Social Web 3.0

I commented on Denise's blog a while back, and she responded with a post of her own. Most of my own comment was bashing on the record industry, but also criticizing how she didn't leave much room for good content to come from individuals. I figured since the discussion is still out there, I could add to it a little more.

Crap or worthwhile? Or somewhere in-between?

I agree with the sentiment that most of the individual content released on the web is simply crap. That's the problem with giving people unlimited publishing options. It's not surprising though, and can even be entertaining. I'm not a big fan of American Idol, but when I have watched it, its to watch the auditions. There are so many terrible vocalists that come on the show convinced they're great, and no one can tell them otherwise—its hilarious. At the same time, bad self published content either doesn't go far, or does because it's laughably bad. And the good self published content might not be discovered, but if it is, it will probably be noticed. Either way, only entertaining content is reaching the mainstream. If I knew how, I'd love to trade it so that the undiscovered good content got the recognition that the laughably bad content got, but there's more luck there than anything else.

The really interesting content to me is the content that's neither bad, nor good. There's a song that's been circulating around the internet called “Chocolate Rain” by a guy named Tay Zonday. What makes that specific song so interesting to me is that it gets something right and then repeats it until it's not so great anymore. Another part of it is that he looks 15-years-old (He's really 25) but has such a deep voice; it adds a little interest to him singing. This is someone that could possibly be developed into a good artist, which is something the major recording companies aren't doing anymore.

What's wrong with the music industry

The music industry wouldn't develop Tay Zonday; there's no immediate money in it. Today's music industry is all about what they can make the most money on right now. I realize that this isn't the case for everything, but the majority of the pop and rap genres have fallen victim to this.

Self publishing makes it interesting again

Back to Denise, she had taken it that I am for restrictions on content on the web. This isn't the case; My opinion is that content on the web is naturally filtered. Worthwhile content gets passed on, and the rest is left alone. What's great about self publishing is that it lets us be in charge of filtering the content, and not executives worried about a quick buck. Since we are the ones that consume the content, it makes sense that we are the ones to decide what is worth publishing. Like I said, that encourages people that lack talent to publish as well, but in the end I think that having the ability to decide for ourselves what is worth consuming is the most important.