Without a Face; Anonymous Pt 1.

Most sources of media fail when it comes to reporting on the Internet. It's not really their fault its just that many in 'journalism' as a profession or under the "Writer" umbrella come from a arts and humanities background and are ill at ease with the nuances of the modern online world. Reporting on everything from facebook to Piracy (we will come to piracy later in detail) sometimes sees the points made be just a little bit... off. 

But there is one story, or movement, or entity that even the Internet its self seems unable to pin down. The group that many refer to an "Anonymous". Where do we Start? There is just to much context that needs to be seen for it to make any sense and so much this is self Mythologised by the 'group' it's self and even larger amounts of erroneous speculation, misinformation, half-truths and uninformed opinions out there for any journalist researching the subject to really cut through the bullshit. But this is just what i will attempt to do, swing by mighty axe of plus 5 against bullshit and rend the mighty ogre of conjecture to rescue the scantily clad maiden of truth and take her back to my castle of understanding- I've taken this metaphor too far but you get the idea. Onward! On my might steed of... courier... text... (OK ill get on with it now.)

But First a History Lesson;

Let me take you back. Way back. Back into time. To a land before  1999 to be precise. The place; japan. The subject; a forum format known as an image-board. "2Channel" or "2ch.net" and it's sister site "2Chan" was (and still is) a popular Japanese web based forum; "One of the most distinctive features of 2ch is the complete freedom of anonymous posting." If i may shamelessly copy and paste Wikipedia. This is where the original idea of an anonymous posting structure came from. Anonymity. This is the core ideal underpinning the place, the environment that spawned "Anonymous" and its free-speech/free expression ideals. A place known as 4Chan.

The name 4Chan strikes fear into the heart of many and bafflement into the hearts of many more. It's antics and contributions to Internet culture are pretty legendary (and suffer from the same self-mythologising flaws as "Anonymous"). But it is really just an imageboard formed by a Christopher 'moot' Poole. The idea is almost identical to 2Channel; a system of image and text based posts that can be made by anyone without having to be identified to any use. 4Chan was not an instant sensation but steadily grew a reputation for being one of the frontiers of the Internet especially its "Random" board given the address /b/. /b/ has become almost legendary in its status for creating Internet culture and "Memes" (that a whole other article) and for conducting what were known as "Raids" basically attacks or pranks on other Internet sites that served a purpose, be it their own amusement or some other point to be made. The first Raids will be covered in part 2 but to know what anonymous is you must first realise where it came from.

There is a lot of histrionics involved when it comes to the history of 4chan but it is important to note that the essential crux of it is there was a big load of bored teens and twenty somethings posting on a board anonymously. That is kind of it, no hacker superconciousness and no molevelant will.

In part 2; /b/ordem and /b/attles

"Real Music"

I realized in my last post i made a reference to 'real music', a word that is almost totally devoid of meaning in most cases and is a byword to many of slightly superior opinionated types clinging to their respective eras or tastes, and this largely is true. But there is another sense, a sense that chart music has lost its way more than ever at the moment and there is very little chance of an act emerging unchewed-up by the machine that would aim to make them famous in the first place.

Take for Example Ed Sheeran; a man that seems heavily influenced by Damien Rice (and  everyone i know thinks is their little secret despite having a no.1 single). Fair enough not a bad thing to be influenced by, his style has up until now been very acoustic and very heart-felt. He is no doubt a very talented individual.  But his new single seems pretty heavily 'steered' in the more Bruno Mars/ urban direction. There are different versions of the song but this seems to be the 'official' version of the single and it production is almost slick enough to slip on. Im not against good production but it seems a little sad that now he is being pushed as "The next big thing" his sound is suddenly more rap and hip-hop than it was before simply to help it be camouflaged in the charts. Now im not an industry insider and i don't really know what is goin on but this is just one example of a wider homogenization that i realize has been going on for decades but now seems almost total.

Not to sound like a dinosaur but there was a time when a man who stood on one leg and played the flute could be number one. Now lady Ga-Ga is considered out there, a bland pop-star with manufactured controversy and an almost robotic regurgitation of past styles into some ungodly mish-mash of "Throw-it-against-the-wall-and-hope-i-look-cool". It feels somehow false, beneath it all lady gaga is simply... boring. Her music is boring, all i have heard her talk about in interviews is who designed what and how much she "loves all the fans" in that super plastic LA fashion. She is boring. She is mediocre.  all this mystique, window dressing and bullshit is meant to jangle keys in-front of you to make sure you don't notice. She is the ultimate expression of how the industry has run out of ideas.

Gaga here, with her concept album highlighting the very real problem of motorbike related birth deformities.

The music industry is still in disarray over how badly file-sharing is kicking their collective market models in the arse but this is a seperate issue for another day. All we have now is an emerging market of very similar dub-step and a chart full of nothing but purposely manufactured club bangers. Perhaps i am just a hipster doucebag elitist but it would seem to me that music need a good kick up the arse stylistically that simply seems impossible in the current situation. So yes i do believe some music has more merit than others but thats mainly because it does. I'm an opinionated man in a world full of things a disprove of. Objectivity and pandering be dammed.