Save Our Kids

[P3nT4gR4m]

Fun Fun Fun in the fluffy chair
Flame up the herb
Woof down the beer
[click!]
Hi
I'm your video DJ
I always talk like I'm wigged out on quaaludes
I wear a satin baseball jacket everywhere I go

My job is to help destroy
What's left of your imagination
By feeding you endless doses
Of sugar-coated mindless garbage

So don't create
Be sedate
Be a vegetable at home
And thwack on that dial
If we have our way even you will believe
This is the future of rock and roll

How far will you go
How low will you stoop
To tranquilize our minds with your sugar-coated swill

You've turned rock and roll rebellion
Into Pat Boone sedation
Making sure nothing's left to the imagination

M.T.V. Get off the
M.T.V. Get off the
M.T.V. Get off the air
Get off the air

See the latest rejects from the muppet show
Wag their tits and their dicks
As they lip-synch on screen
There's something I don't like
About a band who always smiles
Another tax write-off
For some schmuck who doesn't care

M.T.V. Get off the air
And so it was
Our beloved corporate gods
Claimed they created rock video
Allowing it to sink as low in one year
As commercial TV has in 25
"It's the new frontier," they say
It's wide open, anything can happen
But you've got a lot of nerve
To call yourself a pioneer
When you're too god-damn conservative
To take real chances.

Tin-eared
Graph-paper brained accountants
Instead of music fans
Call all the shots at giant record companies now

The lowest common denominator rules
Forget honesty
Forget creativity
The dumbest buy the mostest
That's the name of the game

But sales are slumping
And no one will say why
Could it be they put out one too many lousy records?!?

M.T.V.-Get off the air!
NOW

and now, a word from our sponsors...

http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/dead_kennedys/lyrics.jhtml

[hunter s.durden]

MTV may very well be the worst offender.

I wish that song had a video.

What tears me up the most is that our culture, which used to be kind of organic, is now being DETERMINED from the top down by the forked tongue of marketing and media. Rather than culture growing naturally from the bottom up, every movement, every style, every fad is calculated for maximum sales potential. It grosses me out.

This sums things up nicely.

[Elder Iptuous]

you don't think the trend towards 'the long tail' is mitigating this effect?  sure its still kinda fat at the base of the tail, but it's not like there's nowhere to escape to....
I mean, i never saw either of the two commercials you mentioned, and it's not for lack of media that i pump into my dry itchy eyes!

[Cramulus]

what do you mean by "the long tail"? that 20% of the culture gets 80% of the attention?

or is it that 20% of the culture is the frame of reference for the other 80%?

[hunter s.durden]

This post brought to you by Clear Eyes.

Clear Eyes: It's awesome!

Those particular commercials were more examples for a larger point (which is getting overshadowed by my smaller point), than specific examples of things to rage against.

The point is the double standard, so my answer would be no, the mainstream always finds ways of offending my delicate sensibilities.

[Elder Iptuous]

I thought i had heard the term bandied about in this forum....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail
i just have a cursory understanding of it that i have picked up, but i'm saying that there is an increasing number of people that are diversifying into an increasing number of niches, and the technology and marketing (of products, ideas, etc. ) is making this increasingly more possible.  I mean, we now are able to find blogs/forums and all the media and personal interaction they allow on reeeeeeaaaally obscure things, right?  and less people (on a percentage basis) are watching the 'must see TV' because of this right?  I dunno, i just see the 'forked tongue of marketing and media' to becoming so forked as to not really be dictating much anymore....  they can come to us easier than forcing us to come to them.  (or am i being overly optimistic?)

[Cramulus]

I hear ya. Us fringe people didn't used to be a market - and now every subculture seems to have its own brand.

and less people (on a percentage basis) are watching the 'must see TV' because of this right?

not sure. I haven't seen any numbers.

I just took a sniff around to find out if people ARE actually watching more or less TV now, and I came across this list of the ten most watched TV events of all time, and they're all in the 70s and 80s.



I think the most optimistic idea about the Long Tail is that people on the fringe become an actual demographic. But regardless, I bet 80% of the stuff in the media is still being determined by the tastes of only 20% of the consumers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

[Cainad (dec.)]

I hear ya. Us fringe people didn't used to be a market - and now every subculture seems to have its own brand.

Welcome to the Strange Times

And I didn't know that TV stations would refuse to sell you commercial airtime if you weren't selling a product. That's utter balls.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

It makes me sick, ya know? That the most boring people in the world are the norms.

It's not just the "safety" of being like everybody else, it's the xenophobic rage towards anything outside of the status quo.

  <--- Normal

[Elder Iptuous]

I think the most optimistic idea about the Long Tail is that people on the fringe become an actual demographic. But regardless, I bet 80% of the stuff in the media is still being determined by the tastes of only 20% of the consumers.

Mmmm...
The concept of 'the media' is in flux right now to our favor...
Have you shot your television lately? 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Mmmm...
The concept of 'the media' is in flux right now to our favor...

I've been saying this same thing for ages. Internets will eventually supercede everything as the delivery system for newspapers, magazines, cd's, dvd's, television .... media

The difference?

We all have a printing press, record factory, movie/tv studio and we can all get media out there. Much higher quality and much more easily than before.

Have fun pissing in the mainstream everyone, cos they aint going to be able to stop us

[Elder Iptuous]

Mmmm...
The concept of 'the media' is in flux right now to our favor...

I've been saying this same thing for ages. Internets will eventually supercede everything as the delivery system for newspapers, magazines, cd's, dvd's, television .... media

The difference?

We all have a printing press, record factory, movie/tv studio and we can all get media out there. Much higher quality and much more easily than before.

Have fun pissing in the mainstream everyone, cos they aint going to be able to stop us

I think that's the first optimistic thing i've seen you post! 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Mmmm...
The concept of 'the media' is in flux right now to our favor...

I've been saying this same thing for ages. Internets will eventually supercede everything as the delivery system for newspapers, magazines, cd's, dvd's, television .... media

The difference?

We all have a printing press, record factory, movie/tv studio and we can all get media out there. Much higher quality and much more easily than before.

Have fun pissing in the mainstream everyone, cos they aint going to be able to stop us

... and then we'll all die of ass cancer

better?

[Elder Iptuous]

normalcy returneth.

[Reginald Ret]

Heh.
My friends are often amused by how fast i can turn the TV off when the annoying commercials start. I'll lunge, jump, run or lift furniture just to get the damn thing to stfu.