Hollywood, Pop Music and Weightlessness Term Paper

Ironically, an article by Beaver (2010) intended to decry the lack of censorship in gangsta rap actually demonstrates that companies allowing greater artistic freedom tend to succeed with greater longevity. According to Beaver, in spite of calls from communities to engage in censorship of violent or misogynistic lyrics, "the companies have basically ignored their critics and continued to market gangsta rap because for years it had been so highly profitable." (Beaver, p. 107) This shows the counterpoint to the current strategy toward safe streamlined music taken by the industry.

The result, in musician and documentarian Thurston Moore's opinion, is that for company's like Warner, Sony and EMI, the sheer motives of profitability created a new era of obstruction for artists of a wide range of styles, talents and ambitions. The music industry of the 2000s would be substantially marked not just by a terrible downturn in economic viability but also by a stunning rejection of values such as creativity, artistic freedom, originality or boldness. Where the most successful labels of previous generations succeeded by taking chances where others feared to tread, the 2000s would mark a disastrous retreat from these values.

3. Weightless work

The sweeping changes taking place in both Hollywood and the record business would be considerably hastened by the advent of digital film and music. This allowed for the occurrence of two major phenomena from which both industries are still reeling to recover. Namely, the proliferation of digital media has contributed to widespread online 'piracy' and in doing so has cut devastatingly into the profitability of old models for both industries.

The text by Coyle (1997) foretells of the economic insecurities associated with 'weightlessness' as a mode of innovation.According to Coyle, "weightlessness, symbol of the economic effects of the cluster of advances in information and communication technology, has much wider implications, however. Like any technical development, it interacts with other fundamental changes, such as demographic and social trends and the grand sweep of political history. These are playing together in ways that make us feel that ours is the age of insecurity." (Coyle, p. 9)

This is a feeling that is only echoed in the article by Clott (2004). The discussion on global outsourcing demonstrates how industrialized nations like the United States are constantly bleeding jobs out to cheaper labor markets in Asia, Central America and elsewhere. The consequence, the article by Clott reveals, is that the United States is increasingly moving skilled labor positions and white collar jobs to markets where these service industries can operate more cheaply.

As the work by Coyle denotes, this is one of the realities of improving communication and web technology, which allows for seamless crossing of international borders. As a positive contrast to their negative impact on the American labor market, these same forces are reversing the wheels of creative obstruction turned by the industry for the last decade. Today, digital media is also an outlet for the independent production, release, promotion and distribution of all manner of music.

Works Cited:

Beaver, W. (2010). Rap and the Recording Industry. Business and Society Review, 115(1), 107-120.

Clott, C.B. (2004). Perspectives on Global Outsourcing and the Changing Nature of Work. Business and Society Review, 109, 153-170.

Coyle, D. (1997). The Weightless World. Capstone Publishing Limited.

Epstein, E.J. (2005). The Big Picture: The New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood......