Why Rebecca Black Scares The Old Folks Silly

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0[/youtube]
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63 Million Views at last count.. and still growing

OK

Rebecca Black is not my idea of great music.

But that’s what an open and free market is all about – lots of different things. And then the public decides.

And the public has apparently decided that they love Rebecca Black, at least for the moment.

Which is great.

But not everyone loves that the public loves Rebecca Black. Her momentary popularity has caused a strange kind of backlash.

One Peter Shankman who runs something called HARO (more on this in a moment) does not like Rebecca Black or her popularity at all.

In a rather weird rant in his blog (picked up by Mashable), he writes:

We used to be a society of content eaters fed by a very small kitchen run by music labels, TV stations, and movie stars. With the advent of the Internet, Flip cameras, and yes, even Justin Bieber, the paradigm has shifted. It’s no longer a world where the talent wins. It’s not even a world where the beauty wins. It’s a world where anyone can post, and in many cases, the worse the performance, the better it does. Call it the “William Hung” Effect.

Yes ideed.

In a world of flipcams and the Internet anyone can post…

and thank God for that.

That’s what a free press is all about.

The ‘power’ to create content and post is now, very much, in the hands of ‘the people’, not the hands of the self-appointed few.

(And who, after all, elected Rupert Murdoch to decide what we can and cannot see on TV?)

While the power to create is now very much in the hands of ‘the people’, the power to decide what we see and when is still, alas, in the hands of the very few.  And our loss.  Yesterday BBC America (which used to be the best cable channel on Time/Warner) dropped their nightly BBC News (and just about everything else).  Here, if you can belive it, is their schedule for prime time Monday:

6:00 PM Top Gear – Episode 9 TV-PG
James and Richard spend the night as “scootermen,” men who provide the service of driving people home in their own cars after they’ve had too much to drink. They test drive a number of cars, with the car’s drunk owner sitting by their side. Season 6 Ep. 9
7:00 PM Top Gear – Episode 1 TV-PG
Jeremy, Richard and James set out to discover how easy it is to be a truck driver. It turns out it’s a lot harder than they thought. Jeremy is on the test track with a scary Porsche 911, a tame Lamborghini Gallardo and a surprisingly talented Labrador. Season 12 Ep. 1
8:00 PM Top Gear – Episode 2 TV-PG
Jeremy, Richard and James compete to find the perfect car for a seventeen year old. Plus, they stage the first-ever race between a McLaren F1 and a 1000 horsepower Bugatti Veyron. Season 13 Ep. 2
9:00 PM Top Gear – Episode 2 TV-PG
Jeremy, Richard and James go head-to-head with their counterparts from Australian Top Gear in a car-based version of The Ashes. With challenges like an Aussie version of double-decker car racing, it’s a match that will almost certainly end in tears. Season 16 (80) Ep. 2
10:20 PM James May’s Road Trip – Episode 2 TV-PG
James May and Oz Clarke head to the rugged, coastal wine region of Languedoc-Roussillon. Here, Oz wants James to learn how wine is actually made. Season 1 Ep. 2
11:00 PM Top Gear – Episode 2
TV-PG
Top Gear travels to the U.S. to take 3 new-generation muscle cars on a road trip from San Francisco to Utah. After the excitement of the last American road trip, this time they do their best to avoid letting a mob of angry locals pelt them with rocks. Season 12 Ep. 2
 

In other words, the same show, in rerun yet, over and over and over and over again.

This is Video on Demand – without the demand part.

So thank God for Rebecca Black and Youtube and the millions of people who make their own content and are finding ways to get around the networks, who are doomed to die if they keep this up.

And OK, the lyrics for Rebecca Black’s song  are a bit repetitive, but so was “Round round get around, I get around. Get around ooo ooo I get around. I get around’

And today we call that ‘genius’.

Oh, I nearly forgot.

Peter Shankman

He runs something called HARO – It stands for Help A Reporter Out.

And it says on his website, (and I kid you not – this is for real) :  “No more flipping through your rolodex;”

No more flipping through your rolodex!

Rolodex?

Rolodex?

Hold on Peter, I have to flip over my 45 of The Beach Boys.

No wonder he finds Youtube threatening.

Rolodex???

Michael Rosenblum

For more than 35 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital video journalism revolution. During this time, he has lead a drive for video literacy, and the complete rethinking of how television is made and controlled. His work has included: The complete transitioning of The BBC's national network (UK) to a VJ-driven model, starting in 2002. The complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State's Government's broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the VJ paradigm (1998-present). The construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company, and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US. Rosenblum was both the founder and President of NYT TV, (all based on this paradigm (1996-1998). The President and Founder of Video News International, a global VJ-driven newsgathering company, with more than 100 journalists around the world. (1993-1996). Other clients include Spectrum News, Verizon and CBS News.