Music Celebrity and the Media - Essay Example

Media Culture: Music Celebrity and the Media Introduction The world economy in general and the national economies in particular, in twenty first century, are more or less dominated by post-industrial knowledge-based exchanges. Primary production or manufacturing is becoming decreasingly important sectors of the postmodern economy. The importance of cultural and creative industries, especially of music industry, is not merely limited to its economic capabilities (which is, of course, relatively strong); but also to the prominent role it has on the making and unmaking of peoples' identities, attitudes, values and lifestyles. The dynamics and complexities of the relationships between culture, creative industries and the political and economic development of societies have gained the attention of theorists and researchers from the mid-twentieth century itself. The post World War II world saw the mainstreaming of studies on cultural and creative industries as it was an absolute necessity to explore and grasp the changing nature of politics and economics in both the developed and developing countries. The end of the cold war marked the beginning of a 'cultural turn' in the globalized world. The worldwide dissemination of the values and attitudes of the West in general and the United States of America in particular has been the focus of attention for not only academicians but also for ordinary people from across the world. There have been intense debates over the impact of globalization and the consequent transformations in the realm of culture from a number of conflicting standpoints. The idea of cultural imperialism has been particularly influential in the understanding of the profound transformations that are taking place in the sphere of culture. Regardless of the difference among these contesting perspectives on the characterization of this cultural turn, there exists a consensus on the incredible role of global music industry as carrier of the unprecedented changes pertinent to culture at both global and local levels. However, culture should no longer be perceived as a locally bounded 'whole way of life' as the components of culture themselves have profoundly changed. It has been suggested that culture should not be viewed as introverted, tied to place and inward looking as it used to be in history. Rather, culture is seen as an outward-looking 'translocal learning process'. The advances in technology and the developments in information technologies, digital media, e-commerce and new communication channels have profoundly changed the character of music industries in twenty first century. Music industries have a major share in the international trade and a deep impact over cultural lives of peoples of different countries. The international flow of music goods and services are higher than ever. Marcuse (2002) argues that music industry is too a new form of social repression which is a result of the creation of 'advanced industrial society wherein false needs are dominant and incorporates individuals into the status quo through the hegemony of its ideological products. Therefore, consuming music products is nothing but an act of being socially controlled, indoctrinated and manipulated. Marcuse reveals the extent of commercialisation of music by arguing that 'the music of the soul is also the music of salesmanship. Exchange value, not truth value counts' (Marcuse, 2002, p.61). As a commodity, music is not only a product for sale but also a carrier of dominant ideology; its purpose is to legitimise the oppressive rule in the existing order. The Dynamics of Music Industry and its Ideological Functions The intangibility is one of the important factor in defining a music product or commodity. Certainly, the content of music commodities is immeasurable and 'cultural' in nature. Here, cultural means that the use value of a music commodity is satisfying some of the mental, psychological needs of a user in one way or another from a culturally determined standpoint. Speaking from the opposite, a music commodity has no 'physical' value apart from its ability to gratify given cultural tastes of a consumer. In broad terms, music industries are characterised by the production, creation, transmission, dissemination, registration, protection, participation and mass consumption of cultural and creative types of intangible and immeasurable contents, which are available in the market as exchangeable commodities or services. Globalisation represents not only the competitive distribution but also the co-operative sharing of music goods. In this new situation, the oppressed of the past are not being oppressed in the same way or by the same oppressors of yesterday. On the contrary, the subordinate classes from the 'rest of the world' constantly find new ways for emancipating themselves from the old imperialist guise. "The emergence of new subjects, new genders, new ethnicities, new regions, new communities, hitherto excluded from the major forms cultural representation, unable to locate themselves except as de-centred or subaltern", as result of the discovered space in the globalized world and its postmodern time-space, "have acquired through struggle, sometimes in very marginalized ways, the means to speak for themselves for the first time" (Hall, 1997: 34). Music industries deal with the mechanisms of production, distribution and use of cultural goods, which have music content. Laws and provisions concerning copyright and intellectual property rights are used to protect and ensure the value based exchangeability of such commodities and services in the marketplace. The term 'music industries' denotes that music too is part of the economic sector. Content creation, production, distribution and consumption are the four principal areas of music industries. On the contrary, Adorno (1991) criticises the modern music culture merely as a product of what he understands as 'culture industry'. Therefore, postmodernists have come up with the argument that Adorno holds an elitist appraisal of pure artistic modernism against a culture of the people. Adorno's (1991) critical theory considers the existence of an alienated and alienating music industry as a product of the capitalist commodity fetishism. Therefore, production becomes isolated from use value and becomes for the sole purpose of exchange. In other words, the universality of exchange value under capitalism objectively subsumes the particularity of use value. It is also an act of replacing the intrinsic values of thing with its extrinsic values. The music generated by culture industry does not provide happiness but gives entertainment as a relief from labour, which is in essence most creative form of human activity. Music is detached from practice and is a product of the inevitable division between physical and mental labour in any given class divided society. The production of leisure good is not