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

[Michael Butler]

Interesting thanks for sharing, sending on to Civic List.
Michael

> A nicely written article from Drew Daniels who was in The New Christy
> Minstrels with me years back. Peace and blessings ~ Jonathon
> 
> ----------------------------
> 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.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> 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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