Art can't be distributed to the masses without coupling with business. It's an unfortunate reality. Sure, you can play music on the street, you can create art for personal enjoyment. Books need publishers. Movies and music require distrubutors.
Sometimes these bedfellows go hand in hand in happy unison. Usually they don't. Big business sucks the life out of the arts. Especially in the America, The Land of the Greed.
I'm interested in the history of home video distribution, so I thought I might like a book about the destruction of its biggest enemy, Blockbuster. I ordered Built To Fail, by Alan Payne. Payne is a guy who was there, with a front seat view, on the rise and fall of Gutbuster Video.
I've gone on at length about my distaste for Blockbuster. The corporation wiped out all the little rental shops, which were the heart and soul of the early days of the VHS revolution.
"Strategic Leader" Alan Payne bemoans the poorly lit, dusty little shops real fans like me loved. We loved going through unruly shelves of video oddities. We loved the informal atmosphere of the independent shops. We loved weird little movies that defied the phony family values policy of Blockbuster.
Payne approved of making the video rental experience like entering a Wal-Mart. A soulless, impersonal, sanitized theme park instead of a social hub where movie fanatics congregated.
Video stores are a little like the drive-in. It's more than seeing a movie. The aesthetics of going there, of being around people who worship film, the joy of getting out of our homes and experiencing something real.
There isn't an iota of passion for movies in the hundred-or-so pages I read of Built To Fail. It's a ruthless businessman's perspective. Payne grinds an axe at Blockbuster every chance he gets, but he seems frustrated that the company wasn't more ruthlessly imperialistic.
For instance, Blockbuster required an inordinate amount of personal information to join their stores. Payne bemoans how they did so little with the lucrative details of members' lives. There's money to be made from data mining.
Ugh. The whole thing left a nasty taste in my mouth. Money barons like Alan Payne are what killed the industry I loved. As well as the fundamental laziness of the American consumer.
Written by Mark Sieber
Sometimes these bedfellows go hand in hand in happy unison. Usually they don't. Big business sucks the life out of the arts. Especially in the America, The Land of the Greed.
I'm interested in the history of home video distribution, so I thought I might like a book about the destruction of its biggest enemy, Blockbuster. I ordered Built To Fail, by Alan Payne. Payne is a guy who was there, with a front seat view, on the rise and fall of Gutbuster Video.
I've gone on at length about my distaste for Blockbuster. The corporation wiped out all the little rental shops, which were the heart and soul of the early days of the VHS revolution.
"Strategic Leader" Alan Payne bemoans the poorly lit, dusty little shops real fans like me loved. We loved going through unruly shelves of video oddities. We loved the informal atmosphere of the independent shops. We loved weird little movies that defied the phony family values policy of Blockbuster.
Payne approved of making the video rental experience like entering a Wal-Mart. A soulless, impersonal, sanitized theme park instead of a social hub where movie fanatics congregated.
Video stores are a little like the drive-in. It's more than seeing a movie. The aesthetics of going there, of being around people who worship film, the joy of getting out of our homes and experiencing something real.
There isn't an iota of passion for movies in the hundred-or-so pages I read of Built To Fail. It's a ruthless businessman's perspective. Payne grinds an axe at Blockbuster every chance he gets, but he seems frustrated that the company wasn't more ruthlessly imperialistic.
For instance, Blockbuster required an inordinate amount of personal information to join their stores. Payne bemoans how they did so little with the lucrative details of members' lives. There's money to be made from data mining.
Ugh. The whole thing left a nasty taste in my mouth. Money barons like Alan Payne are what killed the industry I loved. As well as the fundamental laziness of the American consumer.
Written by Mark Sieber
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