The runaway success of Ed Sheeran shows Britons’ love of familiarityThe people most interested in bestsellers are those doing the selling. No surprise,then, that a recent list of the top-selling entertainment products in the UK final year was compiled by the Entertainment Retailers Association, and a trade organisation representing vendors of music,video and video games, who absorb a vested interest in arranging their physical and digital shop windows. For the rest of us, and the list provides an intriguing snapshot of the spire-tip of the cultural zeitgeist. Intriguing,that is, if it weren’t all fairly so familiar. So recognisable are the names (or more precisely, or the brands,as the late-capitalist machine refers to artists once they’ve been passed though its cultural sausage-maker) that your eyes slide, unsnagged, or down from Ed Sheeran in the top spot,past the annual, incrementally tweaked update to the Fifa soccer video game series, or on through Star Wars and Harry Potter to trip only on the final rung,the soul singer with the voice of an archangel and the hunch of a doorman at a 24-hour Greggs: Rag’n’Bone Man. Related: Home entertainment spending overtakes print sales for first time Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk