Sea Shanties from more than a century and a half ago are making a comeback in this age of obscene lyrics, violent talk, abuse of women, strutting strumpets and preening arrogant males. These people young and old using the best capacity of the Internet - the capacity of this amazing tool for creativity and collaboration.
When the Internet first appeared and people became excited about it, the critics and the pundits loudly proclaimed that it was a great danger for human personal growth. People, they opined, would lose their creativity. They would, we were told, sit down beside the flickering tube and become observers rather than active participants - a nation of couch potatoes. It was a near thing to but it was the Internet that seems to have saved us.
The pundits were wrong. We all went the other way instead of the way we were going when we were passive consumers of material created by a tiny few. All we had back then was 5 radio stations, a couple of newspapers and 3 television networks. Back then we had a limited selection of things to watch or listen to passively. Certainly some stout souls were left to make music, movies, television shows and such, but compared to our rapidly growing population, it was a miniscule few.
Enter the Internet and the personal computer. Suddenly a world of information was at everyone's fingertips. If you could read, you could soon find something about how to do virtually anything you wanted to do. I remember visiting a guy who wanted to record his own music. He spent close to $50,000 equipping a studio in his house. With the advent of the Internet and personal computers, a talented musician, a band or an independent would-be movie producer can produce high quality music, music videos, indie movies, podcasts and indie news and commentary for a pittance compared to the old days.
Rather than stifling creativity, the new technology spawned a prolific creative burst of creation that you couldn't hope to see all of the stuff out there on virtually any subject. Why cat videos alone would cost you years of Internet viewing to even make a dent in the number of samples of that genre. Independent bands now can not only record their music, produce CDs at their desks, but they can also create a website to advertise their music and sell it online.
Even more amazingly, the Internet has created whole new range of media including personal podcasts, flashmobs, personal news and commentary and, of course, cat videos. Let us hope in their zeal to turn the Internet into Pravda, we don't lose the creative joy that is the free market of the Internet where talent can rise if it's good enough and it's a mind to.
© 2021 by Tom King.
