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Re: [microsound] death of monoculture




On 17 Αυγ 2008, at 8:04 ΜΜ, David Powers wrote:

1.

How could there be a culture that promotes individuality? Isn't
culture precisely the realm of shared experience that defines groups
of people as objectively distinct societies?


Not necessarily, at least from my point of view. There is individuality when a "culture" is not rigid and stiff. And this is evident in history, I think.



Not only that, but language and artistic practice depend on a shared
context for their comprehensibility (though in its broadest sense, for
non-semantic artistic forms that shared context might only be the fact
of being biologically human itself).

Yes, you are right, so we should learn other languages, study various artistic practices and even stop thinking like humans all the time... That' s exactly my point, not to restrict or limit a culture but to broaden it, making space in it for others, always, though with respect to one' s individuality.




2.

Now to get back to "monoculture", capitalism seems to have an inherent
tendency to cause traditional cultures to disintegrate. From a certain
point of view, one could view this as revolutionary, in as much as it
often causes authoritarian aspects of traditional cultures to lose
their normative power, leading to a perceived increase in individual
freedom. However, along with the disintegration of traditional culture
comes the rise of the so called "culture industry", which fabricates
cultural artifacts on an industrial level as a replacement for
traditional culture. Typically, the range of cultural artifacts
offered by the culture industry has tended to fall within a very
narrow range.


I don' t a revolution in McDonalds or CocaCola, I don' t even see a culture, I see products and I see cultures transformed into products and I just see cultural discounts. You can' t deal with everything with the same manner, it' s not just the "pop" idea. You can make a pop culture out of dub, or reggae, because it' s easy listening music, it' supposed to make you dance and feel good, so it has this "pop" character you need. You can' t though make a pop culture out of religious chants, or avan- garde drone music without affecting their character, they are not supposed to be pop, they are not even supposed to make you feel good! So how can you make a pop culture out of these, so that you can sell coca colas to those as well? It' s easy, you just fit everything into 4/4 bars, put a clave, western harmony and you' re done. This is not revolution, it is disrespect.

"Monoculture", in these terms, might be more properly called "monopoly
culture", i.e. the domination of the culture industry by a small
number of large corporate entities. Key to this monopoly was control
over the means of distribution of cultural artifacts. The death of
monoculture is simply an increase in competition within the culture
industry as a result of changes in the manner of distribution of
cultural artifacts, since in the internet age it is no longer possible
for a small number of companies to maintain control over the channels
of distribution.

::David Powers


Information, internet, free exchange of ideas, p2p and access to art and music may also lead to the death of monoculture as they promote individuality and critical thought. I hope it' s this that is happening, and not your point :-))

cheers.

On Sun, Aug 17, 2008 at 8:39 AM, Marinos Koutsomichalis
<marinos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 Do we really want a "pop",
"global", "mono" or any-kind of culture that doesn' t promote individuality?

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