Sunday 29 June 2014

The BBC and Glastonbury

The BBC promote Glastonbury like its their very own gifted child. A sea of adverts across their very wide broadcasting spectrum for the king of music festivals. 
But I feel the tone is very much the one they use for Wimbledon. By us! For us! Its one of our own!
 Irritates me. Watching the coverage {Mrs Q is a big fan} it reminds me of MTV from the 80s. A giant Luvvy-love-in. Everyone was brilliant. All bands were awesome. All singers are 'amaaaaazzzziiinnnng"The most banal comment from the most spaced rock star is deeply profound. Every group is either a cutting edge hipster or has legendary status.
 Even Mrs Q tends to skip the chat on the iplayer. While most of it bores me to tears.

But then its not aimed at me. Its for 'us' ..

From the comments of the previous post

What does Glastonbury mean to you?

Now take away 'Glastonbury' and replace with 'The BBC.'



What does the BBc mean to you?

Rubbish
Achingly trendy
Kaftan Wearing
Expensive
Corporate
Massively over hyped
Fun
Expensive, but not for what you get.
Diverse

Familiy.
Varied.

Camp {ing}
Superb Atmosphere
My Dad says its a load of Sh++t
40-50 year olds look out of place
Remote
Passé
Vibrant
Full of eco loons

Mainstream
Glampy
Sweet FA
Not interested 
Never watch it
Immensely enjoyable but at a price.
It was OK up until about '98
Used to be great, but .. has been marketed to death as an essential experience
Full of pretentious ok-yah types all trying desperately to be different
Preponderance of self indulgent types

American "TV"is more commercial but we've heard good things about it
The opium of the people.
Bit boring nowadays.
Drug ridden

And its very, very, very .. Wet






19 comments:

K said...

The American TV one fits pretty well doesn't it?

If the BBC is so good where are all the big BBC shows? Why isn't Game of Thrones a BBC production?


The BBC used to be good for comedy ... up until about '98.

Steven_L said...

Good point BQ.

Nick Drew said...

ENTITLEMENT

andrew said...

used to watch it until something better came along.

... but i still like R4

Electro-Kevin said...

None of you have experienced a Drum 'n' Bass tent, clearly.

Blue Eyes said...

I would hazard a guess that the BBC funds disproportionately its coverage of "events" and its own management, compared with other large successful commercial media organisations. The BBC doesn't just send a reporter to an event, it sends a huge team per programme that might cover the event. Apparently there was a BBC-wide tech conference and nobody could decide whether to hold it in Salford or London, so they held it in Birmingham.

Graeme said...

once upon a time, Glastonbury was a real event...it is now on the back-packers' itinerary, part of the bucket-list of people who go to Macchu Picchu without knowing anything about the Incas etc. When Tony Bennett, Dolly Parton and the Royal Opera Company get to appear at a yoof event, it has jumped the shark. Glastonbury jumped the shark about 15 years ago and it is now part of the BBC Proms. I hope they pay their fair share of tax, unlike the BBC, the RSPCA or Greenpeace.

Steven_L said...

None of you have experienced a Drum 'n' Bass tent, clearly.

Lol, a few, both licensed and otherwise.

theProle said...

Having been at work with Radio 2 on all day Saturday, my thoughts are that:
Less chat, more live music would be good. What's the point of going to a massive live music events to sit in a tent and interview people who could drop by the studio anytime?
That said, almost anything is better than the normal radio 2 Saturday schedule - in particular, Graham Norton and Lisa Tarbuck should both come off air, and the regular O'Leary show is petty lacklustre.

I'd like to hear more live gigs broadcast, but ideally in a more "radio 3" style - introduced at the start, then that's it from the host till the end of the set. I remember being in work on late shift and hearing a Take That gig like that a couple of years ago - not really my style of music, but it was quite nice to get an experience more like being in the audience than the usual 3 min of music followed by 15 mins of banal interview.

Sahib said...

It's the inward-looking aspect. Just because some of the metropolitan media types deign to visit the countryside it becomes important, a popular Glyndebourne or musical version of the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. Because BBC latte sippers like it, so must everyone else.

It's also why we get endless coverage of media-political trivia such as live reporting from Leveson when nobody in the country cares.

dearieme said...

Loud rubbish played to loud rubbish.

CityUnslicker said...

I presume the coverage is very, very cheap to buy,

So the BBC promotes it because it is caost effectice and as pointed out an army of middle-management is going anyway and would rather do it on expenses.

I best the BBC team at Glastonbury is over 1000 people all in.

Jan said...

I have to pay for my BBC TV licence......luckily I can ignore Glasto which "sold out" years ago and I don't have to pay anything to them.

That said the BBC licence fee is reasonable for what we get...I would be lost without R4.

Perhaps the fee could be taken out of general taxation though? Just an idea.....

Bill Quango MP said...

Yep the TV licence issue. We've covered it many times.

the general consensus seems to be that the 'fee' should be a 'subscription' which is optional. Its estimated the BBC would only lose some 2% of their users.
So even if they really pitched the fee too high, or offered too little, they could still almost guarantee some 90% of their current revenues.

So why not just go subscription?
And then they could be as left leaning, global warming, progressive, as they wanted.

I'd subscribe. just for the radio. Although I suspect radio and web would be free. Difficult to do them any other way.

Blue Eyes said...

Paying for the BBC through general taxation would leave the organisation even less accountable!

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