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Elton John calls for net to be closed
Not that he's reaching the going-to-the-shops-wearing-slippers stage or anything, but Elton John wants the internet to be switched off to save music:
The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff.
“Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.
“It’s just a means to an end.
“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet.
“I mean, get out there — communicate.
“Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.
“Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging.
“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.
“There’s too much technology available.
“I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”
“Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.
“It’s just a means to an end.
“We’re talking about things that are going to change the world and change the way people listen to music and that’s not going to happen with people blogging on the internet.
“I mean, get out there — communicate.
“Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet.
“Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging.
“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.
“There’s too much technology available.
“I’m sure, as far as music goes, it would be much more interesting than it is today.”
He doesn't like bloggers much, does he? But we'll try to leave that aside, and just focus on his suggestion that "people are staying at home making music on their computers which isn't good".
It's not true, of course - and part of the problem is the bloody awful bands comprising of people who don't stay in their bedrooms but instead go out and make Kasabian records; and we're not even going to bother eulogising the value of the internet as a promotional tool - indeed, that it provides the very communication that John talks about. Instead, we'll just point out that there was no internet in any real sense in the early 1980s, and the music scene then was being despoiled by "happily heterosexual husband" era Elton and the Phil Collinses. If that's life without an always-on broadband connection, we'll keep the web, if we can. Ta.
5 comments:
While they're at it they should shut down that Las Vegas with all those bloated buffoons long last their creative years and too lazy to tour stretching out their egos to milk the last drops of adulation they can in shows Liberace would be envious of.
And keep their ticket and album sales off the web, too.
I searched in vain for the key phrase "Back in my day" but, alas and alack, no.
Has Elton John thought this plan through? If youngsters do go out and make music together, is there any guarantee it won't be all Thud-thud-thud where you can't make out the words and there's no tune and you can't tell if the singer's a boy or a girl and he can't see us all sitting around a piano singing it in thirty years' time?
Hope the Royal Mint are prepared for a tongue-lashing, Elton's about to turn his attention to these new five-pence pieces and he's not happy...
I like the line "There’s too much technology available". What exactly is Mr Dwight's acceptable level of technology? Can we keep the scanning electron microscope if we ban the tin opener? Do we have to choose between the Corby trouser press and cellotape? Where does one draw the line?
Sorry Elton, but you don't control music. If I or anyone else wants to create music on my computer your just going to have to get over it.
There is no substitute for a live performance with live musicians but really, you just don't go and "shut down" the internet because you don't like people getting together on the internet...just cuz you can't blog...
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