The Porcine Press Club

Synergy is an important strategy as it facilitates, with its flexible style of maximizing commercial influence while segmenting creative variety, the growth of an industry that is already populous in nature. Synergy is a subtle and passive approach to “world domination” and globalization. It is a strategy that allows conglomerates to be multi-faceted in supply with the advantage of funneling resources back into the company. By spreading the risks through synergy, large corporations as well as indie labels, lower overall operational costs. Therefore, a higher profit margin as well as a more controlled contribution to media consumption is witnessed.

Globalization is an extension of synergy, and it could be termed as modern colonialism. According to UNESCO, there are four principle features of globalization :

1. Integration of world markets into national economies

2. Transition of “high volume economy” to “high value economy”

3. End of struggle between socialism and capitalism

4. Configuration on new trade blocs

However, globalization also causes an undesirable homogenization of cultures, leaning towards the Anglo-centric as English becomes the preferred language between the multinationals and the local businesses. The problem with the dominance of “anglo-american” music is that as other languages are pushed out due to the monopolization of conglomerates, a disrespectful disregard of the Other displaces traditional cultures.

Entertainment corporations seek to maximize copyright revenue by applying intellectual property laws to the use, reproduction and performance of recordings to the virtual world and undeveloped markets. Interestingly, a backlash from recognized musicians such as Radiohead is a perfect example of micro-synergy meets anti-establishment. Without alienating its fan base or snubbing MTV, Radiohead successfully launched an album online and communicates almost directly with its listeners, doing away with the management of a record company. Other bands such as Metallica are following suit .

While decentralization is crucial in ensuring an organic journey of the music industry, it ultimately lowers financial risks for businesses. The multilayered web of majors and minors reflects on the homogenized heterogeneity of globalization. Radiohead was able to pull off their independent launch online because the band gained previous exposure through EMI/Capitol. This shift to online ‘independence’ would surely mean that the majors would come sniffing around very soon, if they have not already.

With the homogenization of popular music, the struggle of its origins (rock) against hoi polloi remains fraught. Record companies influence music consumption to a great extent, through the conglomeration of media entities that includes radio and television stations, publishing houses as well as acquisitions of other ‘boutique’ companies.

This ‘Mcdonaldization’ of culture, as capitalism grows to be the No.1 religion of Western societies, created an oligopolistic industry that is far from the competition amongst 1950’s radio stations that had wanted to “capture the local market”. The role played by BMI when it protested against ASCAP’s market monopolization encapsulates the initial rebellious spirit of popular music. However, while the competition was relatively healthy in fostering new or expanded genres, it questions the cliché of “suffering for your art”.

However, the homogenized marketing of popular music has created an unsavory blandness in the music landscape, where one artist sounds, performs and looks like the other. The most commercially successful artists are not the ones that are most lauded for distinctly exceptional work in singing or song-writing but rather for their ‘entertainment value” and hype factor. Additionally, the stamping of a celebrity producer’s signature sound on an artist’s latest album has emphasized the role of ‘the celebrity’. This causes a recycling of musical genres that leads to smaller cycles of creativity akin to a coiling effect.

While music has often been used as a definition of a group or era, it parallels as a class separator. The emergence of popular music during the baby-boomer era demonstrated the alternative environments created as a form of escapism from their everyday post-war family values. However, a growing collective interest in the genre caused it to be widely accepted to the point that is not a valid expression of rebellion any longer. Therefore, while ‘alternative’ artists have often been accused of “selling out”, and being transformed into profit-making puppets of major record companies, one could question the consumers’ desire to intentionally be alienated so as to make sense of the idea of identity and existentialism within their personal sphere.