Looking back at 2013…..Daily Kos

by Doctor RJ @ Daily Kos…..

I love lists. There’s something so human about trying to file, index, and number things. There’s an absurdity to it, but that’s half the fun. They’re either good lists that are interesting, or they’re terrible lists which provoke argument over what people feel are either an unwarranted inclusion or errant omission. So win-win.

So let’s throw these topics on the table for discussion:

• Best and Worst Films in 2013?
• Best and Worst Television Shows in 2013?
• Best and Worst in Music for 2013?

Looking back at pop-culture in 2013, it’s a hard year to categorize for having a prevailing trend that was significant across all genres. While there was a good amount of twerking, selfies, and hashtagging going on, some long-term trends in the various mediums continued. For example, in the music industry, the shift from retail sales to online digital downloads continued. However, overall sales of tracks and albums have been trending down, with some speculation that online streaming from music services like Pandora andSpotify may be responsible.

Similar long-term shifts and trends can also be seen in other entertainment industries. Last week Daily Kos’ very own Susan Gardner (aka SusanG) recommended to me the book Viewing America: Twenty First-Century Television Drama by Christopher Bigsby, where one of the main themes is the shift of talent towards television as the entertainment medium to discuss serious issues through art. TV was once viewed as a “wasteland” where film actors, screenwriters, and directors would be taking a step down in their career to do a TV show. In fact, a lot of TV actors wanted to escape their television jobs to do “serious” work in movies. Fast forward to the present, and television is now seen as the place where stories can be given enough time to develop thoughtful analysis of characters, themes, and exhibit commentary on various societal and political issues. And the trend in movies since the 1980s is towards blockbusters that are largely either action films and/or family movies. Of the top 10 grossing films for 2013, 8 were either sequels or prequels, 6 could be categorized as action movies, and all of the top 5 were either animated, based on comic-book characters, or specifically intended for young adults/children.

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