definitely scripts, well-written and... hauntingly familiar? Hey! What's with all the remakes and sequels? I think I need another glass of whine.