Aimee Mann was a big voice of the 1980s. She was the lead singer for 'Til Tuesday, although she has since moved on as a solo artist.
A native of the Richmond, VA area, she attended college at Berklee College of Music in Boston. But she dropped out of college to become a musician. Although she was in several bands even before dropping out of college, she began 'Til Tuesday with her boyfriend and fellow Berklee classmate Michael Hausman (who would later manage her solo career, although the debut album featured a title track that was actually inspired by her own breakup with Hausman) in 1983.
The track "Voices Carry" peaked at number 8 in 1985, and was a big new wave hit. "Voices Carry" also won the MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist (check out the 1985 Spin magazine story at http://goo.gl/Y07YT).
Taking a step back in time, catch that classic 1980s video below, or by visiting the official YouTube Vevo video at http://youtu.be/uejh-bHa4To:
However, over the last 27 years, Aimee Mann has blazed a somewhat different trail when it comes to her music, in effect, rejecting the traditional idea of stardom and the record-company ideal of hit production and instead staying true to her music rather than falling into the "hit machine" ideal. In fact, she rejected becoming a hit-machine frontwoman with overproduced music for A&M records with 'Til Tuesday, opting to go her own way, but they decided to keep her for the duration of her contract, then let her go. As it turns out, Aimee's timing was pretty good, because the music business was standing on quicksand anyway, with digital music (think of Napster) eating the traditional music business model anyway. Today, independent artists with her name recognition can survive on their own, selling their music online or via iTunes, Google, Amazon and elsewhere since music is 100% digital music today anyway.
In January 2013, Public Radio International's "Bullseye with Jesse Thorn" interviewed her. The website describes the podcast this way:
"... she found the limelight uncomfortable. Tired of contending with record companies' attempts to pigeonhole her and her work, Aimee struck out on her own. She joins us to discuss that transition from frontwoman to solo artist, the stresses of fame, and coping with uncertainty at a time in her life when she thought she would have had everything figured out."
Aimee's new album, Charmer, is available now.
You may listen to that interesting podcast below, or by visiting http://snd.sc/WWUI7n.
No, I'm not referring to the Argentinian soccer team who's best known for, shall I say, its rabid fans, although I certainly could be. Today I'm referring to high pressure laminates which can be used on countertops, dining tables and even floors. It's enduring, too. Typically, Formica can be used for 15, or even 20 years.
But for much of the building boom in the 1990s, people were choosing high-end design elements including expensive granite, marble or other stone elements in their kitchens. While stone certainly endures, it starts to look the same after a while, especially when every house in the neighborhood has it. Combine that with stainless steel appliances, and the effect ends up looking pretty, shall I say, cookie-cutter?
That's why, when in 2012, Los Angeles designer Scott Lander chose white Formica for a kitchen he created in an award-winning project, people were mesmerized.
But Scott Lander told American Public Media's Marketplace "Most people were asking, 'What is this surface?' Most people didn't even know it was Formica."
How times have changed, indeed. Will we be seeing more Formica in the coming years? The company would certainly like that to be the case.
Retro, 1950s ad for Formica products
The Formica Group, which was established in 1913, still remains global design leader in surfacing products, but it's design heyday was really back in the 1950s through the 1970s, but as I already noted, people had kind of moved on and forgotten about it by the 2000s. It was seen as retro but not necessarily in a good way, being the surface you'd find on a tabletop at a roadside diner someplace.
Formica, however, has also cleaned up its act, and that's meant to be a compliment.
Formica has switched to non-toxic resins, and it uses recycled paper in its designs. Plus, its products are becoming more popular with a new generation of budget remodelers, for obvious reasons. The product has a wide array of design choices which are durable and cost-effective. These days, Formica also sells flooring, too.
However, Formica is but one option and it need not be limited to retro, 1950s-styled designs. (Retro, however, might be considered.) At the International Builder's Show, the company introduced a "new" collection featuring retro designs and colors in celebration of its 100th birthday. The collection was designed by the renowned design firm Pentagram.
So when you think about upgrading your kitchen or bathroom, you might just consider Formica. Design buyers in Los Angeles were recently impressed, and you might be, too!
Director Steven Soderbergh is the news this week, for a film that the big Hollywood studios were unwilling to touch, because, in the words of The Atlantic, it was simply "too gay" (see http://bit.ly/18fWKUr). That film is "Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace".
Really, after TV shows like "Will & Grace" and "Glee", and stars like Ellen DeGeneres and Neil Patrick Harris out and about, and movies like "Brokeback Mountain" already broke the last taboos about homosexuality a decade ago, but Hollywood still wouldn't touch this?
Indeed, the last few remaining cultural taboos, including pornography (see my post at http://goo.gl/9FG5K for details) have already been covered in movies, so I'm not convinced that's the main reason. The final cost of the movie was $23 million.
But Mr. Soderbergh first started shopping the idea for the film around back in 2006, when George W. Bush was still President and still helping to fuel the culture wars. Mr. Soderbergh convinced actor Michael Douglas to play the lead role (who, as it turns out, met Liberace several times as they both had homes in Palm Springs, California), with Matt Damon playing his much younger boyfriend. Actress Debbie Reynolds, who also knew Liberace personally since they both played together in Las Vegas at the same time) was cast as Liberace's mother. Rob Lowe is also in the movie. The cast is impressive!
Liberace: King (or is it Queen?) of Kitsch
Born in Wisconsin of Polish and Italian ancestry, the late pianist (Wladziu [Walter] Valentino) Liberace was one of the last from an era where homosexuality was expected to be kept in the closet, even in Hollywood. Gays certainly existed back in those days, but in order to work in the entertainment business, gays could not openly discuss their private relationships for fear of never working again. Gossip columnists called them "confirmed bachelors" or gave them a similar euphemism back in those days. The flamboyant pianist followed the Hollywood rules of the day, and even managed to land his own television show for a time called "The Liberace Show" back in the 1950s and 1960s.
But in those days, as the film (and book) "The Celluloid Closet" documented, the movie industry's own production code as well as various groups such as the Legion of Decency, all but forced anyone working in the entertainment business to remain in the closet if they were homosexual. Actors and actresses such as Nancy Jane Kulp who played Jane Hathaway on "The Beverly Hillbillies" and Mary Grace Canfield (who played Ralph Monroe) on "Green Acres" fit the gay stereotype, but were never acknowledged as such.
Liberace was a product of that environment, although his sexuality was hardly a well-kept secret. The man was known for his flamboyant costumes, garish jewelry, feathered capes, and of course, the candelabra which sat on his piano, so its not like he did a great job of keeping it secret. Indeed, Mr. Soderbergh said:
"You could make an argument that Liberace really invented the idea of 'bling,'" he says. "I mean, nobody was dressing themselves like this. When you look at the people that have followed him — whether it's Elvis or Elton John or Cher or Madonna or Lady Gaga — you know, all these people are sort of building on something that he began."
Of course, social unrest started to change that paradigm by the late 1960s when protests over police harassment of people who patronized gay establishments (mostly bars) erupted into the streets of Philadelphia and New York. That sowed the seeds for societal change, but it didn't happen overnight, and as my post on the porn industry (see http://goo.gl/9FG5K) noted, religious conservatives backed President Nixon to crack down on the liberal hippies and their free-thinking ways.
