Music in message, new media

I'm looking forward to our discussion on music tomorrow. Every time I've ever had a discussion in class about music, it turned out to be really interesting. Music and audio seem to be really amazing ways to spread cultural messages, as our various short samples for this week show. No matter what the message is, if it's accompanied by music, it'll most likely be more successful. I thought juxtaposing Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes with Radio Disney was really interesting, since in a number of ways they are opposites. One is a grassroots critique of the effects of the industry buyout of a musical genre, the other is a musical story written by the industry itself. One is a genre that originated in African American culture and is sharply aware of race and class, the other portrays itself as generally white and largely ignores race and class issues. Yet they both appropriate music to attract a larger audience.

I also wanted to point to the interesting ways that new media have affected the distribution methods of musical content. The point made in Hip Hop about the fact that record labels today don't want to sell positive, inspirational, revolutionary rap music got me thinking about more underground labels. While they can't get their music onto MTV or Clear Channel for the most part, many of them do have a very large audience through the Internet. And they often distribute free content, perhaps partially as an eff you to the money-mongering music industry. So although they may not get a spot on TV, more people get a chance to hear their stories now than ever before. (We'll see if this changes as big companies figure out ways to buy up the Internet too.)