Before Myspace and YouTube : Power relations in the music industry

Remember the days of cassette tapes, Beverley Hills 90210 and Vanilla Ice? Those were all parts of growing up in the 90’s, love them or not. As far as music goes, think back to the styles that were popular. People tended to take “cool” out of what videos MTV was playing at the time or what the stations decided to be the next single for any particular artist. What was being fed to the public via television and radio was at the expense of the people in charge. We, the supportive public, really had no say. I can specifically remember tuning into MTV, despite my parents wishes, and seeing the same 20 videos on repeat. Essentially, those in power either by position or material wealth are the people who supply the public with all things to be considered popular culture. This argument supports that of one we have discussed in the earlier weeks, that popular culture trickles down from power relations. Who knows who and who’s got what is sadly a huge determinate factor of what is fed to the masses. I say “sadly” because many talented people go unnoticed because they don’t have the material means or know the right people what will help them get noticed. This is especially true in the 90’s –the times before people were getting famous from Myspace and Youtube. Carla Freccero offers some insight to this theory, “the cultural studies approach seeks to understand what culture has to do with the economic, political, and social forces that structure and order of our lives…another way of referring to this positioning is empowered, disempowered, privileged or discriminated against and so forth.”Although I could disagree and say sometimes people use their disempowerment to their advantage, take for example rappers who rap about the struggles such as Biggie and Tupac. They came from disadvantaged families and look at their popularity now, regardless if they are still alive or not! But in the end, this does go back to the fact that power- be it power within social networking- regardless, the powerful people come out on top.