As a point of reference, even back in 1980, comedienne Joan Rivers (catch my post on her at http://goo.gl/0oP59) would openly make fun of Liberace's closeted persona in her stand-up act (it's on her album "What Becomes a Semi-Legend Most"), saying how she borrowed her outfit from Liberace and adding "Liberace is gay, he would have been here tonight, but he had a yeast infection ..." However, with Ms. Rivers' acknowledgement, there was at least was a discussion of the issue, and when the AIDS crisis hit a few years later, the nation was really forced to finally start acknowledging the fact that gays even existed.
Life Behind the Candelabra and In the Closet
"Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace" was derived Scott Thorson's own written memoir about his tumultuous six-year relationship with Liberace. Thorson was 40 years younger than Liberace and still in his teens when they met back in 1977. In 1983, Mr. Thorson sued Liberace for palimony. Mr. Thorson was on Liberace's payroll, he dressed Scott Thorson up like himself, and paid for Thorson to get plastic surgery. The palimony case was eventually settled out-of-court for just under $100,000.
The movie version of "Behind the Candelabra" is already getting some serious nods from film critics at the Cannes Film Festival. The subject, is of course, the late pianist Liberace who died from complications of AIDS at age 67 back in 1987. The movie, as I already mentioned, is "Behind the Candelabra" which stars Michael Douglas as the late pianist and Matt Damon as his boy-toy Scott Thorson.
Premiering On Cable
Now this movie will finally premier in the U.S. on May 26, 2013, and where else will that be happening? On cable, more specifically on HBO.
The filmmaker acknowledged that the subject matter wasn't an easy sell to Hollywood. In an interview for NPR's "Fresh Air" program that one of Soderbergh's producers, Jerry Weintraub, was working with HBO at the time and mentioned the project to executives there. It was exactly the kind of film the company wanted to be making — and the deal "was done immediately." Soderbergh says this is his last movie (if you believe him). Have a listen to that program below, or by visiting http://n.pr/11VN42t:
While the relationship between Liberace and Thorson may be the engine of the film, the same-sex nature of that relationship is not the point, regardless of the two actors locking lips—and horns—in fact-based gay romance. Mr. Soderbergh told NPR:
"It's a very intimate movie. It's a very emotionally intimate movie, and there are scenes between them that are almost uncomfortable in their intimacy. [But they] would be if it was a man and a woman involved. ... I always felt that if we did our jobs correctly, that halfway through the movie you'd forget that it was Michael and Matt and just feel as though you're watching a relationship."
In the end, this new movie is getting attention for Soderbergh's unique filmmaking style, and the actors' portrayals of their characters' roles. The Atlantic described Mr. Soderbergh's filmmaking style as follows:
"Soderbergh, with his typically seamless camerawork, punchy editing, and pleasure in recreating kitschy 1970s and '80s clothes and décor without ever veering into kitsch himself, frames the material as a sort of same-sex Sunset Boulevard: Douglas plays the vampiric Norma Desmond role to Damon's more vulnerable version of William Holden's Joe Gillis."
NPR's Fresh Air program provided a quick overview of "Behind the Candelabra" which you can listen to below, or by visiting http://n.pr/1222vX9:
You can catch the official trailer for "Behind the Candelabra" below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/QqAC1yiIROw:
HBO also has a YouTube clip called "The Making of Behind The Candelabra" which can be viewed below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/UCSoLL7-qZE:
The BBC had a nice segment on the movie including interviews with both Mr. Douglas and Mr. Damon, and closed by noting that what was done in this case (e.g. going to HBO rather than a traditional movie outlet) might just represent the future of filmmaking. Catch that informative clip at http://bbc.in/14uSezC.
This week, my local public radio station which hosts a program called "Studio 360" had a show segment entitled "Is Network TV Dead Yet?" discussing how the television industry recently held its upfronts, where the networks unveiled their fall lineups. The problem seemed to be that the outlook for the traditional broadcast networks suggests an industry still struggling to find its place in a brave new media world where cable networks and even internet startups like Netflix and Hulu (which, at the moment, is still partially owned by the major broadcast networks) have won most of the viewers and advertisers. Even Google's YouTube is now commanding viewers. It wrote that all "The buzzy shows you love to talk about are on cable, while CBS, ABC, NBC, and Fox are all wrapping up one of their worst seasons on record."
Indeed, based on the 2014 upfronts, broadcast networks now seem to be taking their cues from cable, such as by trying shows with shorter runs than the typical 22-episode model. However, network television is struggling in a world of nimble upstarts only too willing to pick up network TV's discards (see my posts at http://goo.gl/JSzlD and http://goo.gl/tE0ur for a few examples).
Indeed, this week, Marketplace Radio featured a segment that suggested how one state, my home state of Connecticut, has claimed a space in this brave new world, being the production home to the soap opera reboots as well as NBC Sports' new home. That clip may be listened to below, or by visiting http://bit.ly/1871qf2:
To be sure, as Warren Littlefield, who was the former Chief of NBC during its heyday of "Must See TV" back in the late 1980s to the early 1990s (see my post featuring an interview with Mr. Littlefield at http://goo.gl/Vzbcn) told NPR that "Network is still looking for a larger tent, still looking to find something like a 'Modern Family' that appeals to adults and kids, audiences of all ages. That's still, at nearly 20 million people a week, that's a pretty broad-based hit that really far exceeds what's being watched on cable."
As my post about the recent soap opera reboots on Netflix (see my post at http://goo.gl/TQ1qP) prove, the economics differ in this new environment, making it feasible to make money on shows with only about one-sixth the viewers, or 500,000, in order to break even on them. You may listen to the "Studio 360" segment I referenced previously below, or by visiting its website at http://wny.cc/11LvRZE:
I should also add that Warren Littlefield acknowledged that the era of big network's control over what we watch seems to be over, noting that today, its possible for people to make a television program themselves and post it online. He told Audie Cornish:
"Well, 200 channel choices in most homes certainly gives you the world of choice. And so slicing it, dicing it and offering someone their favorite thing - by the way, if it's not good enough, make it yourself and post it."
Some are doing just that.
For example, I cited one such example, notably Jane Espensen's gay-themed sitcom "Husbands" about two gay men who wake up married in Las Vegas which is distributed via YouTube (see my post on that at http://goo.gl/3Ic0S) which funded its second season via Kickstarter. Incidentally, NBC just cancelled a similarly-themed program called "The New Normal" which was co-created by Ryan Murphy of "Glee" (and "Nip/Tuck") fame, which got some attention for its premise of two gay men deciding to have a baby through a surrogate, a long with the termination of a higher-profile series about Broadway called "Smash" which was a personal favorite of NBC entertainment boss Bob Greenblatt - whose interest extended even to production design decisions, according to insiders (see news of the cancellations for both at http://lat.ms/10hZ2zM). Others would like to try rebooting old shows on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (see http://goo.gl/aZkMS), but haven't managed to succeed ... yet, but time will tell.
Given the cost of producing content has plunged thanks to internet distribution and low-cost cameras and the like, the possibilities for new content today seem to be wide open in today's TV market. Finding an audience may prove to be more challenging, but its not inconceivable that the networks could be mining YouTube for new content before too long! Don't laugh. KCRW's (in Los Angeles) "The Business" radio program on the entertainment industry noted that a comedian named Marc Maron reignited his comedy career with a popular podcast which landed him a television show (see http://bit.ly/11wPvZ7 for that podcast), so that is indeed coming.
