Discipline: Humanities, Sociology
Capitalists create the illusion that there is a wide variety of musical styles to choose from, but in truth, difference is only an illusion because the products that they sell have a certain degree of sameness in them. They make people believe that they are only satisfying their wishes, but the truth of the matter is that all consumer goods that are sold in the market have been pre-selected for us by the culture industry (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1969). Record labels create fierce competition among artists such as Maroon 5, Dashboard Confessional and Click 5, when they all play EMO music (emotional rock that focuses on angst, particularly teen angst). Mary J. Blige, Queen Latiffah and Missy Elliott are the queens of hip-hop, each one belonging to different recording outfits. Paula Cole, Shawn Colvin and Sarah MacLachlan were the serious singer-songwriters of the 90s. Music fans argue as to who is better among these artists, when in fact they produce the same kind of music. The worst kind is when a hotshot composer like Max Martin writes songs for many artists Britney Spears, N Sync, Pink and the Backstreet Boys, which means that they produce the same kind of music . This only shows that there are quite a number of artists belonging to a particular genre. The record-buying public is duped into believing that the choices are innumerable when everything is just a matter of replication (Horkheimer and Adorno, 1969).
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ISSN 1908 9147 (Print)
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