In what follows, I'd like to share an exchange I had about this story (I had copied from the original source and sent to several friends). My friend, Bill, quoted from the story and then posed a question to which I responded. I would be very interested in any comments that listers may want to make about my apprehensions.
Best to all,
Kelly Pinkham
So, for what it may be worth:
-------------------- [Bill's response to me about the story]
Kelly,
They say,
"True, it's the product of the coldest sort of commercial calculation, but it also embodies a not ignoble vision of a nation transformed, of mind and body, black and white, dancing the same dance, moving to the same beat, as kids en mass join in their own brand of Dionysian revelry, watered down and trite, but genuinely uplifting all the same."
Are you sure there is any redemptive musical value in this stuff?
Bill
-------------------- [Bill's question prodded me to consider the range of reactions that I felt upon reading the story. Following is my response to him:]
Hi Bill,
I'd like to respond to your query because this article has a number of ramifications that interest me.
First a caveat: the story's touted sense of a "vision of a nation transformed" may not run very deep since it is based solely (I think) upon a statistic that measures single-hit music _sales_. This quantification does not account for the vast amount of popular music that has been downloaded and that, if somehow included, would probably reconfigure this top ten listing (I am working "in the dark" here since I don't know the industry's methodology for determining the "top ten" listing). I suspect that the efficacy of all of the various "top tens" has been progressively eroded over time as methods of copying music have progressed from the reel-to-reel tape of old to today's digital computer files. I don't know how all of this copying activity could be accounted for, but if each download could be counted as a proxy "sale" then the whole edifice of musical hierarchies would likely be radically altered. Still, given the facts as they are, the current all-black-artist make-up of the popular music 'top ten' is remarkable for many social and cultural reasons.
Now, for me, the "transformed...uplifting" dynamic described in the article, while encouraging, could also be paradoxically problematic. On the one hand, for the first time, we have a long-standing measure of popular culture which indicates that black and white (and other) kids are now dramatically similar in their musical tastes implying that perhaps a deeper kind of 'coming together' is occurring. The implication here is that white kids have moved toward accepting black kids. I would like to be encouraged by this idea that the younger generation is setting an example by demonstrating that they have achieved a kind of racial harmony. Music has always had great potential for unifying people (even if only for the length of time that a song is performed). On the face of it, this phenomenon could be a precursor of better kinds of mutual understanding to come.
Now, I will state my problem with the article's information. But first, another caveat: since I don't know any of the lyrics to the songs in the popular music 'top ten' to which they refer, I am making some assumptions based on the material in the article about the life experiences of the artists. So, IF most or even some of these top ten "popular" songs are in any way typical of what we know about 'hip hop' music then I am not at all encouraged about the article's implications. The article does say, "But there are things that unite all the artists in the top 10 - their sexy and violent imagery." If the upshot is that white kids are drawn more now to images of violence, sex, profanity, misogyny, etc, then this article points to a reality that is very troubling. And, for the record, there are several white hip hop artists - the article refers to the one-and-only Eminem. On the other hand, it is possible that the songs receiving the most cross-racial interest are not hip hop in nature (assuming there are some of these in the top ten).
I can easily imagine that using violent imagery and profanity in a musical expression of outrage over some important injustice could be informative and even liberating (perhaps one version of the "redemptive musical value" to which you refer?). However, if the article's so-called "Dionysian revelry" of young people is actually centered around base, cruel and indulgent expressions of simple profanity and violence then that "same dance...same beat" action would be profoundly discouraging not "genuinely uplifting." In this scenario, the mainstream kids (of all races) would seem to be congregating along the violent fringe of hip hop. The only possibly beneficial way to read this would be to see these young people's musical choices as a canary-in-the-mine type of social indicator. However, in this example, the social pressures and dysfunctions of our general society must have become so dehumanizing that the normal type of release offered through diverse forms of musical taste has now been forged into one predominately brutal and wrathful form of expression for the majority of our young people. This could go a bit beyond the healthy rebellion of youth.
I know that I sound like the old man and grandfather that I am (the article even points out that these are "acts that are foreign to, you know, many people over 40"). I am not sure what this new fact of popular culture means. It probably means a little bit of all of the above as well as much more that I have failed to grasp -- if my memory serves me correctly, the simple power of teenage/young-adult hormones should, of course, never be underestimated! In any event, it is late and I think I will go to bed. Thanks for letting me expound. William, what do you think?
Best to you,
Kelly
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Message: 1 From: "Grant Lee" <grantlee at iinet.net.au> Subject: Re: Re:[lbo-talk] Black music makes history
The main point of the story --- that black artists now dominate music sales, rather than people plagiarising black artists --- seems to have been overlooked by the detractors on LBO-Talk.
I wonder what that means. Not enough potential for the usual dreary angst about US society and culture perhaps?
regards,
Grant.