This week (on Wednesday, May 8, 2013), at a Barnes & Noble store in Tribeca (New York City), four of the original five MTV VJs will be in town for a book signing to coincide with their new book "VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave" (specifically, Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, and Alan Hunter ... unfortunately, the last of the original five, J.J. Jackson, passed away the evening of March 17, 2004 in Los Angeles of an apparent heart attack, he was age 62). For details on the New York book signing, visit http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/78149 . I saw news of the book signing in one of the free newspapers that circulate whose primary focus is pop culture news.
"This publication will mark the first time Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn give their uncensored accounts from the front lines of the cultural revolution that was MTV. Among the highlights will be the VJs' never-before-told stories about getting, doing, and ultimately leaving the most coveted job of the decade; the truth behind Roger Daltrey's demands to visit MTV; days and nights spent partying with Van Halen; the 'Paint the Mutha Pink' contest with John Cougar Mellencamp that went toxic; joining the mile high club while flying to see the band Asia play at the Budokan in Japan; and all true tales of hair styles gone horribly wrong as a new kind of broadcast medium was being created hour by hour and day by day — all perfectly set against the era when you would still call into your answering machine from a pay phone."
Needless to say, for a brief window of time, we're likely to be seeing more of these original VJs to promote their new book.
NPR's Pop Culture Blog put the new book in perspective, writing (see http://n.pr/12e0wdj):
"Unfortunately, much of the book either feels bafflingly irrelevant (who cares what Nina Blackwood voted for or whether Martha Quinn got good grades, really?) or like a much too late attempt to wring scandal from the idea of hanging out with rock stars. They seem to be the last to know that 'I did cocaine with David Lee Roth' is no longer a particularly juicy thing to say, and neither is 'Steven Tyler hit on me once.' We assume these things. We got it. But when they get to talking about MTV itself, their stories seem awfully small."
However, as my June 20, 2012 post noted, the fact that MTV even calls itself "M" TV is laughable these days, since there's almost no music anywhere to be found on the network, which has become best known for producing trashy reality shows about Jersey Shore vacationers, speed dating and Teen Moms. The simple truth is that while MTV likes to view itself as having its finger on the pulse of today's American youth, the reality suggests otherwise. MTV is but one of hundreds of channels to pick from nowadays, so it might not even be a cultural touchpoint it was with kids of earlier generations. I noted how Nathaniel Brown, senior vice president of communications for MTV was quoted as saying:
"MTV as a brand doesn't age with our viewers. We are really focused on our current viewers, and our feeling was that our anniversary wasn't something that would be meaningful to them, many of whom weren't even alive in 1981."
That was in reference to the fact that dissed its own 30th anniversary last year. Honestly, I don't understand why MTV even bothers with the MTV Video Music Awards show anymore, but its a tradition that the network has maintained, which supposedly helps it stay relevant with today's youth.
After the VJ's started making the rounds to promote the new book, they appeared on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, and Nina Blackwood revealed she thinks MTV has strayed a bit too far from it's musical roots for her tastes. She told Howard Stern:
"Never in my wildest imagination did I think that MTV would become this. I'm not a fan of reality shows, no matter what channel. I wish that MTV had continued in a musical vein, not playing videos all day long, but at least have music at its core like Behind the Music or airing concerts. Keep some music credibility."
To catch that brief clip on YouTube, visit http://youtu.be/yUyYo1uq2gk. Time magazine had a nice story about 32 MTV factoids (one for every year of MTV's existence) — taken from the book and Time's conversations with the original VJs (see http://ti.me/10GriIb for the article). Among the interesting factoids was that MTV VJs weren't paid very well. Alan Hunter's goal was to make $550 a week, as much as a Broadway chorus boy. He started off making slightly less than that: $27,000 in his first year as a VJ. Martha Quinn learned that Mark Goodman made a lot more than she did back in the day (then again, he was also an experienced DJ on the radio, and Martha wasn't).
Nowadays, though, there actually ARE viable alternatives that resemble what MTV used to look like before its flush down the toilet to where it is today. Specifically, in Feburary 2013, a new "network" delivered via the internet emerged: Fuse TV [http://www.fuse.tv/] and on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/fuse. Indeed, Fuse has even recruited a number of MTV veterans (see http://nyti.ms/110TNXY and http://nyti.ms/1797WlY for more details) to work for it.
Fuse, which is owned by Cablevision's Madison Square Garden unit, has been building up its news division and introduced its "Fuse News" show in February, with a roster of hosts that includes Alexa Chung (formerly of the MTV series "It's On With Alexa Chung") and correspondents like Jack Osbourne (of MTV's reality series "The Osbournes"). Indeed, Fuse News resembles what MTV looked like once upon a time.
For a clip of the original MTV's return to New York to promote their new book, have a look below or visit http://on.today.com/11NPQBJ:
In any event, in reviewing "VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave" by the original four MTV VJs, NPR eloquently closed (see http://n.pr/12e0wdj) by saying:
"It's hard to remember now, but at one time, MTV really was watched just like commercial radio was listened to: you would turn it on and see what came around, and if you particularly liked a video, you'd wait a while and hope you heard it. That's what half the slumber parties of my adolescence were about: waiting for Michael Jackson or Duran Duran. We don't wait very much anymore. It's not just that this model of MTV largely went away, or that getting most of your music listening through the radio faded. It's that the entire idea of ephemeral availability — that you would have to sit and wait for something to be played for you, and that at other times you had to do without it — is simply not how people expect to digest much of anything anymore. The VJs who believed they were at the beginning of the age of the music video were actually at the end of the age in which innovation in music would involve giving people new ways to wait for you to play the music they wanted to hear."
For anyone longing for a dedicated music network like MTV used to be, I would suggest visiting Fuse TV [http://www.fuse.tv/] and/or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/fuse. You might just like how music television has evolved in today's era of on-demand content delivery, anytime, anywhere.
For their part, the original MTV VJs (Martha Quinn, Mark Goodman, Nina Blackwood, and Alan Hunter) apparently host a satellite radio program on Sirius/XM channel 80s on 8. Initially, I thought their book might be interesting reading. But now that its available and the reviews are starting to roll in, it seems the Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum's book "I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution" might just be the better read (I already read that one). I'm not saying you shouldn't read this, but let me remind you that you can always borrow the new "VJ: The Unplugged Adventures of MTV's First Wave" for no cost at your local public library. However, you might just have an opportunity to actually meet the VJs (and let's face it, we all thought they had the coolest jobs ever, didn't we?!) at a book signing near you. Visit their website at http://www.80svjs.com/ for locations and other information.
The humble soap opera (a.k.a. "soaps"), which got their name from the original dramatic serials' broadcast on radio which soap manufacturers, including Procter & Gamble, Colgate-Palmolive, Dial Corp. (now owned by Germany's Henkel AG) and Unilever, once sponsored. Soaps as a genre of television programming are (or were), by definition, ongoing, episodic works of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on radio or as television programming. Its also worth noting that a number of actors and actresses (and a few musicians) began their careers on soaps.
For decades, soaps were a staple of daytime radio, which migrated to TV, yet this particular genre of television content faced extinction when the new millennium began. Indeed, in recent years, ratings for most soaps fell in the U.S. As a result, many of America's longest-running soaps ended between 2009 to 2012.
