The Future and The Past
When did “what is going to happen” (the future) become more important than “what has happened” (the past)? The question was sparked by comments from Pro Football Weekly editors on how their publication has changed throughout the years. When they first started their weekly publication, they estimated that about 75% of their coverage had to do with recapping and analyzing the previous week’s football games. Now, about 75% of their coverage is about previewing the upcoming week’s games. This shift in focus by the media is prevalent in coverage other industries as well, specifically the financial markets and especially entertainment. When the closing bell rings at the New York Stock Exchange at 4pm, the coverage on CNBC focuses on things such as upcoming earnings releases at 5pm and questions about whether those numbers will beat the street. I think that part of this focus on what has yet to happen is due to these types of 24 hour news networks assuming that you are watching them 24 hours a day. So if you tune in to CNBC at 4pm looking for a recap of the day’s activities, they assume you already know what happened because you were supposed to have been watching their channel the whole day while those events were occurring.
This phenomenon is especially prevalent in the media coverage of entertainment, especially movies. Coverage of movies seems to be singularly focused on what has yet to be released. Entertainment publications are riddled with the latest deals and rumors of any entertainment property that sells its rights to a movie studio. The speculation begins about who will direct and star in the feature film that would be released 5 years from now, if at all. Once a movie has been screened for critics (in advance of its release), it becomes old news. Yet with today’s increasing home viewership of movies through high quality home entertainment systems and cheap DVDs, more and more people are experiencing these movies months after the entertainment media has forgotten about them.
Are we all just living behind the times? Are we all simply experiencing “old news?” Hardly. Rather it is simply that not all consumers feel the need to always live in the future.
Music review: Perfect Symmetry by Keane
Keane’s first album, Hopes and Fears, is a good album in the mold of Coldplay that fit the year 2004 very well. Perfect Symmetry sounds a little too much like generic 80s pop music – so much so that I can’t even single out any tracks to comment upon, as many of them are rather bland. Beyond that, there is nothing really negative about Perfect Symmetry, but there is also nothing compelling that says that this is music that needs to be heard.
Rating: 5 out of 10.
Music review: Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited had been sitting my shelf for years, not being listened to after I didn’t really enjoy The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
The opening and closing tracks on Highway 61 Revisited are outstanding. “Like a Rolling Stone” really needs no explanation from even someone such as myself who isn’t a fan of Bob Dylan. “Desolation Row” is the other outstanding track.
The rest of the album is rather forgettable. It matters nothing to me that Highway 61 Revisited is Dylan’s first album to be entirely recorded with a band. What matters is if I can still relate to the music that was recorded. Highway 61 Revisited was released in the same year as Rubber Soul (1965). I can easily see why Rubber Soul is considered a classic because in addition to making an impact at the time of its release and influencing many musicians, Rubber Soul also still makes an impact on people who had never heard the album until 30 years after its release (such as myself). I realize that Highway 61 Revisited is regarded as great album (a glance at Wikipedia has all 8 of their “professional reviews” giving it their highest rating), but two great songs do not make a classic album.
Rating: 4 out of 10.
