Are We Really Okay With The Whole Music Industry?

Growing up truly is a bizarre thing. When I was a child, I figured the older me would be wiser, dependable and be a genius who finally knows everything. “I would certainly be an adult who knows how to adult and understand why an adult is an adult”, says the younger me. What happens instead is me getting more confused and baffled with the world as the day goes by.

Like how this guy rose into popularity.

Instead of following the systems and be better and better with the need of the current societies, leaders and industries, I grew up to ask lots of question regarding the worldview which spawns the system in the first place. Learning that the cartoons that I used to love were nothing more than a long term advertisement for products targeted towards innocent, curious children was I guess the point when I started to become doubtful of everything. I couldn’t even enjoy classic Disney shows without asking their purpose of bringing forth handsome and pretty monarchs who would always live happily ever after in the end.

Some things from Disney remain unexplained. Like this infamous Dumbo scene.

The same goes for the whole industry and occupation thing. Why are certain jobs getting more income than the others? Why are sometimes the least effort yielding the most outcome? Why do 1% of the population be wealthier than the other 99%? I guess the headache-free approach is to just forget about all these troublesome questions and just get on with following the flow.

However, the whole fiasco caused by one industry in particular recently brought this question back to light. Are we really OKAY with the whole music industry?

What Is It About Singing and Music That Spawned Reception of This Magnitude?

Singing is just the act of making musical sound using the voice, sometimes with some understandable lyrics, sometimes not. Music on the other hand is just combining the vocal and instrumental sounds to produce (somewhat) harmonious tune. (I put the bracket for the term ‘somewhat’ because some today’s ‘music’ bears no resemblance of ‘harmony’ at all – Google is your friend)

WHY

I think most people would agree that singing as an occupation produces no visible and obvious benefit perhaps other than to ‘entertain’ people to a certain degree. Not like the doctor whose job saves people, or engineers who invent stuffs or teacher who inculcate knowledge or farmer who produces food. So, this ‘music industry’ should just be a small and irrelevant money making avenue having little to no influence, right? Right?

Global Music Report 2016

Uh, no. Data from global music report 2016 shows that music is being consumed at record levels across the world. 15 billion dollars to be exact. FIFTEEN BILLION DOLLARS.

Throsby (2002) describes music as a “relentlessly commercial industry generating billions of dollars in revenues for composers, performers, publishers, record companies, and many other players.” It is in fact a massive money making scheme, which 80% of the world market are dominated by 5 largest five largest transnational conglomerates: EMI, BMG, the Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Universal/PolyGram.

Some of the richest figures in the world, which perhaps majority of us are aware of, also came from the very music industry we support and gave money to. They possess fortunes that no hardworking policeman, fireman, farmers, civil workers would dream to make in their lifetime.

Maybe questioning about the validity of the massive earnings of song artists and comparing it with other effort-based professions are unjustified, some might think. After all, why should we be jealous and question their ‘rezeki?’.

However, we know that sort thinking wasn’t always applied by the society. We tend to question how our neighbor became rich – is it just from sheer luck like winning a ‘cabutan bertuah’ or from his effort? Plus, remember when the whole minister’s wage rise caused a fiasco?

Yes. Everyone went mad at the announcement. Rightly so. That’s because we know that material resources are finite. We are in fact concern with how the resources going to be delegated – to whom and according to which system. An unjust attempt at making the rich richer or giving resources to those who has no right would be retaliated with an outcry by the public.

However, no one seems to think that gaining lots of money and influence from the act of singing and entertaining to be unjust. At least we know the portfolio of a minister does feature a direct benefit to society. An artist on the other hand, provide nothing but ‘pleasure’ due to their ability to make musical sound using their voice. Everyone seems to be okay with artists gaining RM 45000 for a 30-minute show although they themselves could only get that amount after one year of labor.

So, really, what is it about music that spawns a money-making behemoth of this magnitude? Was it always like this for thousands of years and was just generally accepted and questioning its merit is just silly and uncalled for?

Music Industry – A Beloved Child of Capitalism

Upon further reading, it is found that the music as an expansive industry is not really an old practice. Rather, it was quite new.

Cvetkovski (2004) explained that from the inter-war period in America (1950s onwards), “capitalism has shifted from a production capitalism based on reason and the organisation of resources, to a consumption capitalism (sometimes called ‘late capitalism’) based on affective pleasure.” The greatest example of this phenomenon being the birth of pop music industry which occupies a special position in a capitalist society.

Interestingly, according to Cvetkovski, “music as a complex form of communication and expression has existed for millennia, yet its value to be recorded and sold as a commodity is relatively new (less than 100 years).”

Perhaps an obvious characteristic which paints the music industry as a direct consequence of capitalism is the fact that it is controlled by multinational majors across the globe.

Frith (1997) further elaborates that in order for the industry to achieve a stable political economy, they decided that a good idea would be to create and cultivate pop stars as figureheads of the industry.

The industry has now evolved such that it now entails “sophisticated management and appropriation of intellectual property (namely copyright) for repeated exploitation for decades after its initial acquisition” (Cvetkovski, 2004).