Wikipedia reports that the longest-running drama in television and radio history, "Guiding Light", barely reached 2.1 million daily viewers in 2009 when it ended after 72 years. As a point of comparison, Luke and Laura's wedding on ABC's "General Hospital" soap in 1981 attracted 30 million viewers (a peek for soaps). But the decline for soaps in more recent years was true for many other once-lucrative soap operas. “The Guiding Light” was hardly alone. “World Turns" aired its final episode in 2010 after a 54 year run, and it was the last of 20 soap operas still produced by Procter & Gamble. "All My Children" and "One Life to Live", each having an over four-decade run, were both cancelled in 2011, with "All My Children" airing its finale in September 2011 and "One Life to Live" last airing in January 2012.
Behind Soaps' Decline
A confluence of factors contributed to the decline of soaps.
Until the 1970s, advertisers of consumer products (like soap) made by companies like P&G and Colgate-Palmolive could reliably advertise to (and reach) the female homemakers who typically buy such products for their households. But starting in the 1970s, as more and more women worked outside of the home, daytime TV viewership declined. Add to that the fact that new generations of potential viewers weren't raised watching soap operas with their mothers, which left the shows' long and complex storylines unknown to younger audiences. Beyond the shift in roles for women who largely work outside the home today, the trend was accelerated by technology in the new millennium.
Technology: The Final Nail in Soaps' Coffin, Or The Genre’s Resurrection?
We saw digital television multiply the number of channels available to viewers (whether via traditional broadcast or on cable/satellite). At the dawn of the new Millennium, it looked as if that might be a potential savior for the soap opera format. For example, on January 20, 2000, Disney's Soapnet (stylized as SOAPnet) started broadcasting current (and perhaps even more old reruns) of soap operas and prime time dramas (note that Disney also owns the television network ABC). However, Soapnet's success in attracting viewers proved elusive. Indeed, plans for a rival network from Sony Pictures Entertainment to be dubbed SoapCity (also showing soap content) were abandoned early in 2000 after Sony failed to acquire cable carriage.
Soapnet itself, in spite of already being carried on some systems, was discontinued on a number of cable and satellite providers starting in March 2012, with Disney Junior replacing it in its channel space. Although Soapnet continues for providers who have not yet made carriage agreements for Disney Junior (such as Dish Network) and for those providers who have kept Soapnet in their lineup and have either taken on Disney Junior as an additional channel or opted not to carry Disney Junior (e.g. DirecTV, etc), it's future is unclear as to whether Soapnet will might cease operations on all cable and satellite providers.
That put us in a situation where the soap opera category of television programming appeared doomed to extinction, perhaps taught as an example of historical marketing by consumer products manufacturers and distributors, or used by network programming executives on how a genre of programming which had endured from radio into broadcast television would ultimately succumb in the new Millennium, caused by failing economics and new technological advances.
As I've blogged about in the past, the day of internet-delivered video content (what we now collectively call "television") has emerged, and with seemingly unlimited capacity to stream original (or old) programming content to digital televisions or on various computers (PCs, laptops and tablets), often providing programming at times far better suited for viewers since it is all on-demand, which means soaps may yet continue their story, complete with the twists and turns soap plots were known for.
On April 25, 2013, the Associated Press ran an article entitled "Back from the dead! 'All My Children,' 'One Life to Live' revived on Web", with news that two long-running (but recently cancelled) soaps would be resurrected on the web.
In his article, Associated Press Television Writer Frazier Moore wrote:
"Taped to a wall at the entrance to the Connecticut Film Center in Stamford is this greeting: 'Welcome (back) to Pine Valley.'
Pine Valley, of course, is the mythical setting of 'All My Children,' a daytime drama that ran on ABC for nearly 41 years until it was snuffed in 2011.
But now, in one of those plot twists so common to soap operas but so rare in the real world, 'All My Children' has been raised from the dead.
Was its cancellation just a bad dream, from which the show is now awakening? In any case, 'AMC' will be back starting Monday [April 29, 2013] with much of its august cast intact (including David Canary, Julia Barr, Jill Larson, Debbi Morgan and Cady McClain, and perhaps even Susan Lucci eventually returning to the fold), along with shiny new actors to add more pizazz."
Check out the video commercial for the resurrection of "All My Children" resurrection on Hulu below, or by visiting http://youtu.be/od1LeaCDK5E:
It added:
"So will 'One Life to Live,' another venerable soap cut down by ABC after 44 seasons. It, too, will spring back to life on Monday. (Welcome back to Llanview, everybody!) Returning fan favorites include Erika Slezak, Robert S. Woods, Robin Strasser and Hillary B. Smith, each of whom has logged decades on the show."
For what its worth, the two shows had been on TV a combined total of 84 years. Variety, long an entertainment business go-to trade publication, featured an entertaining if descriptive headline for the news (see http://on.variety.com/10g87Vt):
"The Bold and the Digital: Production and distribution getting a radical rethink"
That's an obvious play on the name for another soap known as "The Bold and the Beautiful". But the headline suggests, the day for content we once passively turned our television receivers on to watch has finally seen major technological changes in how that entertainment content is delivered, which has disrupted other types of entertainment such as music.
The two venerable soap operas noted will come back to life, but will be distributed online. Each serial will unveil four daily half-hours per week, plus a recap/behind-the-scenes episode on Fridays, with 42 weeks of original programming promised for the first year.
NPR recently addressed this online resurrection of these two soaps. You may listen below, or by visiting http://n.pr/13DKI4y:
Marketplace talked about the soaps migration to the online platform, which can be listened to below, or by visiting http://bit.ly/16bqWl4:
The resurrected shows will be available for streaming on computers on the Hulu website (http://www.hulu.com/). Subscribers to Hulu Plus can watch on a variety of other devices. And the episodes will be available for purchase on iTunes.
This resurrection could reverse the doomsday scenario that has plagued soaps in recent decades as viewership withered and numbers sank (there are now only four soaps left on the broadcast networks; there were a dozen in 1991).
The details of this soap resurrection online are as follows:
Starting Monday, April 29, 2013, brand new 30-minute episodes of both "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" will appear each Monday through Thursday on the free Hulu.com website and the paid monthly subscription service Hulu Plus. Fans can also buy episodes in Apple's iTunes store.
Reuters reported "The producers, former Walt Disney TV chairman Rich Frank and talent management veteran Jeff Kwatinetz, hope to ride a wave of interest in first-run series online, highlighted by the recent buzz for Netflix original drama 'House of Cards' and its coming revival of the former Fox comedy 'Arrested Development'".
Commercial Success for Soaps Delivered Online Not A Sure Thing
As I already noted, internet-delivered "TV" programming does something networks like Soapnet did not (could not or would not): provide on-demand, anytime, anywhere entertainment programming to a number of computerized electronic devices connected to the internet, whether its a traditional television set (possibly with an add-on device like Roku), or on a tablet computer that someone can watch at their desk during their lunch break at work.
In fact, "All My Children" star Jill Larson (known Opal Cortlandt to soap fans) had this to say: "It's no longer daytime -- it's anytime now."
Will Older Viewers Tune Into Soaps Online?
There is still some skepticism that such an older-skewing audience will necessarily tune-in. For example, one subsegment of traditional soap viewers, notably elderly women, may feel technologically challenged to even find the show, although that does sell their skill sets short, and newer, smarter televisions may yet turn it into a plug and play even if the technology isn't there today.
