Blackspot Music : The Trouble With Music
24 March 2005
"For music, the Sixties didn't end in 1970. In some ways, they didn't end at all. From the small band formation to the predominance of electric guitar, from the iconoclastic stance of many artists to the ongoing development of rock and roll, what originated in that period continues today. But with the end of the Cold War, "triumphant" capitalism has intensified its pursuit of the commodification of everything. Your life, your experience must be made into an object for which you can be forced to pay. This is impossible. But it is nonetheless capital's inexorable logic. And many obstacles must be overcome. Among them is the role that music began to play for millions of people in recent times. Now, music has long been a commodity and a lot of money is made by selling it. That is not what makes it an obstacle. Capital does what it must without regard to the consequences. Its representatives have learned a great many lessons from their brush with extinction in the Sixties. So a course of action was set in motion to, as a minimum objective, defang music, render it harmless. Several tactics were employed: 1. replace quality with celebrityhttp://www.adbusters.org/metas/corpo/blackspotmusic/
2. place music into every conceivable public and private space, making its prevalent use sonic adornment.
3. produce enormous quantities and flood the world.
4. consolidate control of all distribution and promotion
5. simplify and repeat"
