OVER THE EDGE NEWSPAPER. OCTOBER 27, 2006 ARTS Internet saved the radio star New music-listening devices force record labels to catch up to the times OSSIE MICHELIN THE LINK (CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY} MONTREAL (CUP) -- When the Buggles released their now-iconic sin- gle “Video Killed the Radio Star” on MTV's premiere broadcast in 1981, it was a rather bold statement. Radio had proven to bea resilient medium by then, surviving both the advent of home record players and cas- sette tapes, which were both fingered for sounding the death knell for radio. For over two decades, the new wave hit song seemed to be the undisputed truth, Twenty-five years later, “Video Killed the Radio Star” is nothing more than a cliché. If indeed the radio star is dead, then it has been reincarnated into the world of mp3s, Internet radio, podcasts and online music streaming. New technologies are often discount- ed at first because it signifies culture shifts society may not be prepared to face, but in the end they usually comple- ment, and sometimes even improve, the tried and true. In fact, during the early days of radio broadcasting, it was believed that radio would kill the art of live performance. Today, artists use mediums like tele- vision, radio and the Internet to sell rec- ord numbers of concert tickets. //SUBHEAD::Cut the crap// Over the years, desire for content has stayed the same -- people still want to be able to listen to quality music -- but the methods of acquiring and consuming this music has changed, New technolo- gies not only change the consumption of music, but the marketing and produc- tion as well. ‘The birth of the portable mp3 player has solidified the place of the hit single once again. At the same time, mp3s en- courage musicians to include less filler on their albums. I¢’s hard for consumers to justify paying $20 for a CD mainly composed of ctap, when they can pay just 99 cents for the hit single via the ITunes music store. F Some music television and record industry giants have become very com- fortable with the 1990s model of near- complete control of the music sphere, quashing Napster, the first popular P2P file sharing service. Although Napster rose from the ashes as a pay-and-play system, it was too late -- the world had caught on to download- ing pirated music files and many imita- tors quickly followed. ‘The record industry has been grap- pling with new and expanding technolo- gies for quite some time now, leading individual companies to take their own paths in controlling and directing the flow of media in today’s online world. //SUBHEAD::The copyright de- bate// Sony bore the brunt of consumers’ ire when it began manufacturing coded music CDs that could only be played on Sony-approved music players, in an ef- fort to prevent the ripping and upload- ing of music onto the Internet. In layman's terms, this is the equiva- lent of saying that Sony DVDs can only be viewed on Sony DVD players, or that Sony CDs can only be listened to on Sony stereos, all to remove the temp- tation of piracy. To add insult to injury, Sony also in- cluded “rootkits” with these coded CDs, which were designed to hide the restrict- ive software. These rootkits also exposed users’ systems to security risks and in- fringed on people's privacy rights. Other companies like Time Warner are cautiously venturing into the world of shareable online music by agreeing to allow all songs signed under Warner Music to be played without the threat of penalty on YouTube.com. On the other hand, Rupert Murdoch's Fox Entertainment Group -- which owns online networking forum MySpace -- has embraced the new technologies of distributing and sharing music. Now, small independent artists and megastars alike have MySpace profiles where you can listen to, and sometimes download, their music. //SUBHEAD::Internet a positive space for independent artists// While the Internet may be seen as a threat to major record labels, it is a god- send for independent artists and labels, who use the Internet creatively to reach new fans around the globe. Further, the Internet changes the way that stars are created. They no longer have to be selected and promoted by the record companies -- all they need is tal- ent or a gimmick. The YouTube video of pop group OK GO's synchronized treadmill dancing landed them a much-deserved perform- ance spot on this year's MTV Video Music Awards. If all you've got is good, old-fash- ioned talent and catchy tunes, innova- tive sites like NewMusicCanada.com - are the places to be. Sites like this allow independent musicians to upload their music so it then can be streamed or downloaded by users. New Music Canada is also the tal- ent pool that CBC Radio3 draws from, and the CBC Radio3 podcast is the most downloaded podcast in the coun- try. Canadian bands like Broken Social Scene, Metric and the Arcade Fire are now able to perform sold-out shows around the world because they no longer have to rely on mainstream radio sup- port, music videos or large international record labels -- all because fans have dis- covered their music online. Video and radio are thriving on the Internet in a completely new way. Now, the video star has no need to fear being “killed” by the Internet, the way that video supposedly killed the radio star. The Internet isn't killing radio or video; rather, it is pumping new life into old mediums. Ode to the mixtape Where, oh where has my tape collection gone? TRACEY LINDEMAN THE LINK (CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY} MONTREAL (CUP) -- A lot of my fondest childhood memories revolve around music, and more specifically, the radio. Hot summer days were inextric- ably linked to listening to Oldies 990, the now-defunct AM band radio sta- tion responsible for all of my doo-wop and rockabilly sensibilities. Sitting in the sun, sipping lemonade and listening to The Shangri-Las croon about candy stores and gang fights represented the bulk of my pre-adolescent days. Them, and Alice Cooper. I'm pretty sure everyone on my school bus recited “School's Out” on that fateful day, when we could earnestly sing, “No more pencils/no more books/no more teachers’ dirty looks.’ But I could have just transferred those memories from watching Dazed and Confused one too many times. Anyway, I began listening to popular music (read: current) on the cusp of the 1980s and 1990s; because of this, I named my New Kids on the Block doll Axl. Donnie Wahlberg may have had a wholesome appeal, but he certainly didn't have Axl Rose's swagger. That's why Appetite for Destruction remains one of the greatest albums of all time, and no one remembers Hangin Tough. Sleaze never dies (especially when it comes to venereal disease), My first tape ever was Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation, and my second tape was Bon Jovis Keep the Faith. Somewhere along the way I picked up No Doubts ‘Tragic Kingdom, and some- how inexplicably, TLC’s CrazySexy- Cool. You can't win em all, I guess. I was a fervent MuchMusic fan, usu- ally logging four to five after-school hours of music video watching daily. I remember the first time I saw Metallica's “Enter Sandman’ and Nirvana's “Smells Like Teen Spirit” videos -- they played back to back. 1991-92 was a good year, though I only really started listening to Nirvana a few years after Kurt Cobain died. Anyway, I suppose it's fair to say MuchMusic was responsible for expos- ing me to a diverse catalogue of music, for better or for worse. Sook-Yin Lee, Bill Welychka and Steve Anthony all took their turns pushing the latest hits on my malleable young mind. This propelled me to listen to the radio with a blank tape in the deck, set to Record and Pause, so that I could begin recording with the quick release of a button. When I ran out of blank tapes, I _ would judge the merits of my used tapes and record over those. I regret taping over Keep the Faith to this day. There werent really any Britney Spears of the late 1980s and early 1990s. I sup- pose all the young girls were enamoured with Salt-N-Pepa, En Vogue, Mariah Carey and TLC. I know musical trends always rotate -- sometimes pops on top, and sometimes it's not -- but it seems to me that there was no real overarching genre that dom- inated the early 1990s. But then again, maybe I just wasnt paying attention, lost in my Guns N’ Roses reverie. After all, I was just a kid with a tape deck, no money and an irrevocable love for GNR. I suppose not much has changed since then, except now I have an [Pod. Getting an IPod was a big step for me. You see, I was one of those technologic- ally inept kids -- I only got a CD player in 1996, and I got my first computer in 2003. I lugged around a massive Pana- sonic discman held together with' black electrical tape until last winter, when I ‘conceded defeat in my technological resistance and bought a friend's 20 GB IPod. On one hand, [Pods are great for musical opportunists with short atten- tion spans -- you can get the hits and forget the rest. But on the other hand, it commodifies the music-listening experi- ence -- something that shouid be more of a pleasure than a chore. Author Chuck Klosterman bemoans the advent of the compact disc in Fargo Rock City, his 2001 heavy metal manifesto, by insisting CDs discourage people from listening to albums in their entirety. Instead, listeners skip tracks so they can get to the hits and kill the filler, an action that also removes the possibility of stumbling across a gem of a song in the rush to get to the Top 40 rune. In High Fidelity, John Cusack plays Rob Gordon, a man with a passion for making mix tapes for lovers and friends, and discussing acceptable mix tape aesthetics. Making mix tapes require so much more effort than making mix CDs -- you've got to time it properly, fade songs in and out at the appropriate times, and ensure a song doesn't get cut off at the end of Side A. On top of that, you've got to manually sift through your own music collection to determine what songs you need to include, not just drag and drop from a digital library. You could make a mix CD in a matter of minutes, but a mix tape is a sonic testament of your love for the person on the receiving end. God knows we could all use a few more mix tapes in our lives. CBC gets smart with new crime drama ‘Intelligence’ graduates from TV movie to series CHELSEA BOWEN THE MARTLET (UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA) VICTORIA, B.C. (CUP) -- Tourism B.C. would have you believe British Col- umbia is an enchanting place filled with green trees and beautiful mountains. But if you suspect there is a darker layer beneath the attractive scenery -- full of drug smuggling, Red Eagle triads and money laundering -- then CBC's “Intel- ligence” is for you. ‘The first season of Intelligence, which premiered Oct. 10, begins with Jimmy Reardon (Ian Tracey), the boss of a B.C. crime ring, working as an informant for Mary Spalding (Klea Scott) the director of Vancouver's Organized Crime Unit. CBC aired “Intelligence” in 2005 as a television movie and its success prompt- ed the broadcaster to follow up with the show. Mary Spalding “is extremely ambi- tious and has a certain blind logic that says, ‘Unless you can come up with a better plan, we're doing it my way,” Scott says of her character. _ “It's taken a lot of patience to find a part like this in my cateer, but I feel that at last, my age, my gender and my colour actually worked for me in getting this role.’ Reardon's businesses -- a strip club and his grandfather's shipping company -- are the fronts for a half-billion-dollar drug-trafficking operation. This. is where Tracey's 12-year stint working on shows such as “Da Vinci's Inquest” and “The X-Files” has paid off; his acting allows the audience to sympa- thize with the crime boss. Vancouver producer Chris Haddock says that chatacters Spalding and Rear- don have “an interesting relationship to watch as they work through the layers of deception.” The headache for Reardon is his brother Mike (Bernie Coulson), who manages, within weeks of being released from jail, to hire a contract killer to mut- der someone that Reardon doesn't want dead. Spalding’s underling Ted Altman (Matt Frewer) describes his character as the Dick Cheney of the show, who“loves to live in the shadows’ and manipulate from there.’ Altman's goal is to prevent Spalding’s promotion to the head of the western division of CSIS. Often, CBC's dramatic ventures don't appeal to a wide audience, but “Intelli- gence” has the ability to do exactly that. Haddock thinks Intelligence will ap- peal to a younger demographic as well as the loyal Da Vinci fans, but feels the drama is at a disadvantage compared to shows like “Prison Break” -- it doesn't have a cute male lead. Despite the absence of Wentworth Miller, “Intelligence” is a smart show that -- should it survive to maturity -- will keep viewers watching to the credits.