Lee Clemmer {dot} com

The episode of the Bubble video has been quite interesting.  Because, and only because, the video gained such popularity did some of the photographers whose pictures were displayed start raising an issue.  I have a hard time seeing the Richter Scales making much money off of this video, so if nothing else, the photographers in question were smart and got some free promotion for themselves.

That’s not really what I find interesting however.  It’s more about what’s happening in society at large.  The thought occurred to me some time ago in an Italian-themed restaurant.  In Italy, restaurants are Italian because that’s just where they’re located.  Over here, restaurants are “themed” and try to evoke some kind of feeling artificially.  I also see this trend in music.  I believe part of the reason that older music has had such a resurgence of interest and popularity (just think of all the band reunions of late), is that modern music just sucks for the most part.  It’s not original, just a faded copy of the original.  Collectively there’s some lack of creativity happening.

Movies are another great example.  It seems like a majority of movies are remakes nowadays.  What about creating original movies that will be the basis for remakes in the future?  Then there are the sequels.  It’s just the same stuff over and over again.  On the web we have a word for all of this: mash-up.  Like rap songs that take old music and put it on loop and drop rhymes on top.

I suppose one could say that anything and everything is just a rehashing of the past.  But today, this seems truer than ever.  A collective emptiness has given rise to the remix.  In the future, will what we do now be remixed?  I doubt it.