The Absence of Creativity
One of the better movies in 1990 in my opinion was "Pump Up the Volume" starring Christian Slater. He played a disaffected high school student who operated a pirate radio station under the moniker Happy Harry Hardon. On his show he said this about the state of affairs (as he saw it) regarding our society, "You see, there's nothing to do anymore. Everything decent [has] been done. All the great themes have been used up and turned into theme parks. So I don't really find it cheerful to be living in totally exhausted decade where there is nothing to look forward to and no one to look up to."
That statement then is even more true today than it had been nearly twenty years ago. It seems that everywhere you look, everything you hear, and everything you touch is nothing more than a rehash of something that came about previously. Quite possibly the best examples of this phenomenon appear on television (especially its advertising) and in movies.
Once upon a time, makers of products such as Alka-Seltzer, Oscar Mayer bologna, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet automobiles, and the rest actually hired songwriters to create music for their televised adverts. They were called "jingles" (for those born after 1980 or the so-called Millenials). Now, when I hear a particular song piped through my workplace's PA system, I think of shampoo, Puma shoes, a hotel chain, or Hershey's candy bars. When I listen to "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths, I see a Nissan Altima performing a slow motion skid on wet pavement. Listening to "Do You Want Me?" by Human League makes me hungry for Chips Ahoy! cookies. I believe that the 1992 Stallone/Snipes movie "Demolition Man" has it right when the most popular radio station in the future will be the oldies "mini-tunes" station that plays nothing but classic commercial jingles.
While movies adapted from novels, short stories, and drama will never cease, I notice a disturbing trend in adapting movies from comic books, and (more distressingly) animated cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s. Reasonable people can agree that CGI makes "Ironman", "Spiderman", and "X-Men" appealing eye candy for summer movie-goers. However, do we really need live action adaptations of "Speed Racer", "Underdog", "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle", and "Scooby Doo"? All bets will be off when they decide to make a CGI/live action version of "The Smurfs" with Wallace Shawn playing Gargamel.
Right now, I am anxiously awaiting the next TV flavor of the month. In my lifetime, I have seen the popularity wave move from variety show to the resurgence of the family sitcom to the nighttime soap opera to the daytime salacious talk show to "reality" TV. What's next? Let me know so I can put that on my list.
Follow-up: I am not someone who can see the future, but this scares me. Apparently I was right about "The Smurfs" movie. The news release is dated 10 June 2008.
That statement then is even more true today than it had been nearly twenty years ago. It seems that everywhere you look, everything you hear, and everything you touch is nothing more than a rehash of something that came about previously. Quite possibly the best examples of this phenomenon appear on television (especially its advertising) and in movies.
Once upon a time, makers of products such as Alka-Seltzer, Oscar Mayer bologna, Coca-Cola, Chevrolet automobiles, and the rest actually hired songwriters to create music for their televised adverts. They were called "jingles" (for those born after 1980 or the so-called Millenials). Now, when I hear a particular song piped through my workplace's PA system, I think of shampoo, Puma shoes, a hotel chain, or Hershey's candy bars. When I listen to "How Soon Is Now?" by The Smiths, I see a Nissan Altima performing a slow motion skid on wet pavement. Listening to "Do You Want Me?" by Human League makes me hungry for Chips Ahoy! cookies. I believe that the 1992 Stallone/Snipes movie "Demolition Man" has it right when the most popular radio station in the future will be the oldies "mini-tunes" station that plays nothing but classic commercial jingles.
While movies adapted from novels, short stories, and drama will never cease, I notice a disturbing trend in adapting movies from comic books, and (more distressingly) animated cartoons from the 1960s and 1970s. Reasonable people can agree that CGI makes "Ironman", "Spiderman", and "X-Men" appealing eye candy for summer movie-goers. However, do we really need live action adaptations of "Speed Racer", "Underdog", "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle", and "Scooby Doo"? All bets will be off when they decide to make a CGI/live action version of "The Smurfs" with Wallace Shawn playing Gargamel.
Right now, I am anxiously awaiting the next TV flavor of the month. In my lifetime, I have seen the popularity wave move from variety show to the resurgence of the family sitcom to the nighttime soap opera to the daytime salacious talk show to "reality" TV. What's next? Let me know so I can put that on my list.
Follow-up: I am not someone who can see the future, but this scares me. Apparently I was right about "The Smurfs" movie. The news release is dated 10 June 2008.
Comments
just cuz you dont watch reality tv, doesnt mean 100million other ppl dont.
next up, back into scifi/horror. think Heroes, Dexter, LOST and The 4400(cancelled already). the only good thing about those shows, they make you think. its not passive entertainment.
c.