Breaking News: "News at 11" Explained – A Broadcast Tradition Like No Other
[Keywords: News at 11, broadcast tradition, evening news, television, television news, journalism, journalism history, broadcasting]
As the clock strikes 11 PM, millions of people around the world tune in to their televisions, eagerly awaiting the latest developments in the world of news. For decades, the phrase "News at 11" has become synonymous with breaking news, big stories, and exclusive interviews. But what’s the significance of this broadcast tradition, and how did it become an integral part of our daily lives?
A Brief History of "News at 11"
The concept of evening news broadcasts dates back to the early days of television, when newsreels and documentaries were the primary sources of information. As television became more widespread in the 1950s and 1960s, news programs began to take center stage. Networks like NBC, CBS, and ABC started airing dedicated news programs, often concluding with a dramatic flourish at 11 PM.
One of the pioneers of this tradition was NBC’s Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, who anchored the network’s flagship news program, "The Huntley-Brinkley Report," from 1956 to 1970. Their iconic "News at 11" sign-off became a hallmark of the evening news format, signaling to viewers that the most important stories of the day were about to be revealed.
What Makes "News at 11" So Significant?
So, why does "News at 11" hold such significance? Here are a few reasons:
- Big Stories, Big Impact: Evening news programs often air during prime time, making them the perfect platform to break major news stories, such as presidential elections, natural disasters, or scandals.
- In-Depth Reporting: These programs typically feature in-depth reporting, analysis, and commentary from experienced journalists, providing viewers with a deeper understanding of the stories and their implications.
- Exclusive Interviews: News at 11 often features exclusive interviews with newsmakers, policymakers, and celebrities, offering a glimpse into the inner workings of the world’s most pressing issues.
- Cultural Significance: "News at 11" has become a cultural touchstone, symbolizing the end of the day’s events and the start of the evening’s relaxation.
The Evolution of "News at 11"
In recent years, the traditional evening news format has undergone significant changes. With the rise of 24-hour news channels, online news sources, and social media, the way we consume news has become more fragmented and diverse. However, the concept of "News at 11" remains an enduring tradition, with many networks continuing to air dedicated evening news programs.
Conclusion
"News at 11" is more than just a broadcast tradition – it’s a symbol of trust, authority, and professionalism in journalism. As we navigate the ever-changing media landscape, the significance of "News at 11" serves as a reminder of the importance of responsible reporting, in-depth analysis, and exclusive storytelling.
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I understand that it's supposed to be a huge homage/throwback to 9/11, but what's so great about the album itself? When I listen to it, I just hear easy-listening jazz songs with a reverb/slow effect added on top of it. Does Corp write/make any of the music or is it just a compilation of existing songs one after another with an effect added to it?
I compare this with something like Blank Banshee, where he takes samples but makes actual new songs out of it. To me that's an actual album, but maybe I'm missing the concept/intent of what makes this one so brilliant.
View info-news.info by 4ofclubs
For me it’s just like Sunday Television: Invokes the feeling of a news broadcast playing in the background of a mall while you’re dissociating on a bench which is oddly relaxing to me!
They keep playing things that were on as we were leading up to the attacks, and cutting away. It’s not about the attacks themselves but how normal things were on that morning, and contrasting that to what the listener knows happened, a terrible thing that happened but is never at all portrayed in the album.
It’s a statement piece about how American life was changed forever that day. (Don’t take me as a never forget type, I mean this in a War on Terror further destabilized the region and cost countless innocent lives while skyrocketing public approval for a police state kinda way)
There’s a bajillion video essays and a Wikipedia page about this particular album.
Everything has kinda progressively sucked more since 9/11. The 90s were a very prosperous time, and 9/11 was a landmark in ending that prosperity. NEWS AT 11 is a time capsule of the relative innocence and general mood of the country, right up until the last moments before 9/11 happened. We’ll never forget, and the memories of the time before seem so golden in comparison.
Check the comments of the remaining NEWS AT 11 videos for more essays.
