december 2004
Manufacturing consent in the music industry
I was in a library recently and I picked up a CD of music played by the percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky and the Norwegian trumpet player Nils Petter Molvær. This CD, Hastening Westward, which was produced by Manfred Eicher for the ECM label in 1995, probably defies all notions that music should be categorized according to genre. Interestingly enough, it was not placed in either the jazz or in the modern classical music sections, but amongst classical instrumental CDs. I imagined a worried librarian desperately walking from shelf to shelf trying to figure out what category would be appropriate. In fact, Schulkowsky comes from a contemporary classical music
background,
and the collaboration with Molvær is a synthesis of two
rather diverse elements, which do not fit comfortably
into the mainstream. This leads one to askthe question: how does jazz fit into the big business music industry,
which standardises things in much the same way as consumer products are
presented in the local supermarket? As consumers, we are encouraged to
categorise our musical requirements according to the correct genre and
style, which is always defined by an overwhelming desire of the industry
to commercialise creative music. In my view music is something that is
part of a transient process not reducible to the attributes of the
concrete object.
In the
Jazz field, the bassist Charlie Haden condemns the
elements of Jazz media which manage the art form and
limit the music. He does not see himself as part of the
jazz context, where there are only limits and
restrictions, not wanting to waste his life on what he
calls "jazz rhetoric". Is it not these
limitations of style that create distance between the
artists and the people who really want to listen to themusic? Many people see only the negative aspects of a jazz cliché. This is a tendency to the extreme, like the playing of as many harmonic changes as possible, improvisations on complex chords, and fast instrumental gymnastics.
Such clichés are also found in other safely packaged genres like compilations of classical music, which include the endless repetition of certain adagios and overtures. The classic musical fan finds jazz far too wild, and pop far too banal and superficial. Likewise, the loyal jazz fan does not like classical music because he finds it allegedly old-fashioned. This form of musical politics requires the listener to adopt an official party ideology and neglect real music
aesthetics.
In a recent article in the German magazine JAZZthing, the
Norwegian saxophonist Jan Gabarek is quoted as saying
that these prejudices are consciously aroused by the
music industry, carefully nourished and cultivated, and
with that, the buyer once again finds his favourite music
in the correct one-dimensional drawer. In other words,
music is packaged for mass consumption, and the consumer
is conditioned to dislike difference by participating in
a virtual musical xenophobia. The saxophonist Gilad
Atzmon puts the situation into clear language in
thesleeve notes of musiK, his recently released CD:
"Aesthetics was 
brutally murdered in broad daylight and the
shallow notion of fashion took its place. A market value
was attached to every bar. Music became furniture, a
matter of style, a mass global product, an extension of
Levi jeans of a secondary product to Coca-cola."This did not start with jeans and lemonade, because this process goes back to Adorno's discovery, as early as the 1930's, of what he termed the 'culture industry'. Even though he neglected to evaluate jazz accurately, defining it as the mainstream music of 'Tin Pan Alley,' his theory of popular culture is becoming increasingly more relevant in today's standardized culture. The industry purportedly claims to provide the element of choice to the consumer, but Adorno argued that it was the industry itself that manufactured so-called choice. He saw the repetitiveness, homogenisation, and banality of popular music as a production means, serving not to adapt to the reactions of the consumer, but actually counterfeit their reactions. Therefore, the consumer is a psychological victim of the process of commercialism, which destroys musical diversity, and limits an ability to think critically. In fact there are no real choices, as the consumers are passive agents in a system which manufactures consent.
Jazz music, on the other hand, facilitates a synthesis of musical forms that blurs the distinctions between musical styles, providing a non-elitist musical platform. It is heterogeneous, in that it assimilates other musical forms, and it can reach beyond the confines of an established music stereotype. In this way it can interpret any musical material, which in itself, does not become the main musical
focus, but a vehicle to improvise on, and part of a discursive process of communication. The growth in this form of Jazz is enhanced by the proliferations of small record labels that do not conform to the big industry norms. These labels support more experimental jazz productions connecting different musical genres, like world music, popular music, and contemporary classical in a broader jazz context. One of the most important record labels to undertake this in recent times was the ECM label, founded in Munich in 1963, by Manfred Eicher, who has forged a reputation for innovation and musical aesthetics. Other interesting record companies like the ACT label and Enja Records have established important musical forums for a multi-dimensional concept of world jazz. Any terms used to describe diversity of choice, such as: multi-cultural, multi-individualism, boarder-crossing and fusion can only be inadequate. Somebody looking for predictable jazz would be very discontented with most of the productions of these small independent labels, as they do not fit securely into the mould of what is expected. World jazz is the ephemeral category, which evades classification, and which cannot be exactly materialised by the well ordered systems of a library complete with shelf classification numbers.
Rory Braddell©Nov.2004