The Smiths on kids telly

Excuse the mild rant, but here's a thought:

The brilliance and simplicity of YouTube coupled with the exponential pace of digital content delivery means that YouTube will inevitably jump the shark at some point very shortly.

Discuss.

Mmmm?

Well..

...When it does (which it will), you'll miss it. Trust me.

In short, YouTube is free and brilliant telly for the time being...but time moves double-quick these days, as it has done for as long as we've been alive.

Referencing Andy Warhol's famous remark in his wonderful autobiography, 'Experience', the English novelist Martin Amis said;

"It's not the case that in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes. In the future, everyone will be famous all the time - but only in their own minds"

Which is where the internet - and YouTube, Blogging and, of course, this post - comes in...

So...

Below is a video of The Smiths taken directly from the telly...from a time when if you wished to capture a culturally significant event you needed to be savvy with the workings of a VCR. The video is of poor quality, but that is because it was 'taped' direct from the TV in the midish 80s- a time when such technology was new and clunky.

In hindsight it must be said that VCRs were stubborn, brutal machines and they are not missed. BUT....nostalgia-tinted glasses remind us that the ability to capture 'live' telly onto a format which was then instantly portable was a revelation for all concerned at the time, and the world changed as a consequence.

These days you can capture anything you like, forever, immediately and utterly regardless of it's cultural worth, and maybe this is why these days you don't see uber-hip young bands taking children on day-trips to Kew Gardens and then bumping into Sandie Shaw.

We are living in strange times, kids.....please ensure you make good decisions as to where you lay your ears and eyeballs

xx

(PS: my favourite bit is when Johnny Marr tells a 7-year-old that calling your band The Rolling Stones is daft because it's a bit of a mouthful)

Enjoy