I’ve done a bit of a suite for NEWS AT 11 on YouTube:
Picture disc vinyl rip: https://youtu.be/f86VuVxVNN0?si=H2qtlaYCdpcn0YMW
8:46 am guitar cover: https://youtu.be/BM9SH1BcsGE?si=pT91zbMCOuxK77h0
Some spin-off projects:
2019: https://youtu.be/OKC5epOQ_ns?si=UF5lNPsFAHp2QGDi
2020: https://youtu.be/f33NPBoOSM4?si=rUN9U0SD5zyqf-yw
If you aren’t familiar with, or just don’t jive with corp’s signature style or the mallsoft subgenre of vaporwave itself, News won’t make much sense to you. Blank Banshee is vaportrap and more digestible as “standard” or “typical” music. Corp typically blends old samples, TV or radio clips and an incredible sense of style into his music. News is special just because of the focus of the album itself. Truth be told, it’s one of my least favorite Corp albums, but I respect it for what it is.
I think, ultimately, what you get out of it is going to depend on what you value in music. The technical feat of creating *News at 11* is obviously easier than more intricate sample manipulation on something like *Blank Banshee*, which is in turn easier than virtuosic solos in jazz or metal. But technical ability has always just been one axis on which to judge art, and vaporwave should be no different.
What makes *News at 11* so effective is the theme and how sounds are curated to enforce it. In imagining a world where the 9/11 attacks didn’t happen, the album is also making a statement on the attacks themselves. This should be obvious – if you want to listen to an album that exists in a world without 9/11, you could listen to any album recorded before then. Corp is relying on our his and our own experience of the attacks to contrast the pleasant world where they didn’t happen.
You noticed that the songs are mostly just slowed and reverbed muzak. That’s intentional – muzak was the sound of daytime TV, what you would’ve likely run into a lot of on a normal September day in September (this music was especially popular on The Weather Channel, tying that network into vaporwave and made clear in the second half of *News at 11*). But in its slowed state, it takes on a different vibe. Despite how cool and calm the music is, listening to it fills me with a great deal of dread *because* of how it reminds me of being a kid kept home from school that day, just trying to find something normal to watch on TV and being met with news coverage or suspended broadcasts. Look at and listen to what [HGTV had up on 9/11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvvaGKiDhh0&t=192s&pp=ygUJaGd0diA5LzEx) and tell me it isn’t incredibly unnerving – tell me that it doesn’t carry the same feeling as the songs on *News at 11*.
It’s what makes it great art in my opinion – one of the few pieces of vaporwave to truly escape confinement and be worthy of being judged with the rest of them. Any amount of more technical composing would maybe be more novel to listen to, but it would not be nearly as successful as art.
If you’re interested in these ideas, I would look into William Basinski’s *Disintegration Loops,* which was finished before the attacks (literally in September 2001) but released after with a cover taken by Basinski of the smoke plume over Manhattan. His method of looping analog samples into total destruction was also hugely influential on vaporwave in general.
For more “original” or involved composing in response to 9/11, you could check out Boards of Canada’s *Geogaddi*. Also influential on vaporwave, their treatment of samples to evoke nostalgia was made much more sinister because of the attacks, which happened during the album’s production. For more “standard” albums, you could go with My Chemical Romance’s *I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love,* which casts a nihilistic view of life in response or Tori Amos’s *Scarlet’s Walk*, which is a concept album about traveling across the US after 9/11 in search of meaning.
I found this direct comment from Cat Corp from a reddit thread about the album a few years ago:
“The primary theme of the album is ‘things didnt happen’, but the secondary theme is how capitalistic this event was shown on TV (excuse my use of English, it is not my first language so things might sound a bit difficult). For example right after the Richard Hack interview the channel just showed some über-consumer (hey nice title) ads that just make me cringe very hard; both because it’s so awful to show these ads and also because the style of the ads breathe extreme consumerism and capitalism. I think it’s in the South Park movie they use this too, in a scene you can see “This police chase and abduction is sponsored by BlaBla Cereal!” In line of this lays the theme of the difference between the current and the past world; the financial news is about Boeing, Nokia and Motorola – who?? We hardly know them anymore!”