only a systemic outcome but also systemic necessity for its own reproduction. The artistic amusement one gets from the products of music industry constitutes a continuity and discontinuity with work. The music industry or music business involves the production, distribution and consumption of recordings, compositions and performance of music and music instruments and other related products. Music industry is dominated by major conglomerates such as Sony Music, EMI, Universal and Warner. There are multinational corporations in the live music industry too. The Big Four companies virtually dominate the music market, especially in the United States. IFPI Report of 2005 reveals that the Big Four has a sheer share of 71.7% of retail music sales. The leading thirty countries have more than 95% share in the revenue from music; most of them are from the developed world (IFPI, 2003). It means that the non-Western music industry is substantially weakened due to the financial and cultural dominance by the Western music industry. Hybridisation of Content The contemporary era of globalization has marked by the emergence of a global market for what is commonly known as music commodities. However, this global market of music products too is characterized by unevenness and lopsidedness. The structural adjustment plan and other neoliberal policies followed by a number of governments in the developing countries are instrumental in initiating this shift in the media sector in general and music industry in particular. It is worthwhile to notice that the expansion of the big media conglomerates "has not been primarily the result of technological change or market competition, but is indicative of the extent of transnational corporate influence over national policy-makers and the hegemonic role that has been played by global media in the international dissemination of ideas" (Flew and McElhinney, 2006: 293). While analyzing the music industry and its impact on culture, it is possible to see that cultural changea take place in a dialectical relationship between the forces at the local and global levels. No culture is simply paving way for its own death since cultures have their own inherent capacity to reproduce themselves. It has been widely observed that there is a significant growth in the regional production of music programmes and contents in competition with the global corporations. In Baker's (1999) analysis, it is problematic to think of globalization as a simple process of homogenization as suggested by cultural imperialism because the forces of hybridization are equally strong. The various hybridized cultural products, such as Hollywood action movies directed by John Woo, are neither global nor local, but draw from many cultures. The phenomenon of franchising the U.S.-originated television program format can also be seen as a manifestation of cultural hybridization. For instance, The Dictionary of happiness was a successful Chinese quiz show that has re-fashioned Celador's global format 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire' by incorporating three key elements-the "life-lines", "phone a friend" and "ask the audience" (Keane, 2004:91); the reality television show Into Shangri-La was based on the format of international version of Survivor. Survivor is about leaving healthy people in the wildness to fend for themselves. The local version brings two teams of eight young Chinese from different provinces to battle against the elements and nature in the Himalayan foothill in co-operation to win the prize rather than merely seeking to outdo each other as compared to Survivor (Keane, 2004:101). Both the two examples of reproduction can be seen as the result of cultural hybridization, where socialist ideology of collectivism (i.e. 'ask the audience' in The Dictionary of happiness and team co-operation in Into Shangri-La) was added into the domestic versions to replace the elements of westernized individualism in the original format. Conclusion In twentieth century, the mass media played a vital role in the export of cultural values from the imperialist metropolises to the developing world. However, as the organizing logic of capitalism has undergone mutations in the twenty first century, the form and content of music industry too have changed. The resistance from the new anti-colonial subjects created by the unprecedented unleashing of the global market forces itself is challenging the hegemony of Western music industry, which is embedded in the new mode of capitalist advancement in the contemporary era. On the other hand, nothing like a global music culture exist in reality. The music culture in itself is multiple and varied even from genre to genre. At present, it is possible to see that forces of hetrogenization are actively countering homogenizing forces; both are the products of a one and same culturally colonializing capitalism, although in a lopsided manner. Nevertheless, the dominant music types originating from the United States and other imperialist metropolises and spreading through the new media has a significant role in shaping the music outlook of the rest of the world directly or indirectly and the same time, being confronted actively by the forces from below. To conclude, the changes brought by the new media, changing equations in the balance of power of the nation states in the era of globalization, the rise of some of the developing countries such as India, China and Russia, and the strengthened, multilayered struggles and resistance at the realm of global media culture from the previously marginalised groups and the advent of counter hegemonic music industries and practices are the realities of today's music world. References Adorno, T. W. (1991). 'The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture'. London: Routledge. Baker, C. (1999) 'Global Television and Global Culture' in Television, Globalization and Cultural Identities. Buckingham, Penn: Open University Press. Flew,T. and McElhinney, S. (2006) Globalization and the Structure of New Media Industries in Lievrouw, L. A. and Livingstone, S. M. (Ed.) Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Social Consequences of ICTs, London: Sage. Hall, S. (1997) 'The local and the global: Globalization and ethnicity' in A. King (ed.), Culture, Globalization and the World-system: Contemporary Conditions for the Representation of Identity. (pp.19-39). London: Macmillan. Keane, M. (2004) 'A revolution in television and a great leap forward for innovation China in the global television format business' pp.88-104 in Moran, A. and Keane, M (eds.) Television across Asia-Television industries, programme formats and globalization. London: Routledge Curzon. Marcuse, H. (2002) 'One-dimensional man: Studies in the ideology of advanced industrial society'. 2nd Ed. London. Routledge. Music Market Statistics. Avialble at: http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_statistics/index.html Read More