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Number
27: November 5, 2003
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This week in Katydid:
The
Pop Heard Round the World
As I write this article, I'm listening to a radio broadcast feed from
Copenhagen. In some ways, the Internet has brought culture back to the
1950s. Internet
radio offers the same experience one might have had trying to catch
signals with your crystal
set or short wave radio. MP3s are swapped very much as 45s used to
be. There is huge potential for underground networks of entertainment
buyers.
So, which exotic sounds did today's Internet radio experience bring
forth?
- Copenhagen: Beyoncé
- London: Blink 182
- Paris: Train (or is it Live, or Creed)
China, one of the few exceptions, offers music in Chinese.
Our entertainment, our fast food, our automobiles, and our
advertising bless the entire world. Of course, we steal from the rest of
the world, making new ideas and trends our own, which we then send out
again. Pop
culture is America's biggest export.
But is it truly popular? Like our cheese, it's processed. Like our
milk, it's homogenized. It sells well, but I'd hardly call it popular
because it only hits one audience – young people.
One has to work hard to have eclectic tastes these days. There was a
time when Top 40 pop music meant hearing country, rock, R&B, and
easy listening in the course of an hour. Now we have stations dedicated
to dozens of styles. The Recording Academy awards Grammys
in 34 different genres. Record stores have become separate ghettos
where nobody strays from their neighborhood.
Pop music itself has become a distinct genre easily avoided. Many
people of a certain age (or taste) have no idea who Mandy Moore or
Michelle Branch is. (Ask your daughters if you're uncertain.)
Cable and satellite television offer the same segregation of content.
If you like, you never have to stray from sports, or news, or soap
operas. Services like TiVo even allow you to pull content together from
other broadcast stations, so you never have to experience something you
don't like, or isn't familiar.
All this segmentation is terrific for niche advertisers. It allows
them to target the specific entertainment their audience enjoys. Yet, it
poses a challenge to marketers because it makes it more difficult to
reach general audiences. Not all CEOs watch the Golf
Channel. There is no Decision-maker Magazine.
As we move toward ubiquitous broadband access, increasingly our
entertainment will follow us wherever we go. We'll be able to watch our
shows and listen to our music in the car, on the plane, or on a park
bench. The need for individually packaged content (CD and DVD cases)
will fall away and everyone will subscribe to streaming services.
However, I think human nature yearns to share experiences. There's a
reason that our earliest surviving literature are plays. Watching a
comedy is funnier with a crowd. Scary movies are more frightening with a
screaming auditorium.
One of the reasons that reality shows are doing well now, is that
they provide ample subjects for talk around the water-cooler. People are
more likely to watch these shows live if only to talk the next day about
how offensive they were. However, we can't sustain spectacle for long.
Eventually, we become jaded about everything.
When we thirst for the new, where will go? Who are the arbiters of
taste that will introduce us to new sounds, new tastes? I think as we
move into the age of ubiquitous broadband, we will need to develop a new
version of the disk jockey – someone who will introduce some variety in
our entertainment diet and occasionally stretch our tolerance for
culture.
In the same way that Oprah's
book club sparked a new interest in reading novels beyond the
bodice-rippers, thrillers, and other genres, the IJ (internet jockey)
would introduce new artists to his or her audience.
Of course, it could just as easily be a service backed by a panel of
editors (or a network of fans) as long as the selections consistently
matched the interests of the subscribers. Amazon and Netflix both use
automated tools to recommend new material. (People who like this book
also liked that book.) With enough data, those systems perform well. But
they generally take you only one step away from your typical path. It
takes a person who knows their audience well to make a suggestion that
will take them two or three steps out of the ordinary.
A person or brand that handles the task successfully opens a powerful
marketing opportunity. They gather a loyal audience of people who trust
their word. Those networks give marketers broader data to work with.
Like a coral reef in the ocean, they attract and support diverse
populations with common needs. By contrast, marketing in genre-centric
media is like ice fishing – you catch whatever's right below you.
Finally, it's for our benefit to attempt to experience something
beyond what we're used to. I trust that human nature will prevent us
from devolving into myopic consumers of only what we already know.
However, there's no reason to wait. In politics, I generally vote for
the candidate whose narrow self-interests most closely match my own; but
I always hope to find someone who might inspire me to break out of my
solitary habits and make a change for the better in this world.
In fact, I feel inspired right now, as all the way from Auckland, the
nouveau prophet of Pop, Brittany Spears encourages me to "Get in
the Zone."
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Kind regards,
Kevin Troy Darling
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