Idolator

"Let's Get Really Meta About Everything Because It's Hot Out Week" continues on Idolator, with the attention paid to music in the present day and the willingness of people to experience concerts without obsessively documenting every second giving way to the meaning of music videos in 2008 via a thinky piece by James at Shots Ring Out. He points out that the medium has effectively been exiled from most programming hours, garnered the dubious currency of "Internet-attention money" for YouTube hits, and become a "loss leader for a loss leader" in the minds of record executives—in other words, their previous status as a promotional tool for albums is hurting them, since physical product once made money on its own but is now seen by many people (at least, the people who think about music instead of bilssfully ignoring it) as promotional material for touring, merchandise, and other unpirateable things. More »