Is this right- " the cell phone replaces the record as the central icon of popular music culture."

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"Between Akon and rapper Mims, the other breakout star of 2007, there's reason to suspect that we have arrived at a historical tipping point—the moment when the cell phone replaces the record as the central icon of popular music culture." -Jody Rosen from his article on Akon for slate.com called Lord of the Ringtones
How Akon became a star.
By Jody Rosen
Posted Tuesday, April 10, 2007, at 7:31 AM ET

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Are ringtones that ubiquitous? The "record", what's that? Maybe the i-pod more than the cellphone...

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:16 (seventeen years ago) link

No.

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:16 (seventeen years ago) link

No to the cellphone, or to the ipod or neither?

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:17 (seventeen years ago) link

No to the ringtone thing - sounds like the kind of thing the author didn't think through because he wanted to be the first one to say it

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:19 (seventeen years ago) link

ipod sounds like a better choice if anything is

― Hurting 2, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:20 (seventeen years ago) link

i smell an emp panel.....smells like ass sweat & coffee

― gershy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I keep hearing that the mobile is a top digital delivery vehicle in Japan and Korea. (I mean with the music they listen to, what does it matter right? but still....)

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Not quite, but I think the mp3 is the current lord of music consumption. Give ringtones a bit— when most artists release songs purely as ringtones, then they'll have tipped, rather than just a few outlyers notable mainly as exceptions.

― I eat cannibals, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 03:58 (seventeen years ago) link

Lord of the Ringtones: How Akon became a star

It's the portion before curmudgeon's quote that explains the interest in cell phones:

As for Akon's hooks: They're little jingles, of four or so notes, generally in minor keys. In truth, they're not really proper choruses so much as advertisements for ringtones, which, as any music-industry analyst will tell you, is where the real money is these days.

― mark 0, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 04:36 (seventeen years ago) link

this is around 2 years behind the times

― abanana, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 05:18 (seventeen years ago) link

this is around 2 years behind the times

That's helpful, thanks...

― Saxby D. Elder, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 06:11 (seventeen years ago) link

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:10 (seventeen years ago) link

My phone is my ipodlike.

I don't use ringtones, unless you count the sound of a ringing telephone as a ringtone.

― Mark G, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:16 (seventeen years ago) link

of course its a ringtone, what else would it be...a piece of ice?

― 600, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:34 (seventeen years ago) link

did i not read recently that ringtone sales had levelled off?

― m coleman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:59 (seventeen years ago) link

Didn't Spector design his records so they would sound totally awesome on tiny transistors and cheap record players? This is the same thing.

Not read the link but the quote is accurate only inasmuch as the mobile phone is a centre of popular culture full stop, music or otherwise.

This is true in both directions (and the first bit is part of the reason I'm not mad on Spector!).

The mobile phone is the total bedrock of society in 2007. And it was in 2005, too, when a ringtone beat Coldplay to the #1 spot in the UK.

― Scik Mouthy, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 09:59 (seventeen years ago) link

The mobile phone may[ according to you be the total bedrock of society in both 2005 and 2007, but are song-like ringtones? I rarely hear them--either in the suburban office tower where I work, or at the baseball field seeing my son play. I hear 'em more when I'm out and about in downtown DC. Is under 40 hip New Yorker Rosen forgetting that much of the world does not fit into that demographic? I think so. I wonder if he discussed this theory at EMP when he was out there?

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:30 (seventeen years ago) link

Residual demographics don't count.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Records seem generally good. Ringtones generally bad.

Interesting that if the change WERE true the big distinction seems to be 'convenience over quality'. Which IS how a lot of things have gone it often feels.

― blueski, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:35 (seventeen years ago) link

x-post

residual? Meaning non-New Yorkers or New Yorkers who don't use songs as ringtones? Or maybe you were just agreeing with me. I use a programmed meringue-like ringtone on my mobile/cell, and I also still play records at home.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Are people using phone/ipod-type combos at gyms when they work out, or just more 'traditional' ipods?

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:41 (seventeen years ago) link

No, I was teasing! Actually I do hear ringtones a lot in my office, I expect I would hear plenty at a baseball game equivalent too, but I think the UK is further along this particular curve.

― Groke, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 11:42 (seventeen years ago) link

a historical tipping point—the moment when the cell phone replaces the record as the central icon of popular music culture."

more I think about this, the more absurd it sounds

― m coleman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:18 (seventeen years ago) link

We're still a month away from Apple's phone, this could "ring" true yet.

― Mark Rich@rdson, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:20 (seventeen years ago) link

example of faulty logic/deduction. rosen extends his critical judgement of akon's music into a theory about technology and the marketplace rather than observing consumer behavior and proceeding from there.

xpost - ha! but if it's a month away, "tipping point" is a ways off.

― m coleman, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 12:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I generally like Rosen's writing but this just seemed wrong.

― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 1 May 2007 13:17 (seventeen years ago) link

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