No Rock And Roll Fun

WHODUNNIT?: The fearless Daily Mirror knows who's killed the single - it points the finger at the Internet (of course), mobile phones (because, erm, why would anyone buy a single when they could have a discordant tinny little ringtone version of the same thing) and MTV. Now, we thought MTV had already been tried on the charge of killing pop music back in the 80s, so surely to put it on trial again is a breach of double jeopardy? The Mirror, however, knows it's guilty - kids can just "record" singles from MTV, using that new-fangled video taping equipment. They didn't get a BPI spokesperson in to say "We always knew there was a risk if people realised that they could tape music from the TV; we're just lucky we got away with it for twenty-five years."

Not guilty, apparently, are the record companies who have managed to engineer a situation where singles are often as expensive as some top-name albums, or who put out substandard tosh (Bunton, we're looking at you) without even bothering a "will this do"; or the shops whose single departments ceased to order a range of new releases and only picked the ones they thought would be in a chart - a self-fulfilling prophecy but one which helped kill the habit of single buying. And if you're going to finger mobile ringtones, isn't it fair to at least acknowledge their role properly - back in the 70's, if you were a teenager, your pocket money didn't have many calls on it - records, cinema tickets, a can of Top Deck every now and then. In 2004, there's enormous demand for teenager's cash - everything from X-Box games to snowboarding lessons. And, yes, mobile ringtones. Perhaps the wonder is not how few copies singles sell now, but that they sell any at all.