Brian Eno on "the death of the uncool"

There is a brief article by Brian Eno in Prospect Magazine on the recent diversification of music tastes. He makes the point that with an ever-increasing number of subcultures and sub-categories of music, that there is no one standard for what makes something "cool." As Eno writes, "The idea that something is uncool because it’s old or foreign has left the collective consciousness." While Eno never uses the word "internet," I would attribute much of the credit for the dissolution of limitations on music taste goes to the accessibility of free music on the internet. With access to millions of songs with little to no cost, it's no wonder that cultural respect has been dissipated across a wider range of music.

At the same time, the music that is mainstream seems to suffer from this leveling of access, at least in terms of quality. Bigger, if not better, media, seems to dominate the attention and pocketbooks of casual customers more and more. Two of the largest media openings in entertainment history have occurred within the past few months, New Moon (film) and Call of Duty 2 (video game).


So, what direction is entertainment media headed in?

the death of uncool