Sophomoric reasoning from Elton John:

“The internet has stopped people from going out and being with each other, creating stuff. Instead they sit at home and make their own records, which is sometimes OK but it doesn’t bode well for long-term artistic vision.

“Hopefully the next movement in music will tear down the internet. Let’s get out in the streets and march and protest instead of sitting at home and blogging. 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.”

[ From Rupert Murdoch’s London tabloid The Sun, 1 August 2007. ]

One certainly cannot accuse Sir Elton of being as smart as he is prolific. A broad generalization such as John’s assertion that the internet is stifling creativity and dumbing down the quality of music (“In the early Seventies there were at least ten albums released every week that were fantastic. Now you’re lucky to find ten albums a year of that quality.”) exposes him as a luddite and sophomore.

I was around during the 70s, and while I do suffer an occasional nostalgic pang, I have to say I don’t miss those years all that much. And I certainly don’t remember the 10 albums a week that our friend claims were being released during first half of the decade. Of course — there were good songs and good albums, but 520 fantastic albums a year from 1970 -1975? If that were true we’d have a musical canon of 2600 fantastic albums for that period. I challenge his lordship to produce the list. As for his claim that there are not ten fantastic albums produced a year in the post-internet era, I say bull. And I put it to you, readers — send us your list. 10 fantastic albums produced this year. Or 10 from last year. Or from any year since 2000 for that matter. Send your list to us and we’ll compile a list to send to Sir Elton.