July 18th, 2010

Eminem’s latest album ‘Recovery‘ climbs one place to top this week’s UK Album chart, replacing last week’s number one ‘Aphrodite‘ which drops to #2. Bombay Bicycle Club’s new acoustic record ‘Flaws‘ is a new entry in the top ten at #8, while Mumford & Sons’ debut ‘Sigh No More‘ rises to no.6. Outside the top ten, The Coral debut at #16 with ‘Butterfly House‘.

It is always hard to believe that the Internet is less than 20 years in the popular domain. Throughout its short life it has been continually adopting a new and unpredictable guise and no one really needs to be told how it has revolutionized the music industry. Judging by the incalculability of this paradigm-shifting phenomenon, it would take an ignorant, and perhaps arrogant, point of view to predict where it will be going next.

But who better than Prince to rain on our parade and go so far as to declare it “dead”? The infamously aloof artist claimed that “the Internet’s completely over” and sees no point in handing over his precious compositions to the likes of iTunes, or any music-download site for that matter.  The artist formerly known as a symbol analogized the downfall of the world-wide-web with MTV: “At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”