9 problems with Elizabeth Wurtzel’s article The Internet is Ruining America’s Movies and Music
On Saturday The Wall Street Journal posted an opinion piece called The Internet Is Ruining America’s Movies and Music written by Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation and let me tell you I’m ashamed of the Wall Street Journal for posting such an unthoughtful piece of writing.
I’ll run down a few of the foolish points Miss Wurtzel comes up with.
1. Pete Yorn should be snorting cocaine.
So she doesn’t actually say this but it seems in the second paragraph that’s what she is suggesting, saying that his “cultishly loyal following, solid sales, a long-term recording contract, and a pretty darn good life,” are bad and something he doesn’t want. But maybe he does. And maybe I don’t want him in a mansion snorting cocaine. I want him having a pretty good life and wonderfully artful career.
2. Axl Rose, Jim Morrison, and Bob Dylan were great artists and now all we have left is Britney Spears.
I’m not going to argue that the first three weren’t great artists, because they were. But the above life that she so brashly wants for Pete Yorn killed Jim Morrison, killed Axl Rose’s creativity (we’ll see if he ever does come out with that GNR album he’s been promising) and almost destroyed Bob Dylan. And for the Britney Spears comment just look above at Mr. Pete Yorn or try the millions of other great artists that you can now come into contact with through the internet.
3. No more Albums.
Come on Wall Street Journal, think in economic terms. In the future I suspect that there will be artists that won’t make albums and instead just singles but there will still be demand for albums and there will still be bands filling those demands. Personally I really like that idea because there are some bands I only listen to as singles, chipping away pieces of their CDs, because they aren’t very good at making full albums anyway and haven’t ever been interested in making them. This gives them a way to give me what they want to give me without having to go through the process of making a full length album or figuring out how to market an EP.
4. We must sustain our cultural imperialism.
Umm, nope, and it would might be better for our international image if we weren’t the most generative culture in the world at this point.
5. But people learn English through movies and music.
Really, that’s the best you can come up with. Actually, they have schools there.
6. 47% of our gross domestic product involves intellectual property and 6% of our national worth is from copyright businesses.
Miss Wurtzel, would you please look up intellectual property rights and get back to me? This has a lot more to do with how much technology we export than the movies we make. Our new inventions, which have always been the backbone and the profit of our economy, are what those figures actually represent, not entertainment.Not to say entertainment has been an important thing as well but shifts in the way we create profit is nothing new and it may figure to be an overall economic gain if that production time goes into something more meaningful.
7. When Entertainment is gone so will be the jobs it generates, the fun it engenders, and the goodwill it creates world-wide.
Your first mistake is to assume that entertainment is dying. I know plenty of people who are working hard and generating incomes from the entertainment industry. Now the income isn’t only going to a few very rich people but to many not so rich people. Yes it is getting hard to be a band today, I understand the woes, but music, movies, or any other form of entertainment will not die with the destruction of the big movie houses because people still want it. As for fun, I’m having as much fun listening to my new Mates of State album as I did from listening to Appetite for Destruction, not to mention that the goodwill I get from listening to Tinariwen is a little more worldly than I ever got from The Spaghetti Incident.
8. Hollywood isn’t making enough money from movies.
It does cost a lot to make a movie but some of the movies I saw last year were There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men, because they were great movies. I may be wrong but movies that are really good movies will tend to be profitable long into the future because they will still be good enough to go and watch. This one may be the only sticky point in this otherwise careless article. But again, if people want them, they will get made.
9. Hegemony is over.
This seems to be Wurtzel’s big problem and without going into any type of F. A. Hayek or Milton Friedman or heck 1984 kind of theory regarding the problems of hegemony and control I’ll just say I like the diversity of the current music world and now that Miss Wurtzel doesn’t have her mob to make her feel cool she may feel a little lonely but that doesn’t mean that mindset was ever good. I’m sorry but it’s not what I want. I want a world where everyone is listening to something different and I’m discovering new pieces of art every day. It sounds a little more interesting to me than sitting in anticipation for what Axl might do.