Lists: It's Not Who You Are, But Where You Are - Page 3

But if publications like "Time" have their way, are we in for a future when books, cds, and DVDs are covered with labels: "Picked as one of the top ten books written during a Leap Year" or " Chosen one of the top twenty albums using pan European-Asian percussion in the new age/retro rock category"

Lists have become serious business for the publications producing them. A list is a means for them to utilize their name brand to establish themselves as an authority in a certain field, whether they warrant it or not. Nobody has questioned Oprah's literary credentials; her name alone is all that matters to publishers and booksellers, and the same applies to all the purveyors of lists.

It's only a matter of time before publishers, movie producers and music executives start specifically looking for items that will fit the characteristics of what could be chosen by Oprah, or any of the other lists. It will become a symbiotic relationship where items will be produced to fit into the lists, and the lists will identify these items as pieces of quality cementing their reputations as arbitrators of culture. Everybody will be happy and make lots of money, except for the people who don't fit into the list.

But if you're not the list, you can't be any good, because you're not on the list.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion, both published by Ulysses Press. He has had his work published in print and online all over the world including the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and www.Qantara.de. …

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