Brian W. Carver -- Share Alike

Korn asks you to steal their new video

I'm not a big Korn fan, but their new video, which you're only gonna see online, is very interesting. [That's a streaming WMV format movie, which if anyone can view under Linux or download, I'd like to hear how.] In the video the band trashes a record store while text flashes on the screen criticizing the record industry. They talk about the fact that one company owns all of the five major channels that play videos, and ask if you think you'll see their video on TV. (There would be a lot of bleeping.) They talk about the fact that the music industry promotes about four songs per week and gets their current top 40 hits played 100s of times a week. So, since Korn knows no one will play their video and since apparently their record company asked them to change this video and they refused, one of the many things that flashes on the screen during the video is Korn encouraging you to "steal" their video. Check it out. (Although, again, if you really want people to steal a video, you wouldn't make it available only as a Windows-formatted stream that few can figure out how to save or even view on non-Windows platforms!)

Also, someone (Korn?) has done a nice remix of the song that includes Howard Stern talking about his recent censorship by Clear Channel Communications. Stern starts criticizing Bush, and a few days later, he's off all Clear Channel radio stations. Does anyone need a reminder why concentration of media ownership is a bad idea? We've got to take back the airwaves, people.

Salon has a good article about Howard Stern's recent political turn and the influence it could have on this fall's election. The idea is that his traditional listeners include a lot of unregistered and non-voters who will be motivated by Stern's outrage to get involved and vote against Bush. Let's hope so. (Korn links via BoingBoing).