12 June 2004

Pop music, one more time

I rather like James Brink's description of the central thesis of my article, "Commercialization and the Death of Singing":

Koyzis seems to be suggesting that lasting music that reflects the full expression of the human condition is a public good. If music is taken over by the market, it becomes subject to the law of supply and demand, and caters to the common denominator of human experience (in an attempt to corner the market). But in popular music's attempt to become the cultural expression for everyone, it subverts and reduces the full range of human experience. In the end, it short-circuits our capacity for experience.

I would almost guess Mr. Brink had read my book. Could it be that the distortions of popular music are rooted in an ideology that narrows the scope of and thus falsifies human experience?

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