Living in our modern world with its various creature comforts, it’s easy to forget the struggles that our forbears had to go through in order to enjoy the things we take for granted. Take porn as an example. You kids don’t realize how easy you’ve got it! When I was your age, trying to find decent porn on the internet was nearly impossible. Half of the porn sites out there were nothing but teaser pages with nothing good on them that did nothing but redirect you to other worthless teaser pages. And on the off chance you DID find something to fill the spank bank with, good luck downloading it over a 56k modem. We had to resort to swiping dirty mags from the convenience store, stealing our parents’ hidden VHS tapes, or *GASP* using our imaginations! Nowadays, you whippersnappers have got broadband internet and your own private laptops to access a universe of smut in all sizes and flavors floating around on torrent networks and video upload sites like YouPorn and RedTube. Sons of guns.
If you’re curious as to what inspired the above bit of curmudgeonry, for the past few weeks, I’ve been getting emails from a porn site I briefly subscribed to years ago begging me to re-join by lowering their prices. This was during the uncomfortable period when internet smut emerged from the anarchic Scam Era of the late 90′s, but before it blossomed into the anarchic File Sharing Era that we live in today. Aside from the usual deluge of virus-laden spam mails with near-incomprehensible subject lines (H0t brun3tte lo/35 //3ll-hung 5t|_|d!) that my filters catch most of the time, I haven’t heard from the site since I canceled my subscription. And now, years after I forgot about them, they want me back? Not only that, they’ve also been offering me a reduced subscription fee to one of their competitors if I sign back up with them. That’s kind of like Apple offering discounts on Motorola Droids if you buy an iPad.
If this piece from Freakonomics is any indication, the porn industry is among the many whom the Internet has eagerly turkey slapped:
The biggest of the sites, Pornhub, is currently the 53rd most heavily trafficked site on the Internet. By contrast, CNN.com is No. 59, the website of the New York Times is No. 96, and vivid.com (the site of the best-known high-end porn producer in the U.S.) is No. 19,543. (YouTube is no. 3.) Sales of porn DVDs are collapsing, and the revenues of subscription-based porn sites are drying up. Vivid did sue one of the porn-tube sites for copyright infringement, but that suit was dropped in 2008 and the targeted site continues to operate. There is some talk within the porn industry of a coordinated litigation strategy a la the recording industry’s campaign against Internet file-sharers. But there are other insiders who note that copyright suits have done little to stop the implosion of the major record companies, and who despair of any litigation-based solution. And, unlike the record industry, pornography producers have shown no interest thus far in suing their customers for illegally downloading porn.
From the looks of things, the porn industry will be joining the newspaper industry in the Graveyard of Technological Anachronisms. But who can feel sorry for them when they put out pathetic PSAs like this:
God, that was hilarious. When the movie got to the black chick talking about “creative artists,” I started laughing my ass off. What creativity? You fuck on camera for money, honey. The most “creative” you can get is deciding whether to use mayonnaise or egg yolk for the money shot.
That’s one of the industry’s biggest problems – the nature of porn precludes creativity. Individual fetishes aside, the only point of smut is to help the viewer get off. The artistic evolution of pornography in the past forty years has moved towards making arousing the viewer quickly enough to get him to come as efficient as possible. From classic-style movies with plots, storylines, and Hollywood knockoff titles, we’ve descended to “gonzo” porn, which dispenses with the formalities and just gets straight to the fucking. It’s a formula so simple that anyone can pull it off – and lots of people in our debased world do. And who cares about the “actors”? Can any of you normal people (i.e. not you, David Alexander) name any of the folks who have sex on film for your masturbatory pleasure? Can you even name any of the actresses pictured in this post without Googling (or cheating by looking at the tag list)? When every Dick and Jane with a digital camcorder can film themselves getting it on doggystyle on the dining room floor, the value of the average porn star falls through the floor.
Porn’s other problem is that it’s PORN. It’s a vice, sinful, pure evil in fleshy, carnal motion. Because of its inherently shameful nature, people are probably more likely to illegally download porn then any other form of media, and they can rationalize their actions more easily. Nobody will defend porn in court, on TV or in the hallways of respectable opinion if they want to keep their reputations intact. There will be no bailout for Hustler and Vivid. Hell, if I was a moralizing, short-sighted, uptight CONservative (thanks, Advocatus), I’d clandestinely encourage file sharing porno movies to hasten the collapse of the industry. Pirates for Jesus!
