There's another way to look at this. My father, talking about growing up in the rust belt, told me how utterly bland and stifling he found the media environment

There's another way to look at this. My father, talking about growing up in the rust belt, told me how utterly bland and stifling he found the media environment in which he grew up. Paul McCartney and Skynyrd and mindlessly predictable TV plots and that was all there was. I'm almost certain he would have been an entirely different person if he grew up somewhere with more of a punk scene or proper folk tradition. The crushing conformity of the past, I think, is difficult to imagine. Sure, people can gravitate to 10 or so sites if they choose, but there is legitimately a whole world at your fingertips for you to explore.