I've noticed an increased tendency to use questions as headlines, at least in online media. And it isn't just clickbait, respectable news outlets do it too. Such is the rise of the headline that ends in a question mark, about a year ago I considered setting up a blog to highlight stories where the answer to these questions was, to me, self-evident; I was going to give it a snappy title along the lines of One Word Answers To Obvious Headline Questions, or some such. But since I have enough trouble maintaining my current roster of blogs, another one was the last thing I needed, plus I couldn't imagine many people regularly turning up to read posts that consisted of "yes", "no" or "maybe". The idea got canned.
However, today, this story is doing the rounds on the BBC News website:
I know what they mean, vis-à-vis physical product vs streaming, but still, I feel the need to give a one-word answer:
Never!
Oh no, my first reaction to reading the article, a little child's voice inside me going "I don't like it, mummy, I want to go home!" I don't want to become a dinosaur, but I just can't go that way into a life with no physical, tangible music product and all it represents. I have mourned the beauty of the 12" sleeve and the anticipation brought on by buying something you've never heard before just because it looks interesting. Please don't let them take the last remains of all that too! Streamed music just doesn't have it for me.
ReplyDeleteAs for the question headlines - could be a regular series if not a separate blog?
Whereas my inner voice was more, "Damn you! You'll never stop me buying the real McCoy..." Except, of course, they probably will, eventually.
DeleteMaybe a regular series, who knows. May depend on unearthing that elusive mojo.
Headlines with "I" or "We" in the title seem to be on the rise too. "I'm 24 but I'm not ready to 'adult' yet" (from the BBC last year) sticks in my mind/craw for being contemptible on at least three levels. If my immediate reaction to a headline is "Why the f**k should I care?" then it's not really doing its job, is it? (And no, I didn't click on it.)
ReplyDeleteAgreed, and another symptom of journalism morphing to fit the clickbait model. If it's got "I" or "we" in, it must be personal, ergo I must click, right? And yes, that headline has immediately wedged itself in my craw too.
DeleteI read this article, and the answer seemed to be no. Although they seemed to be predicting a future where CDs would die out to be replaced by streaming & vinyl. Wouldn't the record companies love it if they were able to sell us all the records we used to own on vinyl only to replace them with CDs which someone has now decided is the dinosaur format hence we need to own them on vinyl again? Then give it another few years before the CD revival kicks in.
ReplyDeleteA CD revival, I look forward to that (and being a hipster in my 60s...)
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