Sometimes I watch music channels on television and I see one derivative band after another. Sometimes there is something wonderful and fresh but mostly is just the music industry selling us more of what we have previously bought. I don’t doubt that there isn’t fresh new talent out there, doing their own interesting stuff but I do doubt if the big money music industry is willing to take a risk on creative new approaches.
It is much the same with the cinema. Multiple sequels are now standard, with the original movie becoming a brand and, with big money involved, the reduced risk of going with what was previously successful keeps on winning out. Of course, this is nothing new. We always did like to go to see movies with our favourite stars, almost a guarantee that we would likely enjoy whatever new movies they are involved in. Now it is brands we buy in movies, stars too but less so.
Same thing with books, with successful books spawning a protracted series continuing the same story, rather than a successful author writing each time a new story (which used to sell based on the author’s reputation for spinning a good tale rather than on the success of a particular set of characters).
The world of entertainment has become big business and big business is risk-averse. The expectation we all had a few years ago, that the explosion of internet use would lead to democratisation and direct marketing of a much wider range of views and messages (the so-called Long Tail), hasn’t come to be. Instead we all consume more of the same and there are a few big winners and plenty of almost unnoticeable small fish in the sea.
Liam Mor's Blog