There’s something offensive about TV ads. They run roughshod over our viewing and undermine the work of the many people it takes to make a feature film or television feature.

They do not extend the respectful invitation of print ads, designed to succeed on merit and message, but force themselves on us like party gatecrashers. They were the first terrorists of the advertising world…

Apart from the mayhem a powerful electromagnetic pulse would visit on our technologically dependent civilisation, there’s growing concern that EMPs are an imminent threat to recorded music.

Our magnetic audio recordings would be among the certain casualties, along with many other aspects of our technology. But, strangely, sound may provide us with our best line of defence.

A fearsome sound ripped through the busy street, turning the head of every passer-by. Earthquake? Explosion? Apocalypse? Actually, it was the sound of a small boy in a big red Ferrari 499.

Ten years old and with his foot stretched to reach the throttle, it was an unexpected thrill. An almighty noise and an indelible memory. But by the time he is old enough for his own supercar, it may sound very different.

The EMP accompanying a nuclear strike would mark the end of any magnetically recorded music within its reach – tape, disk or solid-state. If it targeted the traditional centres of music recording, it could wipe the recording industry’s archive of multitrack and master tapes clean. Welcome to the real No Music Day.

Termed ‘radioflash’ in British nuclear tests of the 1950s, an Electromagnetic Pulse is an archivist's nightmare. But it's not the only thing that costs them sleep...

It began with a Facebook post made by a well-known (and well liked) US sound engineer/tech/commentator – the vocal feed from a Britney Spears concert originally posted on YouTube with the strap line, ‘what she REALLY sounds like!’

The vocal was everything you knew it would be. And everything you knew it wouldn’t – no further comment needed. But it did prompt a debate that’s worth exploring.

There is something fitting about the way the glamour and magic of Hollywood is being disturbed by some dark goings-on in commercial cinema.

Like parallel storylines in a well-crafted movie, these contrasting themes are perfectly poised to converge and collide – with surprising results. I won't give the end away, but I can take you through the cast and their causes. I promise you won't be disappointed...