At the end of track 8 Tuesday Television you hear a sudden very morbid shift in tone from the melancholy to the destruction. Hits like a sledgehammer
First, just want to say, I appreciate your sincere, honest question about this album.
The cat Corp news at 11 album is what took me from casual listener to head over heels Vaporwave fan.
As a lifelong nyc / nyc area resident, I will share my opinion on why this album is important & hits so hard for me.
I was a young adult on 9/11, hs graduate, college dropout because I was making good $ at a job, but they shut down & I’d been laid off 2 weeks prior.
Woke up around 845a that morning. Made some cereal, sat down to get ready to watch Regis & Kelly. But what’s this, a plane crashed into one of the WTC buildings. Crazy! This was before texting was really prevalent & was still limited & somewhat costly, so I went to my room, signed onto AIM ( AOL instant messenger) and messaged with some friends for a few about wtf how crazy this was.
Went back downstairs to eat more cereal & expected Regis & Kelly to come on, but flipped channels while waiting, & saw a second plane hit. Okay. That’s not normal. Something seriously bad is happening. Called my mom told her come home from work. Called my grandma told her to leave the TV off and I’d be over soon.
I’ll never forget every moment of that day. How scary shit was getting to my Grandma’s. My aunt that lived with her and car pooled to NJ for work was stuck and couldn’t come home. Watching the news hugging my grandma. Hearing Fighter jets screaming over her house that night.
The significance of the News at 11 album is how it illustrates the blissful ignorance we lived in prior to 9/11 attacks. The peaceful safety we took for granted in this country. Yes, alot of it is just chill instrumental music, but that was a part of the background music of our lives prior to 9/11. The weather Channel on while a relative was waiting to see the forecast ” on the ones “. The ” prevue ” channel on while someone was waiting to see what was on cable TV that night. The am radio in your relative’s car since they didn’t have fm radio and it was either that, 1010 wins, sports talk or a random gardening show so they put on that chill instrumental jazz type stuff.
I think we took the safety of our lives for granted prior to 9/11. Again, this is from the viewpoint of a lifelong nyc / nyc area resident.
Shit really hit home for me the first time I got on a train a cpl days post 9/11 and there were multiple soldiers holding machine guns throughout the station.
I had to write an essay about the first wtc attack in school & graduated just post columbine, when they installed metal detectors etc in schools. But I think I still took life for granted before 9/11. I was young but I think I had the view of it won’t happen Here / it won’t happen to me until the towers fell. I remember watching the smoke / dust / ashes whatever still rising from the fallen towers the next morning with my mom & hugging her.
Listening to the News at 11 album brings back the feeling of safety / blissful ignorance I think I had prior to 9/11. It’s reassuring. Comfortable. Makes me feel safe. The little sound bites that are sampled from TV that morning bring back many nice memories for me. I’ve played this album so many times, I know every note / sound by heart, as well as I know Kid A & all my other favorite all time albums. I’m blessed I was able to buy a reprint of the vinyl pressing and it’s displayed as one of my best collection items.
Yes, this album is alot of samples and such, but perhaps it is significant to alot of other people also, in the same way it is for me. It brings back memories of what life was prior to 9/11 , even how TV was prior to that day. We never had tickers at the bottom of the TV screen prior to 9/11 unless something really wild was happening. None of the weather channels play that chill instrumental jazz type music during the local forecasts anymore and i cant remember when they last did… I never feared for my life inside my own home before 9/11. I never worried about something bad happening to me when I was downtown before 9/11. The News at 11 album makes me feel safe when I play it. It’s like hugging a pillow close under the covers, the nice safe feelings and memories this album brings to me.
I hope you also can give this album a second chance and perhaps listen to it in a different light.
the music is reflective of the attitudes/sentiments of music creators and listeners alike during the 1990’s. “Carefree, whimsical, nonchalant” versus the paranoid dystopia the USA has devolved into today