[NewMusic] Fwd: NY Times Op-Ed on American music and cells of mutual ignorance

[Matthew Goodheart]

On Nov 22, 2007, at 12:31 AM, Tim Perkis wrote:

> However: he does write about demographic trends from time to time
> somewhat neutrally, without any particular agenda as far as I can see.
> (Maybe I'm being that lazy dupe above, a possibility, I admit.)

I'd have to disagree: his understanding of demographic trends tends  
to be ill-researched and anecdotal, and most often completely wrong.   
The usefulness his misunderstand of demographics becomes apparent  
around such as the minimum wage: he criticized the recent increase ,  
saying most minimum wage earners are "teenagers", even though minimum  
wage workers are actually the primary wage earners in 40% of  
households.   He may think that he's being neutral, but I think he's  
drunk the kool-aid so many times that he has no neutrality, and won't  
reverse his positions even when faced with facts which disprove his  
assertions.



> This column looked to me like a fairly harmless example of one of  
> those.
> The point is of interest: there used to be a more homogenous media
> culture in the US; it's now fragmented. The explanation seems to me a
> pretty simple technological one: more channels. It didn't seem to me
> that he was blaming anybody in particular for this state of  
> affairs, he
> was just noting it, and not saying anything particularly interesting
> about it... with, yeah, a touch of misplaced nostalgia.

Well, I'm a little more conspiracy minded. Yes, he taps into  
something with a grain of truth- which gives him an air of validity.  
But, his world-view is so skewed that, whether unconsciously or not,  
digging deeper into the implications of what he's written reveals  
it's place in a larger mode of thinking which is actually destructive  
in it's intent. So, though it may seem harmless, is just one more  
pebble in the rock wall. . .

Here's the original Tomorrow cartoon:

http://dir.salon.com/story/comics/tomo/2005/01/31/tomo/


mg

Matthew Goodheart
composer ~ improviser ~ pianist
matthew at matthewgoodheart.com
http://matthewgoodheart.com