How TV's age of exploration put viewers in control
Here are a few things that did not exist in American television 10 years ago:
Binge-watching; recapping; scripted series on networks devoted to old movies, science and history; zombies; streaming services; popular series that end just because the story is done; film-franchise adjacency; shows that begin as miniseries and then continue indefinitely; multiplatform viewing; two concurrent versions of Sherlock Holmes; A-list film directors; television shows devoted to talking about television shows; live tweeting; micro-audiences; immediate remakes of British series; any remakes of European series; European series; subtitles; cord-cutting; horrific violence; series in which the cast stays the same but the story changes; series in which the title stays the same but the story and cast change; really good computer graphics; comedies more dark than funny; amazing international locations; an overabundance of stories characterizing the many ways in which television has changed in the past 10 years.
Here's the most important thing that did not exist in the television universe 10 years ago: ownership.
Technically, the citizens of these United States have always been the proprietors of the airwaves over which television was broadcast, but it didn't feel that way. We watched what the network executives offered us when they offered it. Good television was like good weather, fleet and ephemeral; you enjoyed it while it lasted. Maybe you watched it again in reruns while you were sick or sad or trying to get ahead on the ironing.
Sure, PBS geeks and HBO fans might buy the boxed sets of "Pride and Prejudice" or "The Sopranos," but for most people, television was something you did, not something you possessed.
Now, of course, TV is controllable, portable and permanent.
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Rock in Rio USA is a ball of confusion
Who in their right minds would get married during the debut of a Las Vegas music festival? A few couples took the leap at Rock in Rio USA.
The extravaganza closed the first of two weekends Saturday night on a plot of undeveloped real estate next to Circus Circus at the far end of the Vegas strip. On one piece of asphalt, a heart-shaped stage served as chapel. To absolutely no one's surprise, an Elvis impersonator provided accompaniment.
That's quite the gamble. What if this Brazilian-produced festival, an offshoot of the massive 10-day Rio de Janeiro event, doesn't gain traction? Are the vows still enforceable?
If so, in future decades, how will Grandma recall the many oddities of that weekend? Those nuptials featured a hip-hop dance troupe acting out the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit," after all, and a Beatles cover act that did a big-band version of "Blackbird." Explain that. What's at all romantic about James Hetfield of Metallica serenading newlyweds with "Master of Puppets"? The part about "just call my name, 'cause I'll hear you scream"?
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Pop music study proves hip-hop's influence; fans totally not surprised
Of all the things suggested by Royal Society Open Science's massive study of Billboard Hot 100 hits, hip-hop's revolutionary qualities shoudn't have been so surprising.
No one questions the genre's radical sense of identity that came from taking elements from dance, graffiti, and vocal storytelling from marginalized worlds to make something wholly orginal out of separate parts.
But the musicality of hip-hop - the way melodic samples of existing music are chosen and manipulated, the way funk breakbeats are chopped up and slowed down to create an entirely new approach to rhythm and bass -- was entirely new to popular music. And for all the inherent weirdness of attempting to quantify popular culture through this study, it's good to see that innovation acknowledged here.
For all of pop music's lionization of rock 'n' roll and the British Invasion as the defining musical revolution of the late 20th century, bands like the Beatles and Stones were openly elaborating on the ideas of acts like Howlin Wolf, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters, Phil Spector and Motown. The music got more sonically innovative as careers went on, but it's no knock to say that each of those bands got started by putting an attractive new spin on covers from R&B, rock and blues artists they admired.
Hip-hop (and, to a lesser extent in this study, electronic pop), really was something unprecedented. Even though the genre is built on stock electronic instruments like drum machines and samples of other artists' recorded material, that concept in itself was a measurably new idea that opened up a whole range of never-before-heard musicality. Guitarists and drummers could find their own style, but they were always limited by the structures of their instrument. Hip-hop production turned that inside out, and rebuilt the palette of pop composition by mining its own history.
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Alternatives to Windows Media Center (Make your own Home Theater PC)
Want to turn your PC into a digital video recorder and media center box? For more than a decade Microsoft has made that by offering Windows Media Center. But when Windows 10 ships in the summer of 2015 it won’t include Media Center.
The good news is that there are still some good options available for Home Theater PC (HTPC) enthusiasts.
The bad news is that some of the best alternatives were killed long before Windows Media Center:
Google acquired SageTV a few years ago and stopped selling that company’s DVR and media center software (although an open source version may be on the way).
Snapstream ceased development of BeyondTV and stopped selling the commercial version of its digital video recorder software to focus on the enterprise market.
If you want to retain all the functionality of Windows Media Center, Microsoft says your best option is not to upgrade to Windows 10. The company will continue to offer support for Windows 7 through January, 2020 and for Windows 8 Pro through January, 2023.
And if you’re using Windows Media Center with a CableCard to record encrypted broadcasts from your cable TV provider, that really is probably your best bet.
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