Week 5: Turn Off The Radio?

In this week's readings, the most prominent theme that I latched onto is how structures of technology and industry influence the direction and content in artistic expression.

More concretely, in James B. Stewart's article, I saw how much emphasis certain scholars put on the diminished role of the radio DJ and the local radio station in coordinating political initiatives. Stewart explained that during the Civil Rights Movement (CRM), the radio DJ took on the role of community organizer by announcing events, promoting community education, and "carefully [selecting] particular songs to underscore the political message delivered through other formats" (200). Additionally, these radio stations took seriously their role as a voice in the community and provided serious presentation and analysis of news events in order to keep people politically engaged as well as artistically stimulated. Stewart also talked about the idea of the "community theater," which was a space where people could listen to music together and join in on creating/forming cultural expressions. All of these ideas culminated in this era of R&B politicization and community engagement that was centered around music. While it was not clear whether R&B was a catalyst or a reflection of this energy, that was not the point: the point was that through the radio, political messages were promoted and kept alive, both in the activist and artistic sense. And just the radio but record labels like Philadelphia International Records donated their record sale profits to community charities and record labels were more willing to allow artists to determine the content of their albums.

But as media conglomerates began to consolidate, crush local black disk jockeys, and exercise totalitarian artistic oversight, political message became harder and harder to put on albums. And in business/commodity terms, it's not a surprise: if you want to appeal to the largest audience possible, political messages are often divisive and challenge the status-quo, which may turn away consumers. This made me reflect on the massive media consolidation that exists today in the radio industry, as well as the broader music industry. Although I would like to discuss whether political rap inherently cannot become "mainstream," I believe that the lack of space, creativity, and risk-taking among the major powers of music industry have certainly squashed the possibility of socially/politically conscious, commercially-viable rap.

As a side note, I wanted to pose a question: Stewart and (Alridge to an extent) trace hip hop's origins back to R&B and conscious political actions. But doesn't hip hop also share its heritage with funk/disco, which were described as "a sound of mindless repetition and lyrical idiocy" (Stewart 216)? Does this fact of multiple cultural origins contribute to the complex, and often contradictory, paradigms that coexist within hip hop?


Looking forward to Monday!