The democratization of information access that has forced a reconfiguration of journalism is also forcing a change in mainstream pornography. Gone are the days of big-budget productions and highly-paid, household name stars and directors. The smut of tomorrow will be simpler and more cheaply produced, made by and starring
people who either get paid shit or do it as a hobby. The Freakonomics piece lays out a probable future for porno:
In short, the porn-tube sites probably won’t kill the porn industry. But they will change it. Production is likely to shift even more from “features†to short porn-tube-friendly clips. At the moment, the commercial porn industry, concentrated in L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, turns out more than 1,000 new feature films every month. This model probably cannot be sustained in a porn-tube world. Pornography is, in large part, a utilitarian product, and for most consumers, the purpose for which it is employed is served just as well by a five-minute porn-tube clip.
Many producers will take advantage of falling production and distribution costs to produce a huge amount of pornographic content catering to every imaginable sexual taste. Revenues may come from banner ads, or from click-throughs to sites offering services, like live chats and video on demand, that cannot easily be copied. The commercial producers will compete with amateurs, and also with entrepreneurs who use porn clips as advertisements for other, more highly paid services – for example, already many porn actresses use clips to attract clients to their more lucrative work in strip clubs. In any case, the pornography business is likely to become progressively lower-margin and competitive. Consumers will pay less, and get more.
Of course, this will all become moot when the sexbots and VR sex simulators hit the stores. In the meantime, take this guy’s advice and don’t pay another nickel to drain your dick:
This post has been rated D for Degenerate and has been approved by the In Mala Fide Rule 5 Committee. Heil Satan!
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
Can any of you normal people (i.e. not you, David Alexander) name any of the folks who have sex on film for your masturbatory pleasure?
I have a few favorites, but I can’t name any I saw on this post.
Rebecca Linares, Jenna Haze, Tori Black, damn now I have an erection. Time to go rub one out on youjizz. Like Skyy, no lotion needed here…
I have had sex with a couple of escorts who later went on to be B list porn stars.
I might also add that I prefer porn to banging 4 and below. A 5 (and above) is OK, with the right attitude.
I once used to bang real fatties (not too gross), now a thick gal (5) is the lowest unpaid type I will go for. I seem to get 5-6s with enough regularity to supplement my escort hobby.
Occasionally I even get 7s.
Escorts however start at 6, and are mostly 7-9. Plus they have technique and experience.
Thing is, even if the porn industry implodes, there’s probably been enough stuff produced over the past ten years or so to last well into the future – as long as it’s preserved on streaming sites. Like all the best economic bubbles, the porn one has left a large surplus – I’m talking millions of hours of archived footage of men ejaculating on women.
Hell’s bells, amateurs produce enough free porn to last for the indefinite future.
http://www.theonion.com/search/?q=porn&x=0&y=0
The Onion has a whole list of hysterical articles on this topic.
That second video is absolutely hilarious.
Right on the money. About Viacom, my cable hax always show a bunch of girls fucked by the SAME 3 GUYS.
Pass. Amateur porn is better. Girls aren’t faking it (much).
I’ve never dreamed of paying for porn. There’s more than enough free content available.
That said, porn has pretty much killed women for me. In a way. I think there’s a South Park episode on this very subject.
awesome post. yeah, the 56k days were hellacious. a fundamental difference between my sibling and i, separated by 4 short years was the advent of broadband. his attention span is less then 1 minute.
consider having grown up with broadband for most of your life……seriously.
porn has certainly raised the bar on expectations….fortunately, in my experience, the girls i’ve dated have lived up to expectation…..if you’re a man, you need not have porn be the only source of gratifying sex
I think the American porn industry has largely only itself to blame for all this, they saturated the market in the ’90s.
“Can you even name any of the actresses pictured in this post without Googling (or cheating by looking at the tag list)?”
I can only recognize Jenaveve Jolie. But this post gave me the idea to search for Candace Von on eMule.
