Commodify me, oh Lord, part 3
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Why sanctuary?When it comes to exploring how commercial media is entering the sacred frame of the church, the principle concern is the nature of our conscious attention. As followers of Jesus we should recognize that to what and how we pay attention shapes us (cited below). John 15 captures this life in the body as abiding “in” Jesus. When we gather together, in whatever expression we manifest, as the Church, we are attending to Jesus and to each other as vine and branches. Divided attentions lead to stunted growth, slow death.
…in the image culture, the crisis of the human spirit is the crisis of knowing what things to pay attention to. In the United States alone, there are thousands of well-paid persons whose constant preoccupation is to orchestrate the attention of the populace. In clever and subtle ways, these voices can be heard whispering constantly, "Pay attention to this"; "Look, pay attention here"; "No! This other matter is the one most deserving your attention." In the face of such pressure-for-attention, religious persons are especially challenged, because religion itself is a way of paying attention to matters not fully perceptible, which is to say that religious attention is a specially heightened, focused attention. The ultimate attention, from a religious standpoint, is to the presence of God. Religious people recognize, perhaps instinctively, that what we pay attention to and how we pay attention is what shapes our hearts.
- Michael Warren, author and professor - St. John's University, New York
As The Church, if we cede the attentions of the body to the objectifying consumption of commercial media messages, we lessen the degree to which we can abide in the transformative life of the vine. Our very being is diminished.
Rather than the pointless “fight fire with fire” approach of co-opting commercial media and marketing practices to achieve cultural relevance and attract consumers to our "services," I suggest we call out the spiritually hungry to the life of abiding in Christ alone—in a community that is intentionally kept free from the divided attentions that commercial media invite.
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Music at a place called vertigo
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Regardless of how one feels about U2 (fan or foe), it’s hard to argue that their manager, Paul McGuinness isn’t the most successful manager working in the music business today. He’s been with them from the start, and is the business brain behind their nearly three decades of success. For those reasons, it is worth paying attention to what he has to say about the state of the music industry. He recently gave this speech at MIDEM’s first International Manager Summit. Here’s a couple of the more interesting bits:
On U2 and the ownership of their own content…U2 own all their masters but these are licensed long term to Universal with whom we enjoy an excellent relationship. With a couple of minor exceptions they also own all their copyrights, which are also licensed to Universal. U2 always understood that it would be pathetic to be good at the music and bad at the business, and have always been prepared to invest in their own future. We were never interested in joining that long humiliating list of miserable artists who made lousy deals, got exploited and ended up broke and with no control over how their life’s work was used, and no say in how their names and likenesses were bought and sold.
On the crisis in the music industry…
I love the record business, and though I may be critical of the ways in which the digital space has been faced by the industry I am also genuinely sympathetic and moved by the human fallout, as the companies react to falling revenues by cutting staff and tightening belts. Many old friends and colleagues have been affected by this. They have families and it is terrible that a direct effect of piracy and thievery has been the destruction of so many careers.
On the role of technology companies and ISPs…
Today, there’s a bigger issue and it’s about the whole relationship between the music and the technology business. Network operators, in particular, have for too long had a free ride on music – on our clients’ content. It’s time for a new approach - time for ISPs to start taking responsibility for the content they’ve profited from for years. And it’s time for some visionary new thinking about how the music and technology sectors can work as partners instead of adversaries, leading to a revival of recorded music instead of its destruction.
On Steve Jobs and Apple…
I have met Steve Jobs and even done a deal with him face to face in his kitchen in Palo Alto in 2004. No one there but Steve, Bono, Jimmy Iovine and me, and Lucian Grainge was on the phone. We made the deal for the U2 iPod and wrote it down in the back of my diary. We approved the use of the music in TV commercials for iTunes and the iPod and in return got a royalty on the hardware. Those were the days when iTunes was being talked about as penicillin for the recorded music industry.
