[microsound] Re: two very important questions

[Slava Katz <slavkman@xxxxxxxxx>]

"...the desire to be different is little more than commonplace,
that the indie elite are more numerous than they would perhaps care to
think"

 in a modern world, in which food and shelter are commonplace to many,
individuals seek solace in individuality and uniqueness to obtain proof of
identity and self worth.

this regimental exercise, or, the need to stand out (closely related to
leadership), is constantly reevaluated and balanced with the innate need to
belong (or follow).

imo, music enables the individual/group, listener/broadcaster, to satisfy
these two conflicting needs almost simultaneously. ha.


> Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2005 20:34:01 -0700 (PDT)
> To: microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> From: Renick Bell <the3rd2nd@xxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: re: two very important questions
> Message-ID: <20050415033402.2471.qmail@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> A short time googling nets these:
>
> "What is called music today is all too often only a disguise for the
monologue
> of power. However, and this is the supreme irony of it all, never before
have
> musicians tried so hard to communicate with their audience, and never
before
> has that communication been so deceiving. Music now seems hardly more than
a
> somewhat clumsy excuse for the self-glorification of musicians and the
growth
> of a new industrial sector."
>
>     * Jacques Attali Quoted in Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music,
ISBN
> 0028645812.
>
> http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Power
>
> ---
>
> " In Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig warns of
> "architectures of control" that have an increasing capacity to regulate
> behavior (30):
>
>     When you first purchase a book from Amazon.com and establish an
>     account ... Amazon.com's server places an entry in your cookie
>     file. When you return to that site, your browser sends the cookie
>     along with the request for the site; the server can then set your
>     preferences according to your account. Amazon.com can recommend
>     books for you to buy, given the pattern of purchases you have made
>     before. (34)
>
> The very fact that, by recognizing my "type," Amazon can predict what I am
> likely to purchase, suggests that what I perceive as individual choice or
> personal taste is actually part of a more objective social structure. But
> corporations are responsible for creating as well as exploiting such
> structures. One cannot help but recognize with Amazon something of the
> pervasive, mysterious power described by Foucault not as a repressive
force but
> as one that "produces reality; it produces domains of objects and rituals
of
> truth. The individual and the knowledge that may be gained of him belong
to
> this production" (194). For all its proclaimed edginess, indie rock would
> appear to satisfy more than it challenges preexisting social and economic
> structures. As poignantly demonstrated by recent ad campaigns, the desire
for
> otherness, for distinction from the masses (a sentiment coherent with the
> tradition of"culture and society" mapped out by Raymond Williams more than
40
> years ago, and dating perhaps as far back as the Industrial Revolution),
is
> highly marketable. Volkswagen's use of songs by Jay Farrar and Nick Drake;
its
> small group of friends who conscientiously turn away from the party,
preferring
> instead the select company and superior space of their car; the
unanticipated
> sounds of Mogwai on both a Levi's commercial and Sex and the City
episode--all
> these suggest that the desire to be different is little more than
commonplace,
> that the indie elite are more numerous than they would perhaps care to
think."
>
> http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2822/is_1_28/ai_n9507897/pg_10
>
>
> Renick
>
> Renick Bell
> http://www.the3rd2nd.com
>
>
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