“The artistic evolution of pornography in the past forty years has moved towards making arousing the viewer quickly enough to get him to come as efficient as possible.”
I’m sure I’m not the only one who usually prefers high-quality feature porn movies – especially older ones from the ’80s and ’90s with hilarious story lines – to gonzo porn.
“Thing is, even if the porn industry implodes, there’s probably been enough stuff produced over the past ten years or so to last well into the future – as long as it’s preserved on streaming sites.”
Exactly! Online porn has pretty much screwed the industry, hasn’t it?
I sense a David Alexander reference…
[With a topic like this, it's all but required. - ed.]
you whippersnappers have got broadband internet and your own private laptops
Don’t forget, thanks to wifi and huge USB hard drives, you can stash years of downloaded material for years to come.
FWIW, I currently pay for two websites, but I download most of the full length films. Admittedly, there’s a part of me that feels guilty, but after spending $40 a month on porn, you tend to easily rationalize that somebody else is out there propping the studios up with their purchase. Plus, since I live at home, it’s a little awkward to have mother open the box containing “Massive Asses 5″ when she finds my mail. Maybe I’ll just man up and buy inflated price stuff at some store for once.
The smut of tomorrow will be simpler and more cheaply produced, made by and starring people who either get paid shit or do it as a hobby.
The problem is that with low wages, you end up getting the crappy amateur stuff with no real production values. I’m amazed that your weird freaks can find that stuff attractive, but some of us need the high production values of a well made “gonzo” film where the girls are sexualized with appropriate clothing, accessories, and makeup.
Like Skyy, no lotion needed here…
In contrast, I prefer a mix of lotion with baby oil or the baby oil + baby oil gel mix depending on my mood and the length of time available.
That said, porn has pretty much killed women for me. In a way.
Who wants to have sex with a boring woman that has the sexuality of loose-leaf when porn stars exist?
fortunately, in my experience, the girls i’ve dated have lived up to expectation
She could act like a porn star, but one needs to look like one to attract me in the first place. Normal girls just get hugs.
Glad to see you back, Ferdinand, and what a way to start things off… killer post!
I remember navigating the old Mac’s at middle school, searching altavista for “porn” and getting tons of shitty scam sites exactly like you describe…
The futile efforts to put the bottlecap back on the internet genie, make me think of the lyrics from the song “Hosanna” from the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar”:
“Why waste your breath moaning at the crowd?
Nothing can be done to stop the shouting,
If every tongue was stilled, the noise would still continue,
The rocks and stones themselves would start to singproduce porn”
“sing” was supposed to be strike-thru’d =P
You’d better make sure Larry Auster doesn’t see this post. If he does, he’ll probably write another rant about how horrible and immoral the “Roissyists” are.
[I hope he does. I could use the publicity. - ed.]
I swear we must be on the same page! I was just talking about this with a bunch of bar buddies. I for the life of me cant even reason paying anything for porn these days. Maybe back in 26.6 and 56K days but my god, there are so many free preview sites you would be a fool to pay anything.
Takes me back to the days of my first thralls of puberty. Began with old porn magazines that the shops threw out, most of them pretty tame. An occassional one that proclaimed ‘pink bits’ and then my olds bought our first computer and I stayed up late just to the last one in the lounge room so I could look up porn. I’m sure finding anything worthwhile back then honed my internet search skills. And back then I considered pictures a good thing and our old dial up rarely went to 56K. And if I was lucky I found the occassional porn trailer that was low quality and ran for 30 seconds.
The sort of stories I can tell my grandkids about – “back in my day we didn’t have 3D porn..”
I think a lot of people have a few favorite pornstars that they know the name of; for purposes of searching for her scenes to pirate. I’m sure DA isn’t all that rare as a porn afficianado either, even if his preference for porn over even otherwise very attractive real women is rare.
As for the porn industry collapsing, there are several vehicles that will keep it moving albeit in a much reduced capacity from the turn of the 21st century Golden Age. High Definition. A lot of legitimate pornstars are getting ‘benched’ because their stretch marks, surgery scars, et cetera, can’t be concealed in HD films.
