Your favorite band sold out before you even heard them — here's the receipt.
The hallmarks of popular music - artist independence and diversity of voices - are threatened by a contracting marketplace of record companies, radio ownership and playlists, as well as increased use in advertising. Big-name artists, historians and economists explain how popular music is produced and marketed and critique its current state.
Writing
Chuck D and Kathleen Hanna dropping truth bombs like grenades.
Direction
Thurston Moore's deadpan narration = perfect cynical energy.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released just as Napster collapsed and iTunes launched, this doc captures the exact moment the music industry pivoted from fighting piracy to monetizing access — making its warnings about consolidation almost quaint compared to what came next.
The title references Dire Straits' 1985 hit — a song itself about MTV-era commercialization, which Mark Knopfler later licensed to sell flat-screen TVs, because irony is dead and we killed it.
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