TVs sold today have so many wires and connections that its a bit of a hassle to set up, and even worse to move within your home. Many observers thought that Apple, which made computer operating systems user-friendly with the Mac, or made an entire library of digital music (and retail store) accessible via the iPod is a logical choice to bring ease-of-use back into the digital television. So far, however, Apple TV is significantly more expensive and certainly no easier to set up, yet is more restrictive in terms of content than rivals from Roku, therefore Apple has not quite enlightened or created a new market ... yet.
In my mind, at least, new technology may actually help ventures like managing an ever-growing body of entertainment delivered via the internet. After all, imagine if you could use a TV remote control and enter a particular channel number to retrieve online-distributed content from all over the internet? That may lure in a bunch of viewers who simply want the ease that television once represented: turn it on, change the channel and watch. No one wants to spend several hours programming all that stuff to help us navigate, connecting different wires (or entering wifi and network passwords). Roku, while decent, still limits itself to just a few providers (YouTube is not among those, although I believe Hulu is).
Smaller Still Works With Online Delivery
Technology aside, the resurrection is credited to a man named Mr. Kwatinetz, the former head of a Hollywood talent agency, and Mr. Frank, a former president of Walt Disney Studios, who now own a production company known as Prospect Park, which snapped up the rights to the two soaps shortly after ABC canceled them in 2011. The New York Times reports (see http://nyti.ms/11vq70A) they don't necessarily need every single one of the three million viewers who watched "All My Children" or "One Life to Live" on ABC to watch online to make the economics work.
The New York Times, reported "By some estimates they need only about one-sixth the viewers, or 500,000, to break even. That's because the episodes cost far less to produce than they used to; ads on Hulu can be much more targeted than ads on television; and some viewers will pay out-of-pocket, either through iTunes, where episodes will retail for $0.99 each, or through the $8-a-month Hulu Plus service. (The most recent episodes will be available through the free version of Hulu, while the whole library will be on only Hulu Plus.)"
Mr. Kwatinetz also told the New York Times he expected the audience to come from two camps: longtime fans and "younger people who are already watching most of their TV online." (To entice the latter group, the new shows are faster-paced and racier than the ABC versions.) Still, Ms. De Kosnik said, some former viewers could be "confused by the thought of trying to find TV shows online."
Unlike in the past, these days, the options of WHAT viewers can watch seem to be expanding) and those entertainment options are now being delivered in innovative ways - online. Right now, Hulu is the channel for this, but rival Netflix has inked deals with a few others to resurrect shows like "Arrested Development". This will be a test to see whether grannies in nursing homes with iPads in hand will tune in to some old favorites.
Back in 1994, Generation X entertainers, for the first time in history, really dominated American pop culture. Prior to that, Americans were fed a steady diet of entertainment aimed mainly at Baby Boomers. Gen X represented a fresh new generation of young adults (Time magazine's cover story from a few years earlier was entitled "Twentysomething", see http://ti.me/5gQ3tM) in reference to a TV show about young Baby Boomers which aired a few years earlier on network television known as "Thirtysomething", though the article noted that Gen X was not the next chapter of the Baby Boom, rather they grew up as latch-key kids who weren't crazy about some Baby Boomer values, such as putting themselves and their careers over their kids) and Gen X was all over TV, movies and music. So-called "alternative" rock music emerged from various fringe rock genres including the Seattle grunge scene dominated Billboard's top singles at the time.
"If I Were A Carpenter" album cover
Out of that unlikely environment was what would be the first (but certainly not the last) tribute album consisting of modern artists covering a collection of throwback music from their youth. Indeed, at the time, songs from The Carpenters rarely played on the radio anymore, even on soft rock and oldies stations. Yet the tribute album "If I Were A Carpenter" was released in 1994 and the CD cover featured a cartoon image of Richard and Karen Carpenter listening to vinyl record albums. While The Carpenters' first album was released in 1969, it really got some serious airplay in the following years. Brother Richard Carpenter is still alive and well, but his sister Karen (whose voice helped define the sound, while Richard was really known for the music [as a pianist], arrangements and some song-writing, too) dominated most recent memories of the brother-sister duo. Karen Carpenter's death in 1983 from complications of anorexia nervosa dominated most recent pop culture memories, therefore the tribute album really struck a chord for a generation whose early music memories included them, and arguably helped re-create memories of the duo minus the baggage of Karen's untimely passing.
The tribute album was very successful, merging then-current top artists covering the music that dominated the airwaves when the artists themselves were just kids. Although Sonic Youth's cover of Superstar was a pretty big hit in 1994, Sonic Youth was hardly alone, as other artists including The Cranberries, Sheryle Crowe, and Matthew Sweet did covers of The Carpenters' songs.
Today, nineteen years later, Gen X artists (although the collaboration isn't exclusively X'ers) are again mining the music business' trash heap to reclaim a part of their own cultural history - good or bad), and maybe sell some music, too. Last week, a tribute album dedicated to John Denver entitled "The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver". Among the artists collaborating on this particular initiative include Dave Matthews, Emmylou Harris, Mary Chapin Carpenter to name just a few. Tracks include Rocky Mountain High, Take Me Home Country Roads, and Sunshine On My Shoulders as well as 13 others made famous by John Denver, who died in a plane crash in 1997.
Even the album artwork (before MP3s, known as album covers) is reminiscent of "If I Were A Carpenter" with a cartoon-esque image of the late John Denver.
"The Music Is You: A Tribute to John Denver"album cover
NPR Music noted "He [John Denver] was often mocked by edgier musicians for being a kind of musically soft, spongy Wonderbread of a singer-songwriter. But his songs have endured — and influenced more than one generation." NPR Music also spoke to Dave Matthews about his collaboration on this initiative and his cover of one of John Denver's songs, which can be listened to below, or by visiting http://n.pr/XxQmEq:
In the end, I think Dave Matthews and his collaborators have done the late singer appropriate justice, much as the "If I Were A Carpenter" collaborators did for that group. As a tribute album, it not only brings the original artist's music to a potentially new audience, but also keeps the original artist's creations in mind. If you'd like to buy "The Music Is You: A Tribute To John Denver", visit http://amzn.to/10iMwD7.
I believe U.S. Copyright laws provide far more legal rights to copyright owners than the copyright laws in most other developed countries actually do. Until very recently, that mainly benefited well-established media giants (music record labels, for example, or book publishers), rather than the individuals who created the content in the first place. However, as I reported (see the post at http://goo.gl/fu4fc) at the beginning of 2013, thanks to legislation that was passed in the mid-1970s, content creators such as authors and songwriters can now reclaim the rights to the content they actually created. They can now legally reclaim the rights to their published works from the companies who claimed ownership of the copyrights, enabling them to license the use of that content however THEY, rather than the record label or publisher, sees fit. This opens the possibility that we may see music from countless other content creators in things like films and TV shows. Book content, especially from older books, are more likely to be cited in the public domain. In effect, it opens the possibilities that didn't exist when the anointed gatekeepers of that content called the shots exclusively for themselves, which I think is a good thing.
I also commented on how archived audio recordings of music risked being lost permanently because of the United States' convoluted laws which are supposed to protect copyright ownership, but I likened it to trying to do a title search on a home but without the public records being accessible in a local, state or Federal ownership registry, making it almost impossible to identify the true owners in many cases (see my post on that http://goo.gl/3pggn). Thanks to a recent Government initiative, that content will not necessarily be lost, and they've even encouraged some big content owners such as Sony Music to participate, which is terrific.
