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Porn for the Masses

Is it all crap TV as the band Bred Pudding asserts, or is there something more to modern broadcast media?

By Paul ConneallyPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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Bred Pudding - Crap TV

The UK art and music collective, Bred Pudding, chant "It's all crap TV" and "It's porn for the masses" on their track "Crap TV" which features on their EP Short Circuit Control, but just how true is this in the new broadcast media world of pay to view and stream TV? Moreover, just what constitutes crap TV?

With almost every home in the developed world having access to hundreds of TV channels and even more if the householder is prepared to pay to view and stream programmes, there's something for everyone. It would be stupid to imagine that most of the programmes available are good, never mind excellent, but is it all bad?

Just what is the difference between good TV and bad TV? Is it to do with how entertaining the programme is? How educative? How well made? How shocking? Well they say each to their own, but maybe viewing figures are a good pointer to good TV. This is perhaps debatable too as some programmes with huge viewing figures are thought by many others to be trash, to be crap TV.

Reality TV programmes have some of the biggest viewing figures but probably wouldn't ever claim themselves to be educative in any meaningful way, although perhaps the best are very entertaining, at least to many viewers.

Versions of reality TV programmes like Love Island are made in many different countries and all seem to get huge ratings. In the UK, Love Island, with its body perfect young contestants fighting it out, usually in swimwear, to become the nation's favourite couple is discussed almost daily in every workplace, cafe, bar, and home across the country. Love Island also features on most news stations, from highbrow to low. If this is crap TV, then it's very successful!

I'd make a distinction between Crap TV and Trash TV. Trash TV can be great TV when it's made well and knows itself that it is trash and all that entails. Yes I'm giving a thumbs up to the trash aesthetic and the producers of Love Island seem to be masters of the trash aesthetic!

I don't think Bred Pudding are right. It's not "all crap TV."

As to if it's "porn for the masses" in much the same way that Marx called religion the "opium of the masses," the jury is out.

The Bred Pudding song says, "It's all crap news coverage." Maybe that's the one thing President Donald Trump would agree with Bred Pudding on. Trump claims that the news media and journalists are "the enemy of the people." Is that Marx creeping in again?

You pay your money and make your choice and there is just so much choice when it comes to news channels. From Fox News to the BBC, Russian TV, CNN and all points between.

Perhaps many people these days don't watch the news in the way that they used to back in the day when, at a given time, almost all stations had a news programme on simultaneously. These days, one can just switch channels or simply skip through the news as with ads, only watch complete movies, or binge view the latest pay-to-view blockbuster TV series box set such as Game of Thrones.

Do friends watch the same programmes? Or are friendships made of greater things than a common liking for Sports TV or Situation Comedies?

Some families have a TV in every room and at times, every member of the family will be in a different room just so they can watch the programme of their choice. It avoids arguments. It avoids engagement. It avoids communication.

I know that the programmes I love will be the programmes some others hate and vice versa. That's life, that's TV, and as Paul Weller of The Jam tells us, "That's entertainment!"

The last word goes to R.U.S.S. of Bred Pudding who, when asked, reasserted:

"It's all Crap TV! But some's crapper than others!"

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About the Creator

Paul Conneally

Paul Conneally is a Cultural Forager, poet and artist.

He writes on culture in its widest sense from art to politics, music and science and all points between.

His Twitter handle is @littleonion and on Instagram he is @little___onion

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