It’s Not *Just* Entertainment

Perhaps music being exploited by capitalists as a valuable money-making commodity is not in itself that big of a deal. After all, it’s the consumer’s choice what to do with their money. As long as music continue to provide nothing but entertainment for personal pleasure, why should we care?

However, music has long been more than just entertainment. Its influence intruded into multiple field of life including social, economy, politics and even security.

In 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair in New York became a medium for public’s involvement in the Vietnam War (Bennett, 2001).

Early heavy metal songs promoted traditional notions of patriarchy and male power to a male-dominated, white, working class, adolescent.

Punk rock was used in the construction of a moral panic (Cohen 1987).

Dance music styles in British clubs during the late 1980s coincided with the increasing use of a new amphetamine-based stimulant Ecstasy, thus began the shift of music towards drug culture.

Madonna was considered by American teens as an agent of empowerment and liberation for women (Samsudin, 2003).

All of these, plus many more examples in the current era illustrates to us that other than providing pleasure, music is also a powerful tool towards shaping trends and ideologies. The manipulation of such tools in the hands of global corporations calls for a more critical point of view towards the whole industry.

It’s important for us not to be naïve and just accept every new musical trend that comes to us, especially from the West.

Remember when the 'cut for Bieber' movement was a thing? It's baffling how such fandom could even exist.

It’s Only Going to Get Worse and Worse

Remember when the ‘F’ word was actually quite a big deal ie, people would refrain themselves from uttering such word in public in fear of backlash? Nowadays, thanks to the continuous usage of such word in media, comedies, skits and comic strips it has now became something that you might hear every day. And it’s perfectly fine now. Because we have been normalized.

The same could be said with current music industry. Mufti Menk nailed it when he said we are currently living in the most hypersexualized era in the whole human history. 20 years ago, bringing up something as crude as sex would be an extremely awkward thing. Nowadays it’s being broadcasted on a speaker, in the middle of recreational park, with kids dancing along with it. Some of the popular music are beyond dirty and the artists in question…they literally dress to kill.

Daisy (2012) encapsulates this phenomenon while explaining about the moral corruption of Kpop. The exploration of the commercial sex as a new ‘currency power’ has thoroughly changed the otherwise noble and modest cultural fabric of the Koreans.

However, now people are perfectly fine with all that. Those who opposes such moral corruption are instead being blamed for not being progressive and following the trend. Religious views have no place in the matter unless if it’s distorted to allow the hedonistic worldview.

I guess that’s just the reality when pleasure (nafs) are brought to the frontline. When nafs are made to be an ‘Ilah’ – God, or something that you worship. There is no other way for it except to progress to the worse state. We would never feel enough.

First, we spend on an MP3, then an earphone, then an even more expensive earphone, then an audio system, then an even more expensive audio system, then spending hundreds on a concert, then we start to indulge into the world of drugs and intoxicants.

The Quranic verses are always relevant:

Have you seen the one who takes as his god his own desire? Then would you be responsible for him? Or do you think that most of them hear or reason? They are not except like livestock. Rather, they are [even] more astray in [their] way. [Furqan, 43 & 44]

Invitation to Challenge the Current Narrative

The age that we are living now, music as an extensive money-making industry which also shapes the social norm has already clawed its roots deep in the ground. Just like homosexuality or secularism, one does not easily criticize them without getting backlashes from all direction. It’s now a norm, it’s a part of life.

However, I would like to extend an invitation towards changing our mindset when a celebrity gets criticized, when attempts to prevent some aspects of the music industry to become a norm are made. I invite us to think outside of our need to have our desires be fulfilled and listen to those who are worried about the futures of their children, who fights for values.

I also hope that the usage of religious justification against what we happened to like to not be dismissed as trivial and brain-dead. Music never describes itself as divine which makes it immune towards all these criticisms.

I know it’s going to be hard. I’ve been there. Keep questioning. Are we really okay with the whole music industry?

References:

1.       New Oxford history of music. (1954). [London]: [Oxford University Press].

2.       State of the Industry Overview 2016. GLOBAL MUSIC REPORT (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

3.       Throsby, D. (2002). THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM: Global and Local Perspectives. The Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity Division of Arts and Cultural Enterprise.

4.       Cvetkovski, Trajce. "The Sociology of Reality TV, the Political Economy of the Music Industry and Convergence of the Twain." The Pop Music Idol and the Spirit of Charisma (2004): n. pag. The University of Queensland. Web.

5.       Frith, S. 2001. ‘Pop Music’ in Frith, S, Straw, W and Street J. 2001. (Eds) The Cambridge Companion to Pop and Rock New York: Cambridge University Press

6.       A Rahim, S. (2003). MEDIA DAN KONSTRUK SOSIAL : IMPLIKASI TERHADAP ISU SOSIAL REMAJA.

7.       Bennett, A. (n.d.). Cultures of popular music.

8.       Kim, D. (2012). Reappropriating desires in neoliberal societies through KPop. [Los Angeles]: University of California, Los Angeles.