Post One • Chapter 3 • Thursday, June 18th

I heard a gentleman on MPR the other day talking about how more people than ever are consuming and listening to more music than in the history of the world. He spoke on the recording industry and how it really is not that old and how it has consistently (since the phonograph) failed to keep up with the populace - how they/we listen to music - out of fear.

It is fascinating in reading through chapter 3 - to think about the recording industry (past and present) and how easily one can picture "it" as a group of curmudgeonly Velociraptors around a dark, large oak table squawking indecipherably about what their next out-of-step money choking move should be.

The notion of how music is being mediated to the populace - specifically my students - through "printed word, sound carriers, radio, moving image, telecommunication technologies and musical instruments" (68) immediately brings to mind (for me) all the ways you might hear a song for the first time.

You might hear a song in a movie - during a pivitol scene (think Say Anything - John Cusack holding the boombox), on a commercial, on someone's phone while you wait for them to pick up, on an elevator, in any public space, in a car driving by, on the radio, at a party, on pandora (or anywhere on the internet), at a concert, walking by a concert, on a TV show, anywhere, everywhere. There are some songs that are seemingly unavoidable. Whether or not you enjoy Peter Bjorn and John's song "Young Folks," chances are you caught it on one of the million commercials it was commissioned for.

However, what music you actually purchase or at least choose to listen to is entirely up to - as this chapter points out - mediating factors. "While social class is an important influence on the mediation of cultural forms in any class-divided society," Negus explains, "there are further ways in which the social relations of race, gender, sexuality and ethnicity mediate the creating and reception of popular music. It is due to such factors" Negus interestingly writes, "that no music will ever simply 'reflect' a society but instead be caught within, arise out of and refer to a web of unequal social relationships and power struggles" (70).

I think of the film Curious George. In 1941, Margret and H.A. Rey write the first of seven beloved Curious George books. Forty years later, Houghton Mifflin get their hands on it, turn it into a franchise and twenty some years after that Universal Pictures (the behemoth) and Imagine Entertainment get their grubby hands on the classic - toss in a little animation and famous voices (Will Ferrell, Drew Barrymore) and you have yourself a nice little $70 million dollar gross (not a lot compared to other child-oriented films).

But Joe, you ask, what about the song tie-in? Didn't they want a safe, songwriter of the moment to do the music? Why, right you are my friend, that is where Jack Johnson comes into the picture. Universal went to the go-to soccer mom singer - you know, the one that will be holding their child's hand into the theater - and gave him his first #1 album! First #1 soundtrack since 2003! It sold over 3 million copies! Obviously, I am being a little disingenuous to Johnson who certainly can write a nice, catchy tune (I purchased his first two albums - then after that they all started sounding the same).



In the same way Negus talks about David Bowie's Let's Dance video, I believe Kaplan would agree that the Johnson soundtrack/videos/movie constructed a position for viewers and that Universal and Johnson both have an "awareness that [the movie and music] will be viewed and heard by audiences who have acquired considerable knowledge of the codes and conventions of popular music, television and advertising" (92). When the soccar mom hears that familiar Jack Johnson voice flow out of the theater's Dolby Digital Surround Sound, it is a warm bath of the already accepted. The audience knows they are getting themselves into the same non-confrontational, uncontroversial story that people around the world have been enjoying since 1941. However, this time around, it isn't just the simplistic joy of the original text, it is the mediated big budget endeavor (through all the ways Negus mentions) brought to you by Universal Studios. The mother realizes she has one more Jack Johnson CD to purchase (thank God - the final demographic of CD buyers!) and the bonus - the kids might be hearing this music for the first time. The earlier you can hook them, the happier you make the movie studio.

Negus moves into this idea of music videos as "audio-visual furniture" and I am immediately drawn to that type of mediation. I think of the Brett Easton Ellis classic Less Than Zero that was subsequently turned into a film starring Robert Downey Jr. In one scene, the protagonist heads ot a huge, debaucherous, soulless party where there are stacks and stacks of TVs, many of them showing music videos. The videos may not even be matching the music pumping into the club, either way, it is this "series of repeated semiotic particles" that Negus mentions "that have been put together in a deliberately decorative and multi-layered way" ( 94). This is why you go bowling now and there are huge screens pumping videos into the lanes while you bowl - everyone agrees that the music videos are not a distraction and certainly will not effect your game. In the same way you can go to the youth section at Macy's or JCPenney and there will be screens playing music videos, either on mute or full volume - either way the "commercial" aspect of the video -that we are used to - is there more than ever if not encouraging us to buy those clothes, CDs, etc.

We have become so adapted to the music video as advertisement - it does not phase anyone in the slightest when a music video is - in itself - directly an advertisement.