I really, REALLY don't think that the political analogy-thing works.
It's about the record industry. The MYTH is that people LOVE the overproduced crap that they're being sold by the record execs.
It's a self-perpetuating cycle: People get tricked into buying into a certain aesthetic, therefore THAT becomes what sells ("Hey, that guy won star search... well he MUST be good!") Then you can't much blame the exec for making that kind of crap, can you? It's a good idea- makes money!
Music IS the "abstract commodity"... when it's treated like a commodity. Execs are always on the lookout for "the next big thing", but are quick to drop an artist when they don't chart (buys them in bulk but sells them short (also by limiting them creatively)) This happened about once a week at Elektra Records in the Nineties... Spoon, Nada Surf, Clipse all signed, showing that "indie promise" but failed to chart and were subsequently dropped by Ronn Lafitte, who spoon wrote an EP for on Saddle Creek (their rebound label).
All that to say, yeah... the pop charts today look like a lukewarm liquid diet being forcefed to the American public.
I really, REALLY don't think that the political analogy-thing works. It's about the record industry. The MYTH is that people LOVE the overproduced crap that they're being sold by the record execs.
It's a self-perpetuating cycle: People get tricked into buying into a certain aesthetic, therefore THAT becomes what sells ("Hey, that guy won star search... well he MUST be good!") Then you can't much blame the exec for making that kind of crap, can you? It's a good idea- makes money!
Music IS the "abstract commodity"... when it's treated like a commodity. Execs are always on the lookout for "the next big thing", but are quick to drop an artist when they don't chart (buys them in bulk but sells them short (also by limiting them creatively)) This happened about once a week at Elektra Records in the Nineties... Spoon, Nada Surf, Clipse all signed, showing that "indie promise" but failed to chart and were subsequently dropped by Ronn Lafitte, who spoon wrote an EP for on Saddle Creek (their rebound label).
All that to say, yeah... the pop charts today look like a lukewarm liquid diet being forcefed to the American public.