Power-pop progenitors? O.G. DIYers? The last college-rock survivors? No label adequately captures the four-decade journey of Zion, Ill.’s Shoes, who have released their first new studio material in 17 years. Perhaps the most astonishing thing about Shoes is that this ethic and attitude prevails despite a collection of music-biz bumps and bruises that could rival Charlie Brown in terms of sheer career futility. In some ways, they’re the Forrest Gumps of rock. Shoes essentially presaged punk’s DIY movement by recording its first, early-’70s albums in the living room before garnering enough critical acclaim to merit a major-label contract. Shoes will be guest editing magnentmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on the band.
Jeff Murphy: Marshall McLuhan promoted the idea that The Medium Is The Message, but that’s probably because he wrote that book on paper with a pen or typewriter, referring to the explosion of the media in the middle of the last century. Today, the medium is a series of zeros and ones, stored on a flash drive or hard drive, deep in the recesses of some internet server, located in a climate-controlled room, along with dozens of other servers. The “message” has been reduced to video clips of surfing cats or talking dogs or dancing infants. Blogs are jammed with lyrical ramblings by self-proclaimed philosophers (like me) spouting their brand of politics/religion/comedy/anger/social views and musings. Now that everyone with a computer has access to the internet, the “medium” it is no longer the “message.” Now it comes down to content. The message is the message.
As an experiment, try posting a profound sentence or statement like, “I believe the fabric of our society has been torn due to the poor conditions of our roads.” Along with a separate posting of your cat hacking up a fur ball. After a week, compare how many hits the two posts have and report back to me which post has the most comments. I think I can guess which post will win. Is this because America has been “dumbed down” or that it’s a failing of our education system? Maybe. Or is it just the fact that folks are so stressed-out and beat over the head with bad news, hard luck and bad hair days that they clamor for an escape, grasping for just a few seconds of joy, humor or brainless amusement?
The main principle of yin/yang is like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity: For every action, there’s an equal and opposite re-action. For all of the advertising, preaching and pontificating we have shoved at us everyday, sometimes all we want is to laugh a bit, to find a bit of escape from the barrage. The surfing cats, talking dogs and dancing babies serve a greater good: distraction, amusement, entertainment! Relief from the day-to-day pressure, to help prevent us from becoming the next frustrated postal worker or high-rise “jumper.”
I’m all for it! There’s nothing quite like watching some backyard chef ignite his charcoal with gasoline and burn down the shed. Or some monkey learn how to make the perfect martini while riding a Segway down an Olympic-sized ski jump. This stuff is priceless! It doesn’t have to be all gloom and doom; it can be a mixture of light and dark, fact and fiction, crunchy and chewy. It’s about balance. It’s just that the average Joe has had his fill of politics, deficits, immigration messes and fracking disputes, and now he wants some fun! The seemingly frivolous nature of a good joke is part of that important balance. It doesn’t have to have a point to it; as long as it makes me laugh, even temporarily, it’s served its purpose. Like this video by visual pioneers OK Go. Brilliant! If Marshall McLuhan saw this, he would be turning over in his grave
Video after the jump.
One reply on “From The Desk Of Shoes’ Jeff Murphy: Marshall McLuhan And YouTube”
You really don’t understand what Marshall McLuhan meant by “the medium is the message,” or by the term “medium” itself. McLuhan was especially concerned with what we would call the interface, the language, form, and senses that are in use. A statement and a video are different media, even if they both become the content of the internet, and as different media, your example supports his point. As for the video, he would immediately relate it to the Rube Goldberg cartoons of his time, and one of his many insights, that when a medium or technology become obsolete, and in this case it’s the mechanical device becoming obsolete through electronic technology, it is turned into an art form. You really should do your homework before making arguments like the one you’ve made here.