30 October, 2007

Hu Jintao, say it isn't so!

So apparently Hu Jintao, the current leader of China, is not a big fan of music. Don't get the wrong idea, he may have a huge Rolling Stones vinyl collection that he rocks out with at home, I wouldn't know, because I'm not his best friend. It's just that based on what I've read about the music "allowed" in China, I would assume that he's either not a fan or just enjoys controlling the Chinese people too much to let his love of music stand in the way.

The New York Times published this story: "The Sound, Not of Music, but of Control" by Howard W. French, and it got me thinking about the way our government controls us through music and the way it differs from China's attempts.

In China, the idea is to subdue directly by lulling the listener into a state of apathy. The radio stations are not allowed to play anything that could spark revolution, and so, obviously, there's a huge underground rock scene a.k.a. musical revolution.

"...Liu Sijia, the bass player and a vocalist for an underground Shanghai band called Three Yellow Chicken, said alternative music in China today is much like Western rock in the 1960s, with its frequent references to social issues like war, poverty, civil rights and generational conflict..."

This quote was taken from the above article, and I think it just emphasizes the prospect of revolution because of the way the Chinese government is treating music. Hu Jintao is causing a little revolution everyday by keeping homogenous and obvious mind-control music on the radio.

Hey, maybe he should take a page out of the U.S. goverment's book! They seem to be doing pretty well lately. (That was my obvious segue!)

I know a lot of you lovely blog readers are wondering what I've been smoking, but really I've actually read about this subject. I would recommend the book Something In The Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution that Shaped a Generation by Marc Fisher.

Here's my argument: The U.S. government controls us with music, but they do it in a very sneaky way. We live in what is basically a capitalist nation, and the government (in the form of the FCC) is given certain power over what we hear on the radio and really who owns the radio stations. This system is built for businesses with money, and it helps to propagate monopolies. Clear Channel and its cronies are playing the shit that sells, to make money. In turn, the government is getting a good piece of that money through taxes, and the economy is thriving, because every young hipster is out buying the new Akon cd for $15 a shot. Do you see the pattern yet?

People work to make money. They make money to pay for things like food, shelter, education, and healthcare. If they're good patriots, then whatever's left goes to the economy. People work more hours to buy more things (including the music they hear on the radio) and they have less time to actually think about what they're buying or why they're buying anything at all. You think I'm crazy? Well, next time something horrible happens listen for the sound of our President telling us to "shop" for the economy. It isn't all for our economy, it's actually a form of control. If you're worried about your debt, then you're less likely to realize all the things that are wrong with the world, and even less likely to stand up and say that things are wrong.

Let's take it further. Why do you think the government was so upset about illegal downloading? It wasn't just because it was stealing; after all, big businesses steal all the time, both legally and illegally. Actually, I think the real reason the government was so angry was that people weren't fueling the economy with their musical purchases. Music sales have gone way down and giant businesses have closed their doors, and some people have begun to realize that most of the music they were paying $20 a cd for, wasn't really worth anything. This sounds like a small revolution to me, and I think it made the government anxious.

Really communism and capitalism share the same bed, capitalism has just learned to hide its snoring.

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