In response to the music article:
What bothers me isn't so much that the mass media isn't giving people access to good music, but that they're manufacturing musical groups as products. This trend has been growing since New Kids on the Block, and now the majority of what you would see on MTV, CMT, etc (they're all the same company now, so what difference does it make anyway?) is simply performance aimed at certain audiences. Artists typically don't write their own music, or only a small part of the songs. The music industry is forcing a "dumbing down" of music. Creativity and ingenuity isn't embraced, the visual product is often more important than the audio product, and lyrically most songs are simply not very creative. There is more to life than love (relationships), sex, and violence - but you wouldn't know it if you watched TRL for an hour.
Quote:
The mass-media-mind-control part comes in when we all have to have the same songs in our heads at the same time.
We're very far from seeing why that is unnecessary and problematic in itself.
|
I sort of have to agree with Art here. I also love good music though, and I am a musician. So, I struggle with it. It is typically a big struggle in the indie scenes. When small bands start to make it big a lot of people feel betrayed, that their band has "sold out". Music and art have been incorporated into social movements (such as the "No Mas" movement) and I think there is a lot of potential power in these mediums to address society. The problem is that the main outlets are in tight control by a few corporations. I'm very frustrated with what Michael Powell has let happen, and I really wonder where the near future is going to take us with this.