Spare me another “streaming service plus”
When I was a boy, I loved this song called “Opa, opa” by the Swedish-Greek pop group Antique. As it was entirely in Greek, I didn’t understand a word. And yet, it was so good, and so memorable. My cousin and I even gathered some family members and jumped up on a couch to “perform” for them with the song on playback.
Nowadays, music seems less memorable by the streaming minute. Tracks fade in and out, melting into a cacophonous blob of anonymity. It’s the same with most media. Every digital entertainment industry, from music to movies, is growing more focused on churning out as much product as possible, albeit one that lacks any sort of identity, instead of trying to create unique stories and experiences.
It might be that I’m just reaching that age where we stop discovering new music (maybe movies too), and stick to the stuff we already know and love. And although I do love rewatching my favorites, I find it unlikely that it is I who has changed and not the entertainment industry.
Endless content and consumption renders nothing memorable anymore, the well-oiled machine producing new product at such a rate as is nigh-impossible to keep up with. Streaming removes the upfront investment of discovering a new artist, or picking a movie to see, and lacks the structure of legacy tv. In its stead, we have boundless choices, and it is making us lose touch with the craftsmanship that is required to make a compelling story or a thrilling experience. It is making us lose touch with the world.
The covid-break
In more ways than one, the covid-19 pandemic was a break that highlighted the insane pace of the content production-consumption keep-up — a microcosm of our modern lives. The virus required strict regulations for productions to keep going, and studios had to actually prioritize what movies and shows to push forward. In addition, the physical isolation of us, the audience, underlined our emotional disconnect to most of the content we consume.
The lockdowns also brought back a little bit of the tv-culture of old, if only for a brief moment. Forced to stay home, we all gathered to watch the only new content coming out: the documentary “Tiger King”, and later the dystopian show “Squid Game”. After each episode, we talked about the show and speculated how the story would develop. And since content output was drastically diminished, we had to savor the moments.
It was beautiful — a sort of de-stimulus, ironically enough, considering the context. It is also how blockbuster shows like The Wire, Lost, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, and Game of Thrones, rose to mass-popularity and global acclaim. They did not release an entire season at once for binging — a concept that, although alluring, might actually be ruining tv-shows for us. Instead they prioritized quality and broadcast one episode per week. The setup allowed for the story-beats to settle and made the experience linger in a way we rarely allow for anymore. Now, movie and tv-show releases run through our collective consciousness in mere days, if that.
Entertainment should, of course, be entertaining. But even more so, it plays a part in our social lives. Launching an entire season at once is a product of streaming services, and it leaves little room for interaction and connection. Streaming has furthered our isolation.
Losing the soul
The Antique-version of “Opa, opa” is actually a Eurodisco cover of the original song by Greek singer Notis Sfakianakis. The lyrics are about having second thoughts about a break up.
I too am having second thoughts about our collective breakup with legacy music, movies, and tv, in favor of streaming services. Gone are the days of artists crafting exquisite album-length sound experiences; the intricate storylines and expertly crafted plots a mere niche in Hollywood. And although some say we just lived through the golden age of television, that world is starting to buckle down under the weight of yet another “brand streaming service plus”.
Streaming has many advantages. I love having hundreds of thousands of songs at my touch screen fingertips and can appreciate having a slew of movies and tv-shows to choose from in my never-ending watchlist. But streaming has also resulted in a loss for both the creators and the audience. The amount of content being produced is higher than ever, at the expense of the creative soul — and perhaps even of the actual experience. In my mind, that’s a price far too steep to pay.
