Elton John: Shut Down the Internet
Misc August 1st, 2007
“I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole Internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.
Ouch… I’ve never thought the day would come when I’d prefer Sir Elton keep his mouth shut.
(full story at The Sun and CNet)
P.S. I’ve never thought I’d ever see Sir Elton on TechMeme, either 
Zoli Erdos
“I do think..” - that is where the problem is. These guys have no connection to reality anymore.
ST
[...] Zoli has a fun post on Elton John: “I do think it would be an incredible experiment to shut down the whole Internet for five years and see what sort of art is produced over that span.” [...]
“Shut down the net, please”…
Sometimes I’d really love to live in a world where people just talked about stuff they knew, and did not spam opinions and taunts here and there.
Techmeme reports:
Sir Elton says the internet is destroying music — POP legend Sir Elton John wa…
He is just an old man that needed a great statement to let people talk about him…it is pure non-sense. Blogging gives to all of us a great opportunity to meet people and share experiences and does not isolate ourselves at all!
http://www.lucianobove.blogspot.com
[...] Journal – well done, Bancrofts!]. So, as much as we tech bloggers work ourselves into a righteous frothy stew of indignancy, I’m also happy to wait for a few days to see if Sir Elton sets us [...]
I think he should have kept his mouth shut after he released Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, i.e. around 1973. Everything he produced afterwards is pretty much rubbish IMHO.
Oh, I don’t wan him to keep his mouth entirely shut. He should keep on singing…just not talk
Zoli - you’ve taken the quote out of context. He has valid points to make on quality with which I agree.
personally, i would be mindful of fully discounting elton’s comments at least in political terms. at least at this time, 50,000 people hitting a website can’t compare with 50,000 people marching on the white house.
Yes Dennis, there are valid points on creativity. But how will we find out how the artist has been creative? How will he publish/display/distribute that art? Having an audience (and feedback) certainly spurs an artist to master and improve his craft. The ease of communication has also helped collaborations in writing and music.
@Ken - good points for that use case.
@Dennis - “for that use case”? Are you not looking at this upside down? Meaning Elton John is generally right, except for a few details… vs:
-Elton made several good points (which I also agree with)
-but he jumped to an extreme conclusion.
@Zoli: I wasn’t clear. I’m concerned that without adequate editorial control in the written media, we all suffer and it becomes harder to know fact from fiction. I appreciate there is a specific issue in the US with the likes of Fox News but for the rest of the western world, I don’t see the same thing - or at least not to the same extent.
On the question of music and the visual/performing arts, there is an issue over how cinema in particular will continue to get funded. So you can argue over rock star level returns to artists but if, on a broader basis, there isn’t the funding to put on the movies we enjoy, then what happens? How will business models evolve such that the funding can continue?
On his point about shutting down the internet - I get the sense he is speaking from a position of frustration and fear which, as we know in other areas, provokes extreme responses - eg companies shutting out Facebook arbitrarily.
Sir Elton talks out of his behind, what a dumbo!
Internet really give us a lot of convenient, but also took us a lot of time. After work, you may still sit at home in front of screen to prepare tomorrow meeting document.
Internet twisted the social network communication. It make us more productive to our boss, but not reflected on our pay cheque.
Why we need the extra productivity? Or chat online to make us more busy but less pay.