Much of the reason for the messy U.S. copyright situation is because of the powerful lobbying influence that giant U.S. media and publishing companies had in legislating and getting many of the things that content owners in say, Sweden are not entitled to. This has created a situation where the profits are much, much bigger in the U.S. than they are elsewhere. Because there are so many restrictions on content in the U.S., it has also created an environment where compliance, often without malicious intent, is difficult for consumers of that content, and legal challenges are widespread and frequent. This is apparently what happens when a fox guards the henhouse.
However, Public Radio International ("PRI") has a fascinating story about two very recent U.S. federal court cases which were forced to apply 1976 law to modern digital innovations. PRI reports that With respect to two new digital services, the judges took two different paths, ruling one was compliant with federal copyright law, while another was not. Much of these decisions were based on past legal precedent, the basis upon which much of U.S. law is based.
I would recommend having a listen to that story because they cover it very well, giving good insight into what these decisions actually mean and their implications for the future. Incidentally, my astute readers might notice that the opening track in that broadcast was the 1971 song "I've Seen All Good People" by the British band Yes.
PRI summed up the outcome of these two trials as follows:
TV viewers 1, iTunes users 0.
Reselling Music Bought on iTunes Violates Copyright Law Even if You Delete It
In effect, the courts ruled that users were not able to sell music downloaded from iTunes involving a court case related to ReDigi, which is a platform that let you resell digital songs you bought from iTunes (or from Amazon, Google Play or any other digital music seller) or but when you decided you don't want that music on your computer any more - a bit like like taking your old CDs to the secondhand store. The company describes itself as follows:
"ReDigi is a free cloud service that allows you to sell your legally purchased digital music. An online marketplace where you can buy pre-owned digital music for as low as $0.49. Keep your music collection fresh and light by storing your unused music in your cloud and streaming it to any device. Discover a new way to enjoy your digital music today."
Record companies argued that because the technology requires that a copy be made, ReDigi's service infringes on their copyrights. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Sullivan agreed. To some extent, I'm starting to think my large (but not massive) CD collection might be more valuable today than it was when I bought it the first time around since owning those discs enables me to get the MP3's on iTunes very easily (free), but I actually own the discs and don't have to worry about yet-to-be-decided licensing with the content owners. It's mine, and I can resell it on sites like SecondSpin.com anytime I like. In fact, I've continued to buy CDs (often used) rather than buy the songs from iTunes (usually because its a lot cheaper to buy music that way).
Barry Diller Is Right (So Far), Aereo TV Is Legal
The other case, involving TV content involves a new digital streaming service called Aereo (a startup which is backed by media mogul Barry Diller), which captures broadcast TV signals and then routes them over the Internet to users who pay a fee. Network broadcasters took Aereo to court, but in Judges Christopher Droney and John Gleeson from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals refused to issue an injunction against Aereo.
Big broadcasters including Newscorp's Fox unit, Disney's ABC business, Viacom's CBS broadcasting unit, and Comcast's NBC/Universal unit and various others had sued, saying Aereo copied and retransmitted their programs as they are first aired without permission. But the case relied heavily upon earlier legal precedents.
Specifically, the appeals court relied (in part) on an earlier court case in which judges found that Cablevision System's digital video recorder did not violate copyright law by copying and storing programs for each customer's use. The majority said that a ruling against Aereo would conflict with its earlier decision in the Cablevision case.
Broadcasters said in court documents that allowing Aereo to proceed without paying for licenses threatens the ability of broadcasters to produce marquee sports or awards show events (that's a bullshit argument, quite frankly), including the Academy Awards and the Grammys. They also say cable and satellite operators may decide to adopt Aereo's technology or cause revenues from those paying licensing fees to decline because the content is devalued (probably true, but the question is whether copyright infringement has taken place?). They also claim Aereo's success will hurt their ability to license content on an on-demand basis over the Internet, although they aren't exactly rushing to do themselves because of the big fees they get from packaged deals with cable companies. Note that I blogged about a lawsuit cable giant Cablevision (which was noted above) is now suing Viacom over bundled pricing, catch that post by visiting http://goo.gl/C5qqE. The outcome for that case hasn't happened yet, but many are watching to see what happens.
I should note that the ruling came on the Aereo case in a preliminary stage of the case in federal court. More evidence must still be presented to a lower court judge before she issues a final decision. Other legal challenges have been filed elsewhere against a budding industry that stands to challenge the dominance of cable or satellite companies that offer their licensed programming to consumers, which are often very costly although much of it can still be attained over the airwaves for free.
I haven't studied the legal precedents which were cited in these cases, but the issues raised in both cases are very interesting. The story notes that Congress really needs to update the copyright laws which they haven't done in more than 35 years. The copyright laws now governing digital content was developed in an era before digital ownership and delivery was even imagined (the Copyright Act was passed into law in 1976).
"The Copyright Act needs to take account of where we are now and not in 1976," Adam Liptak, who covers law and the Supreme Court for the New York Times, said to PRI. He doubts that will come to pass. "The correct answer is that it should be Congress, and the likely real-world answer is it'll be the courts" that continue ruling on digital rights.
PRI added: "The fact that these cases are decided based on a law that predates the digital era by decades makes a lot of work for lawyers and judges. It's [now] up to Congress do the real heavy lifting of changing the laws for the digital era."
Wow, there's so much pop culture news today, unfortunately, not all of it is happy. For example, Baby Boomer icon (and perhaps the best-known original Mickey Mouse Club Mouseketeer) Annette Funicello passed away today (see the Los Angeles Times obituary at http://lat.ms/XzIJj7) at age 70. For the record, I grew up during the first remake of "The Mickey Mouse Club" and the best known alumnus from that era is perhaps Lisa Whelchel (catch my post that covers her at http://goo.gl/koOhe), the Britney Spears/ Christina Aguilera/ Justin Timberlake was the third and final rendition of that show. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher died today, too (see http://nyti.ms/YbwY1H for New York Times coverage), although her death is perhaps less shocking given her age (she was 87) and her health issues were well-known, notably from Alzheimer's Disease which was recently depicted by actress Meryl Streep in last year's successful film "Iron Lady"). The latter not really being pop culture news, as Ms. Thatcher was more of a political leader (and Ronald Reagan's ideological soul-mate from the UK).
But today's post is a slightly happier theme, although it too is rooted in tragedy.
Comedy's Leading Lady With Troubles At Home
During the 1970s, comedienne Carol Burnett (who is nearly 80 years old as I write this) made news not only for what she was doing on the TV screen, but also because of the struggles she was having at home with a teenage daughter (Carrie) who was abusing drugs and alcohol starting at age age 13. Her daughter's well-publicized struggles with addiction were fodder for tabloid articles, and also contributed to the demise of Ms. Burnett's marriage at the time.
Indeed, Ms. Burnett's struggles with her daughter Carrie, along with her disclosure of those to the public, helped push a new first lady named Nancy Reagan to adopt the cause of drug abuse as her signature campaign known as "Just Say No" following Ronald Reagan's election in 1980.
To Carol's credit, her willingness to be public about her struggles with Carrie also helped many parents realize they weren't alone in the struggle in dealing with kids that were addicted to drugs. However, to some extent, much of Generation X was treated as one that needed to be saved from drug abuse when not all kids even had those struggles. Not all kids of that era were abusing drugs, yet Gen X kids were kind of treated as if we all were a bunch of aimless potheads regardless, often by parents who had a stash of marijuana of their own.
Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie Hamilton
In the years that followed, Carol's daughter Carrie Hamilton had become a model of a post-addiction child and remained extremely close with her mother (perhaps because of her intervention during her wild childhood), but as the poster-child for kids (many kids of Hollywood celebs) gone bad, her struggles were much more public than ordinary kids elsewhere in America. Indeed, Carrie herself said that was a big reason she started using drugs in the first place, to get out of her famous mother's shadow.
That's why when Carol Burnett's daughter Carrie, who had successfully rebuilt her life and relationships later passed away from lung cancer in 2002 (see http://bit.ly/10NwwTo for the People magazine coverage of Carrie's passing, although there's a nicer version which features full-color scans of the original at http://goo.gl/kgrg4), it was kind of a sad postscript not only for Carol, but also a sign that not every Hollywood story has a happy ending.
This week, CBS' Sunday Morning news show featured a nice interview with Carol Burnett, who perhaps not coincidentally, happens to have a new book coming out on April 9, 2013. Her new book, unlike her biography, is in honor of her daughter Carrie entitled "Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story" (which can be found at http://amzn.to/16IGjPw). Although the interview barely addresses the new tribute to her daughter, we do see Carol touring the old CBS studio where "The Carol Burnett Show" was filmed back in the day (today, the gameshow "The Price Is Right" is recorded there), and we get to see a few vintage clips from her show. You may watch the CBS Sunday Morning inteview with Carol Burnett at below, or by visiting http://cbsn.ws/10LZnd2:
In the end, as Carol told CBS News, as a parent, one never really gets over the loss of a child, but she says you learn to cope with it because she says she and other parents like her have no other choice. Her new book is meant to be Carol's tribute to her late daughter Carrie. She wrote it to be a funny yet moving memoir about raising Carrie through the struggles and triumphs of her life. Carol shares her personal diary entries, photos, correspondence, and traces the journey she and Carrie took through some of life's toughest challenges and sweetest miracles.
Although I haven't read the book myself (it won't be released until tomorrow), coming from one of comedy's greatest legends, I did read Carol's own autobiography "This Time Together: Laughter and Reflection" which I enjoyed, as I thought it was written in a very readible way yet was also entertaining, much like Carol Burnett herself.
These days, reruns of "The Carol Burnett Show" aren't widely seen on television even on networks known for reruns including TV Land, Me-TV, Antenna TV or RTV-Retro Television. As a consolation, Carol had sold a limited set of episodes direct-to-consumers on videocassette and later on DVD from the direct marketing firm Guthy-Renker until that company left the entertainment distribution business to focus on beauty products. Since then, collections of "The Carol Burnett Show" have been sold by Time Life at http://carolburnettdvdstore.com/ (although they can also be ordered on Amazon.com).
Variety Shows
"The Carol Burnett Show" was perhaps one of the longest-running television variety shows (which as a genre, really no longer exists today). "The Sonny and Cher Show" preceded Carol Burnett on CBS, but didn’t manage to survive the stars of that show’s own marriage ending in divorce. However, the variety show genre continued through the early 1980s, we saw that genre continue with several variety shows produced by Sid and Marty Krofft (better known for their psychodelic puppet show "H.R. Pufnstuf" which I never really enjoyed, perhaps because I wasn't taking drugs as a kid) including the ill-fated "Brady Bunch Variety Hour" (which even the some of the cast members, including Susan Olsen who played Cindy Brady, ridiculed in a book entitled "Love to Love You Bradys: The Bizarre Story of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour"), "The Osmonds" which aired a few years later, and perhaps what was of the Krofft's last major network variety shows (and arguably the last of the major network variety show genre) "Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters" which ran for a few years (from 1980-1982) on NBC, with that one being more country music-themed than the predecessors (see my post of country cross-over artists at http://goo.gl/9Lstp.
Carol Burnett Show Spinoffs
"The Carol Burnett Show" also gave birth to syndicated spinoffs such as "Mama's Family" (which starred Vicki Lawrence which began as a recurring skit on "The Carol Burnett Show" called "The Family". That spinoff which ran for one and a half seasons on NBC (from 1983-1984) also featured actress Rue McClanahan as Mama's uptight spinster sister Fran Harper, who was a journalist for a local newspaper. Of course, Rue McClanahan left the show to join a show which would be a far bigger hit for her personally, as well as for NBC, specifically, "The Golden Girls" which ran for an impressive eight seasons on Saturday evenings, doing well in the ratings the entire time. After a series of time-changes for "Mama's Family" on NBC, the show stopped but was subsequently retooled by removing the character Fran and adding Eunice and Ed Higgins' delinquent son Bubba (played by Allan Kayser) and a prissy neighbor Iola Boylin best known for making various cozies for various household appliances.
Although the syndicated version "Mama's Family" was entertaining and generally well-done, "The Family" skits on Carol Burnett were much funnier, often with a very biting humor that the spinoff kind of lacked. Of course, Carol herself starred Eunice (nee Harper) Higgins, who was only in four of the original spinoff's episodes, while Carol appeared in just one episode on the second iteration of "Mama's Family" which ran in syndication from 1997 to August 2006 after being dropped by NBC.
Without getting too far off topic (at one time, I thought about writing about variety shows, but there wasn't much more to say about them than I've written here), Carol Burnett's interview on CBS Sunday morning offers a great overview of "The Carol Burnett Show" as well as a glimpse into Carol Burnett's personal struggle raising her daughter Carrie and also provides a good description for her motivation behind writing her latest book "Carrie and Me: A Mother-Daughter Love Story". Although I can envision an entire post on "The Carol Burnett Show", the challenges she had raising her daughter Carrie was really how I started this post, and I think it helps portray that era. I was lucky enough to have caught that clip on CBS Sunday Morning, saving me from having to create much of that on my own. I hope my readers will consider that perspective and possibly read Carol Burnett's new book with that perspective in mind.
I've written before about how the conversion to digital formats, particularly for video (see http://goo.gl/Zevfa for one example), has great benefits for many parties. Unlike film, for example, digital video formats retain their clarity and color forever (at least theoretically), as there are no chemical colors to peel off aging celluloid film. I presumed that audio was easier to upgrade to digital format since much has already been converted.
But apparently, there are literally still tons of old recordings out there, some of which date as far back 125 years. One might also think that digital audio is in better shape, therefore converting those to newer digital formats should be easy, say with a computer program that can convert from one format to another, right?
Not necessarily.
One big challenge with audio is that recorded sound does not always have a standardized recording format. What was used for audio recordings at one time may have disappeared when newer, superior or less-costly formats evolved. Audio recordings range from cylinders and vinyl discs (each with different speeds required for playback). Other formats include various tapes (beyond what we think of as cassettes, who remembers the 8-Track, or even reel-to-reel tapes?), and more recently, audio has been recorded on computer files.
In 2000, Congress passed a law that established the National Recording Preservation Board and initiated a project to preserve our recorded audio content. Some examples include Presidential addresses, to music recordings of a particular point in time. There's a LOT of recorded audio content out there.
But just because files are in digital formats doesn't mean we'll automatically know how to convert those to newer formats in the future.
