[Mb-hair] View From The Trenches: Media Consolidation

[Jonathon Johnson]

A nicely written article from Drew Daniels who was in The New Christy Minstrels with me years back. Peace and blessings ~ Jonathon
 
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October 27, 2004
VIEW FROM THE TRENCHES: MEDIA CONSOLIDATION
by Drew Daniels  (drewdaniels.com)

In 40 years of performing, producing and recording music, I have never seen worse times and a harder life for music, writers and performing artists than we are presently suffering.  The homogenization of radio programming, broadcasting and print media have virtually destroyed the American Dream for songwriters, composers and music performers.  What once was a landscape of limited opportunity is now a desert of hopelessness dominated by a few large media conglomerates that dictate American style and celebrity, promoting only very carefully risk averse manufactured pap, designed for maximum profit and minimum controversy.  Talent and merit in American popular culture have become so much more occasional and entirely accidental than ever before.

The days when a Bob Dylan could stir imagination to make people recall innate ethics and to think are gone.  Giant conservative--and in many cases, ultraconservative--corporations that desire millions of pliant consumers by coercing ghastly sociopolitical agendas now guarantee all the mindless, harmless and vapid filler flooding the airwaves, festering on store shelves and festooning billboards, that corporate America uses to hide our nation's troublesome thinkers and bury them in public obscurity.

The old adage "be careful what you wish for -- it might happen" should be the constant warning of alarm sounding in the minds of our government agencies chartered to assure public access and fair use of the precious resource of a free press and other media in the U.S.  Without access and fair use, the hegemony of corporate interests will, over time, foment greater seething dissent that has no outlet--no cultural safety valve, and the homogenization of thought, art and media will cause migration of artistic talent to greener pastures and rob America's economy of yet another of its great native resources and intellectual assets.

As an instructor of adult music and production students, I've seen spiraling desperation, dropping enrollments and a general sense that it's hopeless to try to make an artistic statement or contribution in America, against the juggernaut of corporate greed and avarice swallowing up the future of the arts in the U.S.  Not many struggling song writers can afford to gift radio station managers with Ferrari sports cars or month long trips to Hawaii.  The payola scams of the 60's persist with only simple name change and even more immodest extortion while partisan extremist Michael Powell and his FCC fete political contributors in lieu of doing their chartered duty.  A disgrace and a crime.

Before mass media, each musical artist or composer was their own promoter.  Everyone with merit or talent had what looks today, like a fairly even chance at making a living with their craft.  Today, without mass media to promote a particular artist, the best and brightest are condemned to practice anonymously, or to pander.  Most languish in the frustration of the endless insulting reminders from TV and radio, of lesser talents with larger access.

While the wealthy in America may buy influence, that fact has no bearing on whether such influence is deserved or wisely exercised.  Without a balance of the voices of Americans rich and poor, kitsch and talented, America's arts will wither and its voice will ring empty on the world stage.




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Good HAIR Days: A Personal Journey with the American Tribal Love-Rock Musical HAIR, by Jonathon Johnson. For more information on the book and how to order it, visit www.goodhairdays.net. Visit our other websites at www.uversa.net and www.kidstherapyassociates.com. 
 



		
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