[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
[microsound] dot dash
dear friends,
the situationist aspect here is important in regards
to manipulation. but what i hear most in this
debate are voices of discrimination. when we
speak of the intersections in community, be it virtual
or real, we are hearing the same debate of the civil
rights movement. the rhetoric is identical. there
is discrimination,(interestingly), and here, it is
not on a racial / class basis, but a progressive basis
? perhaps. i know i am personally discriminating
against the myspacers. its not a violent or offensice
stance i hope. but we are exercising discrimination,
and that may be a symptom rather that a protest.
and what many of us have asked is what are the
solutions. so lets have some rhetoric on solutions
maybe - solutions to marketing one's music, solutions
to promotion - commercially and self promotion. etc.
how one goes about getting their art appreciated in a
sound way.
to those on this list who have achieved this, let's
hear from them. to those struggling to get their
music out, playing shows, distributing their own
music, lets hear from them. the point being , posting
tunes on myspace is relative. what else are you
doing ?
here is something, because someone asked, what are the
alternatives to getting your music out there, if you
are facing low resources, and the rest of the people
disregard you, if you are on myspace.
here's what i would do/ can do /am doing .
i dont tour, so i try to get my stuff reviewed on
websites, zines, college radio stations, etc. send a
note to a programmer at anyone of these and let the
criticism take its course, positive, or negative.
work off that.
networking sounds like a dirty word to me, but it's
probably what you're doing. the guy who runs my
local record store, is very supportive of what i'm
doing. he's very encouraging, so that's something. i
guess it's like finding patrons, which some have said
is hard to do, but this guy dan is very cool and he's
offering me some very relevant resources.
also, i bet most of us are into film and other media,
so working with other artists, filmmakers, designers,
etc, is a good way to go. collaborating outside of
your usual scene/ audience is a good thing to do.
so anyway, all of this can be done besides, or without
myspace. i would certainly like to know what others
are doing. but i think this is what's right for me.
keeping control and care in my hands and, not getting
into manipulative channels.
this is sort of long, sorry, but i think this
discussion now has to offer real solutions to the
debate.
and shit, syd barret died.
R.I.P.
head-butting,
bry
--- Kim Cascone <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>>> if free markets are so great, why does america
> lead the world in
> >>>> per
> >>>> capita prison population? in obesity? in
> weapons sales?
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> How the HELL do any of those have ANYTHING do to
> with MYSPACE?
> >>>
> >>
> >> oh my goodness...go read Adorno and Gramsci!!!
> >
> > Oh my goodness, I've read a metric shitload on the
> subject.
> to be brutally honest here: it doesn't sound like
> you have any
> background whatsoever in Marxist theory or
> anti-capitalist philosophy...
>
> especially, since you ask me to draw the (obvious)
> connections
> between how capitalist superpowers foster compulsive
> consumer
> behaviors via advertising...
>
> and do I really need to spell out how the myth of
> free-markets has
> been hoisted on you/sold to you in order to keep you
> buying into the
> american dream i.e., upward mobility of the lower
> classes in
> capitalist society?...it's an illusion; a cruel hoax
> that keeps
> americans thinking they're entitled to 'moving up'
> and while doing so
> selling their labor with little protection from
> exploitation while at
> the same time consuming the worlds resources at a
> much greater rate
> than most other countries combined...
> and all this happens without us ever questioning
> what the impact of
> that upward class movement might have on the rest of
> the world...case
> in point: WAL-MART...i.e., affordable goods (mostly)
> made in China
> for the lower classes in the USA...you can look and
> feel just like
> the upper classes by having the same crap they do --
> at a fraction of
> the cost!
>
> and please don't ask what that has to do with
> marketing/data mining
> operations like MySpace and AOL and other places
> where the owners
> care little to nothing about innovation or building
>
> communities...they just want your free labor and
> constantly invent
> ways to get it from you while they make you
> smile...your 15 minutes
> of fame on MySpace = someone else's lack/misery
> somewhere in the
> world no matter how many degrees of separation there
> might be...
>
> and someone made a very good point about CD distro
> and credit cards
> etc...yes, this can also be said of playing any part
> in a capitalist
> society - but at least some of us try to explore
> options that might
> be available to us as consumers...and I know that
> anything I buy
> *always* embodies someone's surplus
> labor...especially, if it was
> made in a poorer part of the world...but I digress
> and that could be
> an entire post in itself...
>
> you want to put up a site on MySpace and be a part
> of a 'community'?
> fine, that's your right...but don't try to tell me
> that it is totally
> separate from market manipulation and insidious
> consumer programming
> by the corporations and that MySpace somehow
> reflects a free-market
> based on some utopian meritocracy - because at best
> that is naive -
> at worst its dangerous...
>
> MySpace and others of that ilk are all about
> uncovering/spotting
> hidden trends so they can profit from them and use
> the data to
> further hone the marketing machine of popular
> culture...in other
> words: all the data MySpace collects is used to feed
> the trend
> analysis algorithms so corporations can better
> target you as a
> consumer...
> especially the youth market...why? so they can sell
> you more crap you
> don't need...and when you're still living on mommy
> and daddy's dime
> that is a disposable income they want a chunk of...
>
> we're running towards an Orwellian future without
> one whit of
> questioning and IMO americans are the worst of the
> lot...and why we
> have had Gov Bush pretending to be our president for
> two terms while
> the puppet-masters hide in the background committing
> acts of violent
> cowardice and gleeful treason which would have
> resulted in nice long
> prison terms in most other countries: because people
> are being
> trained not to question things or connect the dots
> for themselves...
>
> we should be leading the way in provoking people to
> question, doubt,
> think for themselves, not follow blindly, etc. but
> what do we do? we
> fill the world with our trash and pollute it with
> our inane pop
> culture...dunno about you but I want no part of that
> future...and as
> Derrida (who no doubt is a part of your 'metric
> shitload') said:
> 'there is no future without Marx'...
>
> unfortunately, we don't learn about Marx in grade
> school; we have no
> streets named after him nor do we have any statues
> of him in public
> places...so, you won't hear the names of
> Marx/Engels/Adorno/Gramsci
> et al uttered - without a hushed invocation of the
> 'red menace', the
> cold war or the 'failure' of communism in Russia -
> until you hit
> Uni...unless you are lucky enough to have had a
> latte-sipping,
> birkenstock-wearing, Sartre-reading teacher
> enlighten you in high
> school...
>
> but look, I've already pointed it out to you - even
> provided a quote
> from an interesting article on MySpace in WIRED:
> markets are coerced
> and directed by corporate robber-barons such as
> Rupert Murdoch...what
> more do I really need to say here?
>
> here are two books you might want pull out of your
> 'metric shitload'
> and re-read:
>
> guy debord - society of the spectacle
> http://www.nothingness.org/SI/debord.html
>
> raoul vaneigem - revolution of everyday life
> http://www.nothingness.org/SI/vaneigem.html
>
> more info here:
> Situationism:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Situationist
> http://www.nothingness.org/SI/
>
> those might do a better job of refuting your points
> than I can...
>
>
>
>
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org