Re: OT Re: DEFINING CULTURAL YEAR of THE DECADE?

["SP Goodman" <spgoodman@earthlight.net>]

From: "andy butler" <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>
>
> Rick Walker wrote:
>
>> We haven't had a defining cultural year in this past decade yet  ( like 
>> '68 in the sixties,  '75 in the 70's ,   '82 in the 80's,   etc.)
>
> was there anything in the 90's?

The rise of the multimedia computer that ACTUALLY PLAYED YOUR CDS!, which 
became the computer you could make your own studio-quality recordings.  No 
longer did you didn't have to scrimp, save, tour, beg, borrow, steal, and 
crawl across the carpet of some dinosaur with a cigar who had no idea how 
to 
treat music as anything but Intellectual Property, just to get a recording 
done.  No guarantee on that recording either, as if it was better than 
their 
current cash cow band-sound, they'd give you an advance then shelve the 
work 
forever, or until their current cash cow goes to the abbatoir.

The CD Single became a victim of the RIAA's "anti-piracy" efforts, which 
became more shrill as people began to tell them to bug off, and make their 
own recordings - and copy those of others.  The RIAA and its members never 
saw it coming, and they're still quite clueless.

When the Internet came along, it was inevitable that someone would create 
a 
streaming audio method, in this case RealAudio.  Never mind that they 
ultimately pimped the very independents that helped make it a standard, 
and 
sold out to the behemoth AOL; it was nevertheless the first gateway for us 
to publish our work for mass consumption.  Again, without any interference 
(let alone awareness!) from the music industry's dark forces.

To meet consumer demand, more sophisticated sound modules-cards became 
less 
expensive, making it even easier and more possible to make your own 
studio-quality recordings, and lessening the need to spend mega-bucks in 
order to adhere to The Old Structure.  We saw video cards getting better 
and 
better, and could easily anticipate the access to produce our own videos 
as 
well.

On the heels of the attempted destruction of the DAT, this was no less the 
beginning of the end of RIAA/MPAA tyranny and incompetence.  Their only 
responses have been either blustering lawsuits and proclamations, or 
outright purchase of their competition (for example Napster, despite their 
ignorance as to what it actually WAS).

Viva this particular Revolution, which continues despite the dinosaurs 
that 
wish they could oppose it.

SP Goodman
*
http://www.vimeo.com/spgoodman
http://www.last.fm/music/Stephen+Goodman