Most of the top fifty best-selling albums of all time were recorded in the seventies and eighties (the Eagles and Michael Jackson), and none of them were made in the past five years. Hollywood box-office revenue was down 6 percent in 2005, reflecting the reality that the theatergoing audience is falling even as the population grows.
The author gives other examples and concludes that in short, while we still obsess over hits, they are not quite the economic force they once were. Number one is still number one, but the sales that go with that are not what they once were. The ratings of top TV shows have been falling for decades, and the number one show today would not have made the top ten in 1970.
The author compares two teenagers, Chris, raised in the seventies and eighties and Ben being raised today with the Internet.
Chris had access to a half dozen TV channels, and virtually everyone watched a few or more of the same handful of TV shows. There were three or four rock radio stations in town that largely dictated what music people listened to; only a few lucky kids had money to build record collections that ventured farther afield.
Everyone saw the same summer blockbusters in the theater and got news from the same papers and broadcasts. About the only place Chris could explore outside the mainstream were the library and the comic book shop.
Ben grew up with the Internet He has a Mac in his bedroom, an iPod and friends with the same. Like his friends, Ben has never known a world without broadband, cell phones, MP3s. Tivo, and online shopping.
The main effect of all this connectivity is unlimited and unfiltered access to culture and content of all sorts, from the mainstream to the farthest fringe of the underground. Ben's world is far less dominated by any of the traditional media and entertainment industries.
From Ben's perspective, the cultural landscape is a seamless continuum from high to low, with commercial and amateur content competing equally for his attention. He picks from an infinite menu where Hollywood movies and player-created video-game stunt videos are listed side by side.
Ben watches just two hours or so a week of regular TV. He counts as TV the anime he downloads with BitTorrent, a peer-to peer file sharing technology, because it was originally broadcast on Japanese television (the English subtitles are often edited in by fans).
Anime (pronounced AH-nee-may) is a term for a style of Japanese comic book and video cartoon animation in which the main characters have large doe-like eyes. Anime is the prevalent style in Japanese comic books or manga. In Japan, the comic book is a popular form of entertainment for adults as well as for younger audiences. Story lines are often very sophisticated and complex and extend into episodic series. Typical anime themes or genres include Ninja and other martial arts; the supernatural or horror story; the romance; and science fiction including robots and space ships. Foils for the main characters, including robots, monsters, or just plain bad people, often lack the doe-eyed quality.
BitTorrent is a file distribution system used for transferring files across a network of people. As you download a file, BitTorrent places what you download on upload for other users.
The files downloaded via BitTorrent are called torrents.
He watches movies he downloads, such as amateur machinima and independent productions such as Star War Revelations, a fan-created tribute film with special effects that rival the Lucas originals.
Machinima is a form of filmmaking that uses computer game technology to shoot films in the virtual reality using a game engine.
Some of the music on Ben's iPod is downloaded from iTunes, but most comes from his friends. When one of the group buys a CD, he or she typically makes copies for everyone else. He listens to almost no radio.
He, like a few of his friends, is so into Japanese subculture that he is studying Japanese in school. When Chris was in school he studied Japanese because Japan was a dominant economic power and language skills were thought to open up career opportunities. Ben studies Japanese so he can create his own anime subtitles and dig deeper into manga than the relatively mainstream translated stuff.
Manga are Japanese comic books. Manga is often made into Japanese cartoons, or Anime. The art in Manga has a very definite look to it and is often referred to as "Manga Style."
Most of Ben's free time is spent online, both randomly surfing and participating in user forums. He is not interested in news—he reads no newspapers and watches no TV news. –but follows the latest tech and subculture chatter on sites such as Slashdot (geek news) and Fark (Weird news). He instant messages constantly all day with his ten closest friends. (Texting is preferred by those out and about a lot; IM is the chat channel of choice for those who tend to spend more time in their own rooms). Ben plays video games with friends, mostly online.
Slashdot (often abbreviated as /.) is a technology-related news website which features user-submitted and editor-evaluated current affairs news with a nerdy slant. The site slogan is "News for nerds. Stuff that matters."
Fark.com is a community website allowing users to comment on a daily batch of news articles and other items from various websites.
The main difference between Chris's and Ben's experience is choice. Chris was limited to what was broadcast over the airwaves. Ben has the Internet. Chris did not have Tivo (or even cable); Ben as all that and BitTorrent, too. Chris had no idea there was even a thing as manga, much less how to get it. Ben has access to it all.
Compare that with the experience of those of us who grew up in the forties, fifties and sixties whose experiences were much different and much more limited.
