Unconventional wisdom: Sex Pistols and Yahoo Music

Maybe it’s not much of a surprise but it seems that the Sex Pistols aren’t keen on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. It’s not much of a mystery behind which band member scribbed an angry hand-written note telling the Hall to piss off though it would have been pretty damn funny to see that same singer (oops, I mean unknown band member) to have shown up and given would have surely have been a memorable speech. Other than Sir Paul ducking out of the Beatles’ ceremony when he wasn’t playing nice with George, Ringo and Yoko, I can’t think of anyone who’s made such a public statement about not wanting to be in the Hall.

Some will say that it’s obvious that Lydon wouldn’t want to be involved in something like the Hall and it’s just him being his predictable, pissy self. Would you be shocked to learn that, according to his wife, he’s not someone who likes the holidays either? Still, you have to wonder now that someone’s taken a stand against the hall, which future bands will also say “no thanks” or worse if they get tapped. I also wonder if this will effect nominating future bands that the Hall thinks will snub them like this- surely they don’t wanna keep getting bad publicity.

And now for another rebel rouser… Yahoo Music is actually taking a stance against DRM (you know, the lovely technology that stops you from being able to play your CD). Note in the article that they do take a little step back from their bold statement but maybe this is the start of industry wising up. To be more exact though, this is the tech part of the industry who knows what time it is ’cause they’re already knee-deep in examples of technology that consumers dig and don’t dig. The labels themselves take the George Bush stance- it’s our way so love it or leave it and we don’t admit mistakes.

It’s getting so that you have to wonder if these label idiots starting the idea of DRM-protected CD’s to ween people over that format and make them buy up everything in digital format. They wouldn’t do that, would they…? I mean, that wasn’t behind their move to kill off vinyl and push CD’s instead, right? That would mean that we’d all have to buy our favorite music a third time in a new format until they come up with something else that makes us buy it a 4th or 5th time. Brilliant strategy, ain’t it? Why bother to sign new artists or put out new music when you can keep killing off formats and juice more dough out of consumers?