Sam Brylawski, the chairman of the National Recording Preservation Board says "You hear stories about things recorded on ... things like ProTools editing software 10 years ago, but the new version of the software isn't compatible with the digital files of 10 and 20 years ago."
On Wednesday, February 13, 2013, the U.S. Library of Congress unveiled its long-awaited plan to help preserve this country's audio archives. The National Recording Preservation Plan proposes that anyone making a "born digital" recording needs to also encode the audio with metadata — information embedded in the file — that spells out exactly HOW that audio was recorded. There's a lot more to the plan, including standardized practices for analog recordings preservation and storage (for analog media that may be susceptible to heat and humidity, for example).
While it seems logical to suggest converting everything to MP3 format, it represents a big change in thinking. Mr. Brylawski says:
"It's important to think about the life cycle of the recording as it's made and not just 80 years later when you open your closet and see these things and scratch your head," Brylawski says. "Thinking about the life cycle of a born digital item as soon as it's made — that would be the best way to think about [the question of], 'How will this be preserved?'"
Copyrights Also An Enormous Challenge
The reason so many sounds from the very early stages of recording are lost is not because the recordings themselves are gone, but because we [the U.S.] have very expansive copyright laws that essentially lock them up and make them unavailable," according to Tim Brooks, the president of the Association for Recorded Sound Collections and the author of "Lost Sounds", a book about the earliest black recording artists.
My readers may also recall that a big change to U.S. copyright went into effect earlier this year which now enables authors to reclaim the rights to content they created but may have been signed over to publishers and/or record labels (see my post at http://goo.gl/fu4fc for details). That represents a new wrinkle in the copyright mess without necessarily clear solutions.
We can thank corporate mergers and acquisitions for some of the copyright situation we're now in, and the specific copyright protections the music industry lobbied so hard to get also makes archiving historic recordings legally difficult. In many cases, the rights holders to those recordings cannot even be found. Think of a process similar to a title search for a home or automobile, only with ownership data that's locked in corporate vaults without public access to those records.
However, some of the biggest labels in the music industry including Sony have come around, seeing the commercial potential for cooperation rather than keeping stuff to themselves. They cite Sony's agreement to permit the U.S. Library of Congress to stream free on the Library's National Jukebox website [http://www.loc.gov/jukebox/] some of its earliest recorded content as an example.
NPR had a fascinating story about the Library of Congress' National Recording Preservation Plan on February 13, 2013. That can be listened to below, or by visiting http://n.pr/ZdyxNg.
While you can listen to that, its worth visiting NPR's website (see above), as they have links to the first known jazz recording, which was made in 1917, and also a wax cylinder recording of a song about President William McKinley.
In the end, this was a fascinating story about the initiative to save American recorded audio history. With an articulated plan for content, along with perhaps partnering with industry, we might not lose our recorded audio content, therefore ensuring future generations will still have access to it. And with meta data attached to the newly-converted audio files, future generations may also be able to enjoy access to it.
Readers may recall that in October 2012, I blogged about the 50th Anniversary of Hanna-Barbera cartoon "The Jetsons" (catch my post on that by visiting http://goo.gl/01mqj). It was a sort of a tongue-in-cheek intro that the future had just received its membership card from AARP, but the reality is that at least in my lifetime, many of the gee-whiz things we saw in "The Jetsons" have become facts of life. True, we're not flying to work yet, but many other things are now pretty ordinary.
One technology that I highlighted was the concept of video telephone calls. These days, that technology, whether its via Tango, the far more ubiquitous technology from Skype, or Apple's proprietary (and non-compatible) Facetime apps on Apple's iOS devices, today, video phone calls are no longer far-fetched dreams of visionaries.
But it wasn't always that way, and the change has actually been quite recent.
According to the AT&T Archive, the American public first witnessed what was dubbed the Picturephone at the 1964 World's Fair in Queens, NY. Soon thereafter, what was then known as the Bell System (which was in reality known as AT&T) rolled out three Picturephone booths in Washington DC, New York, and Chicago. Those three Picturephones could communicate only with each other. Usage costs ranged from $16 to $27 for just three minutes (that's $118 to $200 in 2012 dollars!).
Cover of 1964 Picturephone brochure (click to open)
The old Bell System even published a futuristic-looking brochure (now scanned into Adobe Acrobat format) which can be found by visiting http://goo.gl/4VMC5 tempting us that the Bell System was working to bring those video phone calls to our homes in the future.
As it turns out, that did happen, and the old Bell System disintegrated following antitrust regulators suing (and winning) a lawsuit to break the monopolistic company up. The company we know of as AT&T in 2013 is actually one of the so-called "Baby Bells" which grew into a company that looks a bit like the old Bell System used to, minus the legendary Bell Laboratories which invented the fiber optic technology which runs much of today's internet and lots of other stuff, minus Western Electric, the company that manufactured all those telephones that still sit in many people's homes even today (side note: if you can find a landline phone made half as well as those were, you might consider holding onto it, because the cheap junky phones sold today aren't likely to work for very long after they are removed from the packaging; I've bought three which didn't even work after I opened the plastic).
In the following video, which is courtesy of the AT&T Archive (noted above), shows a short video (originally from film) from 1970 containing actual footage from the inaugural Picturephone call at the launch of commercial service in the first test (beta) city, Pittsburgh. The call was made from then-Mayor Pete Flaherty, in Pittsburgh's Bell Telephone HQ auditorium, to John Harper, then the Chairman of Alcoa. Those two men made the call from locations that were actually only a block apart, but seeing them on a screen in realtime seemed like an incredible vision of the future.
The AT&T Archive also has some interesting information on why the original Picturephone service never quite took off (the reason wasn't technological, but cost). It seems that companies, who were seen as the target market for the service, balked at paying the equivalent of almost $1,000 per month for the video conferencing service (which came with a minimum of 30 minutes. Additional sets on the same line added another $50/month in 1970 dollars; additional minutes were priced at $0.25 each, again in 1970 dollars). Still, when viewed from its historical perspective, you can see just how visionary all of that was in 1970!
These days, a LOT of people complain that Apple's Facetime is limited only to other iOS users, and that's a major drawback. That means you cannot Facetime your grandmother if you've got an iPhone but she's got a Droid. Rather than encouraging Apple device sales, it seems to be doing the opposite. There's been a steady stream of news that Apple has lost its perch on top of the mobile device market as Samsung outsold it (see http://n.pr/16KAXED for details). iOS is a nice operating system, but Wall Street is looking for Apple to sell cheaper devices to get them into more people's hands, especially in the developing world. Apple is sitting on a very big hoard of cash at the moment, so the company is hardly in imminent danger, but the many experts believe the company's premium-priced strategy may need retooling.
Still, to get around that proprietary Apple technology hurdle (lets face it, of mobile devices, recent data shows that 60% of all devices now in circulation are powered by Google's Android operating system, Apple only has about 40%, down from half a few years ago), Skype already has apps that work on both, and there are also apps like Tango which do the same. The point is these days, its not technological hurdles but marketing hurdles, but most people already have the technology to do video conferencing right from their mobile handsets. But we should remember it wasn't so long ago those were just visions of a future world!
44, consultant, writer, speaker, brother, son, friend, partner, person with autoimmune (type 1) diabetes, former pumper, thinker, dreamer. Patients need to read the medical and scientific literature themselves before drawing conclusions. The popular press loves to publish abbreviated facts to fit into limited space, mine does not mince words or leave key facts out.
