Elton John thinks it would be interesting to shut the internet down for five years to see what sort of art would get made during that time.
Here’s a tip, Eltie. You need the internet whether you like it or not. Shut it down and your entire empire, from a business standpoint, crumbles. Goodbye, Norma Jean.
Has the internet destroyed good music, as he suggests? Maybe. I would say that record companies trying to churn out as much formulaic music as they can as quickly as possible to make a quick buck are probably more to blame.
John says, “Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.” Sir, your industry is so backward and poorly run that the next big movement will likely decimate mainstream music distribution on the whole. The music industry is the last place I’d be looking to tear down the internet. It would have to understand the internet first.
Perhaps having less technology would make music today more interesting, as Elton claims. I think there’s still good music being made, it’s just that there’s a lot more bad music being made because technology has made the barrier to entry much lower.
Here’s an idea, Elton. Take your entire music catalog off of iTunes, take your website(s) off the internet, and force your publicist, manager, and business people to rely solely on phone, fax, and postal mail. Then put out an awesome album and get back to us.
Why we must close the net [The Sun Online]
Great. So Elton John – a very well off individual with a large, relatively mainstream following… Decides it would be a good idea to turn off the internet.
So in this 5 years lets think about what would happen:
* Probably crap all to him. His career will continue to slide ever toward the gutter. No offense Mr. John – but you’re probably past your prime. Trying to suggest the musicians out there who are actually trying to do something special lately just simply can’t isn’t really a cool opinion.
* Indie/alternative musicians will probably not sell as many records or have much of a turn out at shows. Most places don’t have a cool live music scene, and the people who’d love to get something happening use the net to find out what’s going on in their area.
* Record companies will chew more money from people who become ever more addicted to the superfluous background noise their ipod provides them with. Sensory addiction.
* A lot less porn will be watched. And possibly produced. I’m not sure if you call this art but the stripper I saw last night (who very nearly broke my mates nose) certainly is in it for the money. Not the art. This doesn’t have much to do with anything but it did remind me a little of Elton these days.
* I will miss out on seeing crunchdunce for an entire 5 years. This will be traumatic.
A bit of a sensationalist perhaps, but certainly no more than you are by calling him a crazy old man. Sometimes you need to be over-the-top to be heard, and I believe that is exactly what his intention is. If Elton had made a general statement regarding the internet hurting creativity, do you think he would have gotten as much coverage as he has. One of the techniques to get exposure is to purposely be controversial…being a revolutionary rather than an incrementalist.
He is just a conventionalist…in many ways, I am too, although I make my living off of the internet…so I certainly wouldn’t want it to go away.
You can’t tell me that IMs and emails has deteriorated our youths’ ability to read and write. Many studies have empirically shown this destruction over the past decade. Children tend to write in a very stochastically, and in short thoughts, rather than cohesive and coherent sentences. The very fact that kids are utilizing “lol” in a process paper lends me to believe that the internet may in fact be doing quite a bit of harm.
Certainly, on a pragmatic standpoint, Elton’s words might be absurd…but if you look at the bigger picture, in 30 years, we may look back and see just how truthy he might have been.
Goodness…looks like the internet has screwed up my ability to write as well.
Wow, could you have taken his comments any more serious? Perhaps you need to get a life. I think Elton was making a one off comment about how technology is ruining music. Can anyone argue? We all know that popular music today is no where near as good as it once was. And not only that, but acts today arent nearly as talented as they once were. So, calm down, take your meds, and realize Elton is being sarcastic here – and not truly asking for the internet to be torn down.
While the bar has been lowered, the ability to filter out has been raised – we can find the better music by the same methods that allow people to make more garbage.
the quality of art would improve more if people turned off the tv and read a book once in a while
I think that we should all churn our own butter and give tithings to an imaginary friend who will torture us eternally if we don’t. Clearly, the world is now devoid of such artistic and beautiful works as Brave Sir Robin and Beethoven’s Fifth movement. I mean, seriously. What happened to a more civilized age of having to play your piano beautifully or spend the rest of our life confined in a crouch position in a cage? Kids these days. Renounce your technology, turn off your TV, shutdown the Internet and FOR GOD’s SAKE DON’T READ! The priests will handle that for you. Go out, turn my mill and then if you have time make some beautiful art for the Lord!
Also, everything modern sucks. Whipper-snappers. Brain rotting. Televisions. Onion on my belt. Computers. Kids should churn their own butter and milk their cows. Everyone younger than me is stupid. Video Games. Assembly FTW, C++ is too bloated. Dungeons and Dragons. Witches. Back in my day. Uphill. Snow. Etc..