Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Thin Red Line

In the immortal words of David Lee Roth: "Here's to your thin red line, ooooooh I'm steppin' over."


Hello reader. For a few years now I've been proclaiming the music industry to be a "level playing field" where the "great" songwriters will reign supreme. I realize I am not the only one with this sentiment. See, the internet has changed EVERYTHING --as most of us know or are quickly discovering. Big mean record labels used to be able to "tell" us what to like and force feed us their music via mainstream radio and every other form of marketing. No longer. Major labels and even Independent labels employ many of the same resources that are currently at our fingertips...just waiting to be discovered and touched by us. Now, we consumers know that we can find the music we like and easily "own" it via hundreds of online options. No longer does a band or artist need to sign any fucking sort of deal to expose their art and potentially make a living from it. If the band/artist has "the goods" (quality content, if you will) then we consumers can, and maybe will, find them. The overall entertainment industry is following suit...but this post is not about the music industry. Rather, it's about how we're crossing the "thin red line" in many other capacities in our country, and in our world. Meaning, we not only realize that we can take action, we are.

Even governments and Corporate America are not safe.

For example, President Obama set records for his campaign donations --largely credited to his consistent and widespread activity levels within his massive Social Media network, combined with this country's very real desire for change. See, they can't tell us who to vote for on TV or the newspaper anymore. WE can educate ourselves very easily. We can acquire information easily. We can further research the validity of the information quickly. We can make decisions for ourselves based on the information we've easily acquired. Major news networks --which we as citizens used to rely on for information of what is going on in the world, our country, our state and our cities/towns-- are fading fast and finding it difficult to control the "people", or the "99%", if you will. Now, ANYONE can spread an idea. ANYONE can sell music. ANYONE can start a war. Just have a message. Find like-minded people. Spread your message to them. Reap results.


In the immortal words of Seth Godin (from his blog post on Seth's Blog: "The Extraordinary revolution of media choice". If you don't know who Seth Godin is then you are just missing the boat. He's awesome!)...anyway, here's the excerpt:

"In the traditional model, you can only play one program at a time. One radio show or one movie or one show...Scarcity of spectrum has changed just about every element of our culture...BUT! And it's a big but...In a world where everything is a click away, and in a world where everyone can have their own YouTube channel, ten blogs and a thousand email accounts...the only thing that's scarce is attention.

Shelf space is worthless now. Why worry about making a particular hour of radio all encompassing and wildly popular when you are welcome to broadcast a hundred hours--and people can listen whenever they like...The idea that someone can program our consumption is becoming obsolete, and fast. The front page of the paper disappears in a digital world, where there is no front page--merely the page I got to by clicking on a link from a friend. The tenth minute of a sitcom isn't necessarily the part that comes after the ninth minute, and in fact, I might never even get to minute nine.

Fifty years ago, the remote control freaked out TV executives. Today, the exception is the linear consumer, the rare bird that sits from the beginning to the end. Weird is in, mass is fading. In a world of surfers, all you can do is work to make the best wave you can. The real revolution is that you get to make waves, not just ride them."


Nasty! Truth!

In our current times, the "99%" anywhere and everywhere has the ability to make informed choices, spread information, easily communicate ideas and information, organize like-minded people in support of their ideas, and "make waves". Buckle up!!!

Today, the news media is all over the protesting in Syria. I won't elaborate on it as you can easily inform yourself on it. My point is, the "99%" is communicating their message to one another and forcing change. No longer can the "elite" in Syria control the "99%" with fear, imprisonment, murder, torture and propaganda. They, the "99%", just come back in droves even after military force is used to stop the protesting. Even Syrian military personnel are defecting to join the protests now!

The media is also all over the "Occupy Wall Street, National Day Of Action" today. I'm really not interested in dissecting this but it REALLY validates my point about steppin' over the thin red line. Take this excerpt from Occupywallst.org for an example:


"Occupy Wall Street is leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring tactic to achieve our ends and encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.

This #ows movement empowers real people to create real change from the bottom up. We want to see a general assembly in every backyard, on every street corner because we don't need Wall Street and we don't need politicians to build a better society.

The only solution is World Revolution"


So reader, if you're making music, writing a book, starting a revolution, a cult or running for office, go ahead and feel good about your chances! If you've got the quality content (i.e. "The Goods") and you're willing to actually work for it, you WILL be able to get your message heard!


Then, you may just persuade enough people to cross the thin red line and...



~ZFJ

2 comments:

Bernard said...

I know this is not about the rapture but somehow I feel Mu-Infiltrator-P5471 should be involved in this...

Bernard

Zero Fun John said...

Hello "Bernard".

We meet again...I too believe "Mu-Infiltrator-P5471 should be involved...we are just biding our time my friend. So, I'm not sure how you know the alien named Mu-Infiltrator-P5471, but please let him/her/it know that "we" are lying in wait...


~ZFJ