Underrated / overrated

UNDERRATED

The fall of Netflix: Seems like only yesterday that everyone danced on Blockbuster’s grave while hugging red DVD envelopes to their chests, and now this once-beloved rental service is in a tailspin. A little schadenfreude comes naturally in watching a giant fall after colossally misjudging its audience, though it’s a little sad to consider what might’ve been. If there’s any bright side it’s that another, smarter company now has an opening to do this right.

The coming dominance of the Black Keys: Improbably appearing on “Saturday Night Live” twice this year, the Black Keys have gone from scrappy Ohio garage rockers to most likely the biggest American rock band in the world in 2012. After something like 30-odd years of listeners’ declaring that rock had run out of steam, there’s something wonderfully weird about a drums-and-guitar duo riding swaggering blues-rock to the top, and it sounds even better.

OVERRATED

The 2012 end-times forecast: Once the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, get ready for a year of hearing about the Mayan calendar and how the world will finally end on a magical date next December. If you find yourself falling prey to this new twist on apocalypse chatter, immerse yourself in Roland Emmerich’s Earth-splitting 2009 epic “2012” for much-needed perspective. Midway through that disaster, the actual end times will feel like merciful relief.

The streaming revolution: Once Spotify arrived this year, it was supposed to signal the death of music ownership in favor of a boundless “cloud” at your fingertips. And though there are pleasures in browsing its library along with its competitors Mog and Rdio, lately some big artists have opted to make their latest albums unavailable to stream, and the micro-payments musicians receive for each listen seem unsustainable for lesser-known acts. Stay tuned.