we are currently going through a Golden Age of Television with numerous acclaimed dramas being churned out by networks.
Not "the networks" as we've traditionally known them (ABC, NBC, CBS). At least not in the U.S. There may be some higher quality stuff coming from them than there has been in the past, but it is still cliched crap that is invariably about 1) Doctors, 2) Lawyers or 3) Cops.
The truly great shows of the past 10 years have come from the cable networks. But they don't compare to the network heyday, when they would produce 36 weeks worth of shows. The new "season" is 12 episodes. They're over before they start. And a brilliant cable show like
Mad Men only gets a few million viewers because the audience is so fragmented. Or maybe because people blinked and missed the season. Either way, it doesn't matter, you can watch it on DVD a few weeks after the season ends. Could be that people have been burned by having shows pulled out from under them (
Deadwood,
Carnivale, etc.) and they don't want to commit to anything that could disappear without any resolution or conclusion.
But yeah, some really good stuff on the cable movie channels. I still don't see anything worth watching on traditional networks. I need to see something that can strive to be more realistic, and when you can't say "shit" or show a half inch of an ass crack without blurring it out, you lose any shot at realism in my book.
You're right on about lack of mystique in music. I wouldn't say that has anything to do with it
sucking more lately. But there is something to be said for not knowing and seeing or reading about every last speck of a performer's life. The great showmen and salesmen knew that. Bill Aucoin or Peter Grant wouldn't have let KISS or Led Zeppelin
Twitter, for christ's sake. They knew that there was value in mystery (and in the ridiculous rumors and urban legends that are the products of that mystery). The concerts now are more like promo tie-ins to reality shows or video games or whatever marketing the performer sees as their primary path to the most money they can possibly amass.
Not that rock bands didn't want to be rich back in the day, they did. But there were lines that it wouldn't occur to them to cross. Those lines have disappeared, of course. The Rolling Stones opened that door when they got a perfume company to underwrite their 1981 tour (and it was the Stones idea, not Jovan's - in fact they first approached Schlitz, but were turned down). That genie ain't going back into the bottle. It's pretty common that once the money starts to flow in ridiculous amounts, all the recipient wants is
more.
But even as distasteful as a rock band being in a jeans commercial might seem to old curmudgeons, I don't think that is what makes music suck lately either. It doesn't help, since a young band is hesitant to do anything that might alienate potential
sponsors, but it's not the root of the problem. The problem is rock and roll is played out. It's done. There's nowhere else to take it. It's time for something new. Hip Hop almost made it, but it never became creative enough, it just remained stuck in one monotonous mode.