You have the class of pornstars that is HD fit, and will probably be representative of what a pornstar is at all in the future. Amateurs are going to be less apt to film themselves in HD lest the camera show off the clearly depicted glory of the nigh visible, unpigmented hairs covering their bodies and each individual pore on their noses that is concealed through camera tricks, lighting, makeup and postproduction in current high end pornography.
Eventually even low end camera technology will evolve to the point that your average handheld camcorder will be too high res to be flattering to your current crop of amatuer ‘stars’. Even current low res amateur porn trends to dim lighting (or outright night vision) and other cheap tricks to hide the physical flaws of these ‘stars’.
Also a marketing vehicle for legal prostitution and stripclubs. A lot of pornstars already make a handful of movies a year and strip fulltime, which is where their actual income derives. You can certainly find pornstars at legal brothels as well, exploiting their popularity among internet pirates. As long as stripclubs and brothels persist, porn will continue to be produced. I’d say as much effort as possible will be put into pumping up an elite stable of pornstars that are HD fit, and willing to work a stripclub circuit or work in brothels. You already see Vivid doing this now.
American porn industry shot itself in the foot.
Compare it to the East European/Russian industry.
American: you got a 30 cm schlong attached to a steroid filled body that cannot utter two sentences in a row, roaring like a bull as if his spine is torn out. Getting pounded by him with 225 strokes in a minute is this bimbo with plastic tits, plastic lips, fake eyebrown, fake eyelashes, all oiled up, even the ass has make up, eyeliner is dripping over her face while she is shouting as if a cactus it pounding her.
WTF is that.
Take east european/russian (talking about the legal stuff of course, and not the old/young, young/old, etc crap out there): Got an average dude pounding this gorgeous natural looking 19-25 year old beauty that you would look at if you saw her on the street and then once more. Looks like normal people effing.
About pro porn, the best is french from the 70′s. Germans are too crass, italians too slimey. then came american porn and effed everything up. Instead of watching american porn, I’d rather watch a rhinoceros pounding a beaver.
But then, if I need to bust a nut,
Nothing compares to the beauties of erotica.
No dick in sight, no man in sight.
Just a naked girl, gorgeous one, and a lake/tree/balcony/grass/my flat…
If one thing, women complain about their self image getting damaged by the fashion industry and the media.
That damage does not compare to the screwing men got about their dick size from the porn industry.
I read that same article, and almost wrote about it myself. I remember watching the same dozen thumbnail VIVO clips, and constantly having to scrub the history files on my parents computer, and getting stuck in the waterfall of redirects.
I’ve heard that Porn has moved out of the Valley, too . . .
bimbo with plastic tits, plastic lips, fake eyebrown, fake eyelashes, all oiled up, even the ass has make up
That is far more attractive than some useless flat chested “natural” looking Eastern European girl.
D. Alexander, you spend $480 a year on porn! Apparently if you very specialised fetishes you have to pay for it. :/
On a related note, do you agree that the fact porn actresses are paid more than porn actors proves that society basically accepts the sexual double standard women love to complain about? We are all aware that a woman suffers a great loss to her sexual market value if she sleeps around – and the public knows – whereas a man who behaves the same way doesn’t, but we aren’t supposed to accept that. Yet everyone accepts that porn actresses are paid more, even though their job is less difficult than that of male porn actors, because we know they deserve a bigger “compensation” for the loss of their SMV, so to speak.
Porn can be highly addictive and highly destructive to your sexual life in the end.
I wouldn’t mind if the industry had to close down.
Anyway, porn has been around since the the first painting and certainly since the first photographic camera (around 1850). It will certainly be around for the next 5000 years, commercially or not.
Porn has nothing to do with reality. It’s fiction, like a bad hollywood movie.
I once read an interview of some “star” (I think it was Carmella Bing) who said it made more sense to escort than to perform. The economics were something like 2 grand / hr (escorting) vs 2 grand/day (filming).
So, in the future, the incentives would be: make films or mag appearances to raise your cachet and then become an escort.
I dream day when I lay with my perfect 10 beatifull sentinent android on smart bed, watching Holographic porn moview synthetic by quantum hypercomputer, and she ask me:”Why do you choose this template for my body?”.
And I say – “I remeber one porn star when GlobalNet user work on 56kbit modems, when I ordered you.”
She answer – “How intresting. Remember, I am better than any meat woman”
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