Culture the other press By Justin Ray OP Contributor I was once a music mountebank. Or more pointedly, a pusher of pop. But don’t worry; I’m reformed now, and no longer seek to satisfy the cravings of the masses. Fortunately, my experience as a disc jockey illuminated the dark side of the music business so that I may now be a wise and more discriminating consumer. Several years ago, downloading music for free and getting paid to play it seemed like an enjoyable and potentially lucrative vocation. Gigs at staff parties, graduation parties, weddings, and so on paid well for the amount of time you had to be there. The free food and drink was a plus, and there were other perks to the job. But I began to notice certain things that bothered me. Anime Review Nick (Prime) Hogg The Transformers Season 2 Part 1: Released by: Rhino Home Video Running time: 715 Minutes http://otherpress.douglas.bc.ca Confessions of a DJ This was no moral dilemma, at first. I just noticed that people wanted to hear the same songs all the time. That made my job easier, if not a little boring. Any new song that might be requested was fairly easy to predict—just watch an hour or two of MuchMusic once a week. Admittedly that was a stifling task, but it was also a reveal- ing one—and I’m not referring to Christina Aguilera's exhibitions. Put as simply as possible, most music videos are simply a concentrated means to persuade you that the music is good. And the concentration is often as dense as possible, with objects of fleshy and material desire flashing again and again in front of your eyes. Does that sound familiar? You might want to look up “brainwashing” in your dictionary. If that sounds like an exaggeration, you might call it classical conditioning, or pairing something you want with something else. In this case, something else you're supposed to buy because you're conditioned/brainwashed into wanting it. However, there is also the medium of mainstream radio to consider. Radio stations are notorious for playing the same radio singles over and over in a single day, and more often if people keep requesting it. Repetition is a key factor here. The frequency of a song request is directly proportional to the rate of radio play. But obviously, the reverse is true. So which came first, the single or the request? Since nobody requests a song or video that doesn’t exist (nobody in their right mind), the song or video must have come first. And since the music business is in the busi- ness of selling music, which shouldn't come as a great sur- prise, they will want to sell you things they know have sold in the past. (Incidentally, this is part of the reason bands like Nickelback or Barenaked Ladies get no major label attention until they have proved themselves out of That's right—no more watching bad copied tapes, no more searching for long lost episodes, you've got the first 24 episodes of season two in one convenient package. So sit back and enjoy the ramp up to the 1985 Christmas buying season, with our favorite group of marketing tools. There’s no amazing animation here, or a well-thought-out world domination plot, but you will get all the favorites you remember, and some you've probably forgotten. Well, for this box set the sound was redone from the original TV stereo sound and re-mastered in Dolby Digital 5.1. The sound is wonderful; it is full, clear, and carries some of the decade's greatest voice actors superbly. The picture was remade into a digital signal from the original 35mm film, but there are scratches and dirt from the source film, although it’s far better quality than any transformer. The menu has a 3D CG Optimus Prime, the scene select is on the front truck windows, and the play- all feature cause him to “transform and roll out”. The in- package extras feature a pair of animation cells, one fea- turing Ravage escaping an explosion, and one of Megatron holding an energon cube. As well, there is an Optimus Prime trading card included among a slew of ad inserts. The selection on disc inserts is an hour long fea- ture about BotCon 2002, as well as interviews with voice actors Neil Kaplan, Michael McConnohie and Scriptwriter Earl Kress. The later two interviews were well worth watching, but I wonder why they put an interview January 15, 2003 the country.) Thus, in the case of music videos, producers will fill them with flashy/fleshy things. As for the music itself, music executives decide what audiences already like and try to find more bands like that. This is practically the definition of pop, or popular music, and it lends itself to an endless list of dull, formulaic and forgettable pop songs. If you don’t believe me, wander into a used CD shop and wade through the discount bin. You'll find a dump of pop compilations, many of which are just a few years old but are filled with songs no longer played on the radio. Pop is disposable; it is pulp, and it is profitable that way. Music executives have little vested interest in selling you good music. In the business, music is a commodity that is bought and sold in large quantities. Whether it is good for you or not, pop music will forced upon you whenev- er you listen to mainstream radio or watch music videos, and you may even go out and impulsively buy some of these albums, assuring those executives that it really is really good music. The paradox is that that as long as people continue buy- ing what the music industry convinces them to buy, the music industry will continue trying to convince you to buy it until the market is completely saturated with that type of music, until even your grandmother has been con- ditioned to like it and its many diffused, meaningless forms. Actually, your grandmother and DJ Yours Truly have something in common. We'll both give out anything you ask for until you're sick of it. Fortunately, I figured out when to stop. Pop is candy. It may be tasty for a while, but you can’t live on it. with Kaplan on this DVD, considering he didn’t do any voices on the original Transformers series. We all know the story by now; it’s the battle between good and evil, Autobots and Decepticons, being fought on earth over world energy reserves. This battle may sound very familiar, it mirrors today’s energy problem, minus the transforming robots with outlandish schemes. At the core of almost every episode is the theft of energy by the Decepticons which convert various energy sources like oil, natural gas, and electricity into pink cubes called energon. The scope of these evil schemes, ranges from stealing various nondescript white lab coat person’s inven- tions, to stealing energy from a time-warped island, to taking over the world with an evil supercomputer. Well, none of these are truly excellent in this day and age, but it sure makes one nostalgic for those old fashioned evil vil- lains. Most importantly of all, it has all your old favourites back in all their glory, whether you were a fan of Starscream and his constant whining and back stabbing, or Jazz and the fact he sounds baked in every episode, or even everyone's favorite robot dinosaur Grimlock, and his low-level English skills. With a cast of characters (more than 100 by the end of season two) there’s an Autobot or Decepticon for everyone out there. It’s a great trip down memory lane for fans, a shining example for aspiring voice actors, and a fun watch at the least for everyone else. page 13 ©