Dónal Donohoe

At a time when the sale of CDs has been falling for many years in a row and where the sale of music downloads has failed to halt the decline in overall music sales it is interesting to note the increase in revenue from the sale of video games. The digital age and the internet has opened up unlimited possibilities for discovering new art, books, music, films etc and unlike in previous times when certain books or vinyl records were difficult to get hold of, now it is almost possible to source anything by searching on the internet. So has the new technology meant that unknown artists are managing to get greater exposure for their art and reap the economic dividends of such exposure? Apparently not, as the figures show the biggest seller this year is a video war game where people can act like big boys with guns and virtually blow the ‘bad guys’ away as they pop up on their screens throughout the game. One might have thought that watching the evening news would fill anyone’s life with enough bloodshed, killing, war and destruction that they would want to devote their leisure time to the pursuit of some more peaceful activities, virtual or otherwise. But it seems that at this point in the time the masses would prefer to play Cowboys and Indians on their little boxes or play air guitar on one of the interactive music games and pretend they are playing music.
Throughout history new inventions and discoveries have been put to both good and bad use, the splitting of the atom led to nuclear bombs being dropped on two cities, whereas other new developments have led to people’s lives being saved, improved or enriched by the manner in which they were applied. Looking back through history certain periods stand out as cultural high points, whether in early Greece, the renaissance in Europe in the middle ages or the 1960’s in the twentieth century when peace and love was going to change the world and make it a better place to live in. Of course the world didn’t change, but for a while people dreamed that they could change it, how many people dream that now? When future generations look back at this period in which we are now living, where karaoke machines have replaced musicians in many small venues and where educated people spend hours and hours playing war games, will they describe it as a time of cultural enlightenment