Re: [microsound] the culture industry

[greg g <time4cookies@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

i guess my previous 4 pager on sunn/boris/filesharing didn't get through.  
bummer.  so here's the rewrite from memory, always diluted and out of 
itself...

i agree with the statement that if people pay for things they value, and 
music has become self-parodistic and devalued, and perhaps always was "junk" 
to people, but they never had the technological option to obtain it for free 
aside from stuffing LPs in their shirt.  now such a reality exists, and i 
don't think it's necessarily detrimental to the record industry, if only 
they knew how to react to it and harness the distributive and promotional 
power it possesses.  basically, if they offered a decent product with some 
credibility and value, people would be fine with paying for it.  there are 
plenty of labels i respect and pay for--i've spent hundreds with captain 
trip, for example.  they are convincing to me.  all this crass 
myspace-cultured stuff that's in stores and on the internet today is 
inherently degrading to appreciation of the music, has no standards, and 
will ultimately result in achieving only turning what may be worthwhile art 
into widely available junk.  it's become very easy to obtain and listen to, 
and everyone can and does make it, it's cheap.  and that's not inherently a 
bad thing, necessarily, it's just the reality, and astute artists understand 
it and act accordingly.

however--i feel that many of those people who pay for music don't *actually* 
value it, but rather *want* to value it, so they go to fair levels of 
absurdity to convince themselves of the power of their actions, but 
eventually are inevitably left unsatisfied with that novelty, and fail to 
see the content for what it is.  case in point: the southern lord record 
label's ridiculously limited vinyl releases, which is basically price 
gouging and offering a product with diminished quality (colored/clear vinyl, 
digital mastering, and probably digitally recorded as well).  there are 
always the extremist reactionaries in society, as we all know, and the 
reactions to music filesharing are just as deluded as the file sharers 
themselves are often perceived as.  the truth is, filesharing is a tool that 
exists and will for the forseeable future, and i think labels like southern 
lord would never have reached international prominence and acclaim (article 
in new york times, etc) or their current high level of sales without it.  
i'm pretty sure they understand this, and take advantage of it, and 
secondly, they (geniusly, if not illegitimately as far as art is concerned) 
take advantage of the reactionaries on the other side of the file sharing 
coin, by restricting the editions of LPs and convincing people they are "art 
objects" for the purpose of gouging the price and gaining large profits 
there.  the true consumer of art only accepts what is legitimate as a medium 
of art (one that puts the content at the fore and presents it in the best 
light possible, rather than cheapening it through wanton business), and 
should also be entitled to using technological tools for the purpose of 
obtaining information and developing a stronger worldview--something i feel 
is the prerogative of the modern consumer.  however, i think care should be 
taken to avoid the opposite extreme, and feeling that only pure paid 
consumption is the answer to appreciating music and supporting it--in a way, 
you're advocating and perpetuating business practices that are detrimental 
to the content, and ensuring that future releases will be even more 
superficial from that label, in addition to tricking yourself into thinking 
the music is something different than what it is.

the problem i have with southern lord is that the business aspect for me 
ruins the credibility of what purports to be outsider extreme music, which 
it clearly is sonically, but business-wise it's turned into a total 
sensation every dumb midwestern kid is going crazy over on ebay, which comes 
into conflict with the purported belief as i understand it that what should 
be the focus is the music, not the object or the price or scarcity.  
unfortunately, stephen o'malley is a worldly man, and i feel the music on 
his label suffers because of it.  admittedly, southern lord has a great 
roster--the grief reissues were excellent, but i would never give my money 
to southern lord.  this is politics, no?

see, the thing is, southern lord is (i think) attempting to achieve artistic 
standards, and that becomes problematic for me when that clashes with their 
otherwise mainstream/exploitative business policies.  on the other hand, it 
makes sense for a group like metallica to possess mainstream business 
policies on filesharing, since their music isn't anything but mainstream, 
and they aren't purporting to offer anything aside from pure mainstream 
product by being on a major label, so at least their logic is consistent--i 
can't say as much about southern lord.  as for labels like autofact, they're 
basically stealing from the artist, so the only thing keeping southern lord 
legal is that they actually pay the artists, which is another genius move, 
because it allows them to live for another round of limited vinyls to rake 
in the cash at the expense of some wealthy and confused teenagers seeking to 
obtain something they perceive as real in the face of fakeness.  not so 
simple, unfortunately.

bottom line is that consumers have the power, and if people in the country 
said "no" to bad business practices in any market, those practices would no 
longer be viable and the businesses would be forced to change.  
unfortunately, people buy into things without thinking about them a whole 
lot in america, and the result is the sort of value system that's in place 
today.  once again, though, i don't think it's really changed in fundamental 
character in a long time, it's just more apparent how retarded it actually 
is now that things are as blatant as they are, and the things technology has 
made possible.

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