[NewMusic] Dying Industry...(sic)

[J. Segel]

On Jun 4, 2007, at 1:02 PM, matthew at matthewgoodheart.com wrote:

>Nice post Jonathan.

thanks, doesn't happen often.


>>(we won! yay. all our socialist values end up marginalizing us in the modern
capitalism!)*
>>*and other revolutions we won: microbrews, good coffee, good bagels;
>>essentially college culture gone universal, along with the dorm room
>>bands. the result? killian's red, starbucks, noah's. etc.

>Well, I wouldn't call it socialist, because none of your examples have to
>do with collectivisation; rather these are more closely related to
>individualism and libertarianism as expressed through a certain kind of
>populism. 

well, right, i meant the DIY of punk/college radio music taking over the
industry as being potentially socialist, although the whole idea of
"popularity" or "fame" sort of defeats the purpose i guess. the rest of the
"won revolutions" are the result of trying desperately to upgrade the quality
of life of the individual (the prophets travel telling the masses,"you don't
have to drink bad coffee! your whole idea of what beer is is wrong! Music
doesn't have to be overglamourized commercial dreck!" etc. of course,  somebody
hears that and says to themselves, "i know exactly what i can sell to the
people now.." to a certain extent this also happened in the film industry with
sundance/IFC etc., but to me that appears to have resulted in klutzy dramedy.
yay!

> I've been thinking lately about this; how what Jonathan is talking about
>is the ultimate example of what the Situationists called "Recouperation"-
>where the commodity-Spectacle society consumes any threat and sells it
>back to us, 

oh exactly. thank you, situationism. they really saw the progress of society.
i'm a big fan of french 60s and 70s philosophical writing, when i can actually
understand what's written (e.g., deleuze escapes me, i'm not that smart). the
siutuaionist lit from then (not the 30s spanish stuff, which i haven't ever
been properly exposed to?) is a great tool to understanding the course of
culture and entertainment in the latter half of the 20th century. 
one issue that the industry will have soon is the actualization of selling the
style back us if we can appropriate it for free before they appropriate it to
commodify it. (whew)


>However, it's pretty easy
>to see now that this kind of "rejectionist" stance now has tremendous
>market appeal: the image of radicalism sells; hence the folks at
>adbusters getting hired by the very companies they are criticizing. The
>notion of radical individualism is built into the very commodities
>marketed to "empower" us: the I-pod, MY-space, etc. all which ostensibly
>function to express individuality, yet also heavily contribute to
>alienation and isolation.  Realizations of these contradictions, then,
>are considered "ironic"- where irony becomes the a method of apology or
>rationalization, once again folding  potentially destructive forces back
>into the discourse of the Spectacle.

adbusters and modern young bands both use irony as a shield to prevent backlash
against what they might have to say. if they make a stand for something, it
means they have to back it up, a common problem for people who are either
afraid of criticism or have nothing real to say. a further problem present
itself in parody, which only serves to bolster what it tries to deflate (e.g.
"got [whatever]?" always will bring to mind the original ad's words about
milk.) 
the ironic mustache/beard/porn actor/ess look has ceased being ironic in
20-somethings after it escaped williamsburg. in baudrillard's language, it is
now simulacra, what started as a symbol of something has become something
itself that no longer refers to the original it mimicked. musically,
unfortunately, i (among others) can still hear the reference when the bands
play - most fo the time i can even state which band or even which song was
being listened to by the little band when they tried to be cool. if i'm home i
try to turn on the tv to see what band is on cbs from 12:30-12:35, it's
interesting, if disgusting. a couple weeks ago some 20 years olds were even
wearing stiff record t-shirts that were original- older than they were..! 


as far as new commodification goes, i wrote a couple weeks ago about the
inherent problems with the new patronage ideas (the ideal being patronage by
multitudes, the realist says that the advertiser-king pays and the multitudes
listen to whatever is paid for by someone else.) so i'm of two minds on this..
one is that, for example, i was paid for music for a dance performance so maybe
that music can be free for the rest of the world now? 
http://www.magneticmotorworks.com/free/tunageDesire/desireLine.html
so if a piece of music is bought and paid for, and used in its new context,
subsequently can it be free?
or should we hold on to it to get each person's $0.99?

bleh. i heard a comedian say, "i'm not a loser, i tried! ...so i'm a failure."
i think success is maybe just to spend your life doing what you do. and maybe
somebody else notices. my reasoning behind making music is to add to that
ever-expanding spiral of human culture. i certainly hope that i am doing that
and can continue without the previously-necessary "product" manufacturing. 

MAGNETIC --- Jonathan Segel 
magsatellite-yahoo(.)com <---> jsegel-magneticmotorworks(.)com
http://www.MagneticMotorworks.com


       
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