I wish he would bring his remarkable set of skills to bear on the problems of recorded music. He’s a technologist, a financial genius, a marketer and a music lover. He probably doesn’t realize it but the collapse of the old financial model for recorded music will also mean the end of the songwriter. We’ve been used to bands who wrote their own material since the Beatles, but the mechanical royalties that sustain songwriters are drying up. Labels and artists, songwriters and publishers, producers and musicians, everyone’s a victim.
On shifting blame from P2P networks to the true profiteers…
I suggest we shift the focus of moral pressure away from the individual P2P file thief and on to the multi billion dollar industries that benefit from these countless tiny crimes – The ISPs, the telcos, the device makers.
I highly recommend a full read. It’s long, but worth it.
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Explain yourself
Saturday, January 26, 2008
You may have noticed I took the month of January off from TSAWWT. Chalk it up to some serious family holiday time, thesis research and the intense preparation process for my comprehensive exams.With my comps behind me forever (knock on wood: I don’t yet know if I passed), I’m moving on with the project full on. Woo-hoo! While some of the enthusiasm has waned, I’m happy to report that I’m still geeking out about what I’m finding. There’s a certain amount of exhilaration to the notion that I’m truly looking at this issue (marketing and advertising targeting churches) from an unheard perspective. The more digging I do, the more this is clear to me.
Anyhow, look for more snippets and excerpts from me on this as we push toward the April deadline for my graduation requirement: Three thesis chapters completed to “get hooded” as a Master of Communication.
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The past crashes into the present
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Over the past year Dawnshelle and I have been consuming the new Doctor Who series from the BBC via Netflix DVDs. This past week we completed season 3, which aired in early 2007. I’ve often shared with Dawnshelle my childhood affinity for the series, recalling the Doctors I watched growing up via PBS imports. Given the era in the show’s history, that means I was thoroughly immersed in the 1970s and 1980s iterations of the show, which mainly featured the fourth and fifth doctors.
I’ll stop right here to link to the wiki on this program in order to not have to explain any of the back story to those not familiar with the show. Suffice it to say, Doctor Who is a time travel science fiction serial.Moving on, the show went off the air in 1990, and was known for its 26 year run, fantastic sci-fi mythology and generally awful production values. There was an attempt to revive the series in 1996 with a passable FOX TV movie, but lousy ratings kept that from happening. (I remember being so bummed out at the time.)
Fast forward to 2004, and the BBC, in conjunction with the Sci-Fi Channel, reinvents the series with wild success. With a much more gracious production investment, great actors, an appropriate nod to the show’s past and the right amount of camp, Doctor Who is a UK TV hit once again—and keeps building in popularity.
Now I have to wait a year for season 4 on DVD and the 2007 Xmas special, "Voyage of the Damned."
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Life-long learning anywhere, anytime
Saturday, January 26, 2008
This is what I love about iPod and podcasting. While many think of podcasts as 2005’s big technology story, it continues to evolve. This L.A. Times story is an excellent account of how iTunes University podcasts are bringing high-end lectures from leading professors to the far reaches of the country and beyond.And even cooler: Bethel University and Seminary content is also available via iTunes (although the link isn't public). This makes me want to tap into this big time. I plan to literally load up on any pertinent media communication lectures I can. Plus, as much free seminary content as I can handle.
In addition, both Woodland Hills and Open Door are now podcasting sermons with video for free. Wonderful. I'm now getting in two sermons a week on my bus ride, thanks to my super sweet new iPod Touch.
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There are reasons why…
Saturday, January 26, 2008
…so many things suck. Take a look at the current issue of Wired for a laundry list of the top things known for suckage: tech support, tomatoes, roads, and even whiteboards.My favorite is the history of FM radio, and why most of it sucks today. Think it’s the iPod or P2P that drove radio into oblivion? Think again. If anything, the iPod is saving music from the wasteland that is FM radio today. I’ve had this discussion with a few people in the past year, but this article explains well why music stations like 89.3 public radio have shot past their commercial counterparts in listenership.
Reading about something that sucks? Go out and do something about it. Becoming a member of public radio is a good place to start.
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