Move Over Newspapers: Movie, TV, Books & Radio Taking Hits, Selling Souls

As if there isn’t enough pain and suffering to go around already…

Some provocative thoughts on pop culture as we know it from Entertainment Weekly columnist Stephen King.

On Books…

“E-book downloads now account for only 1.5 percent of the total market,” King conjures. “But that was once true of compact discs, and if you’ve bought an actual vynil record lately, you’re in very select company. At this writing, best-selling hardcovers have settled at an e-book price point of about $10, but if you think e-book vendors such as Amazon and Sony are making a profit, you would be wrong. That’s because the product is sold cheap for the same reason dope pushers sell the product cheap, at least to begin with: to get you hooked.”

Good stories are like dope, King says.

The future of publishing yet remains uncertain, King says.

Rock n Roll radio…

“I can personally testify that it’s on life support, because I own a rock station – WKIT in Bangor, Maine- and I see the balance sheets,” King writes. “If I may wax vulgar, ad revenues are in the pooper. And this is true whatever the rock format: pop, oldies, heavy metal, middle-of-the-road – which I think of as Doobie Brothers Radio. Right now the only real radio rent payers are right wing ratchet-jaws like El Rushbo.”

Who will break promising new artists if rock radio continues to disintegrate, King asks?

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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5 Responses to Move Over Newspapers: Movie, TV, Books & Radio Taking Hits, Selling Souls

  1. Anonymous says:

    smartman
    Thank the NEA and Public Education. They’ve turned at least three generations of kids into skulls full of mush. From each according to their means, to each according to their needs.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Pellboy
    Steven King brings up some great points but the same was said in the past in regards to The Beatles (and similar acts), violent/sexual movies and modern art as the beginning of the end of quality art in our society. While it maybe harder to find than ever (in some ways easier due to the internet, cable TV, DVDs, etc.), quality art will always find a way to emerge from the lowest common denominator abyss.

  3. Anonymous says:

    gd
    A cut and paste job from Entertainment Weekly. Quality work!

  4. Anonymous says:

    Rick
    Go see the movie ADAM.

  5. Anonymous says:

    watch burn notice
    burn notice and psych are two of USAs best shows

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