Bad Isn’t Good Enough

III. The Industrial Revolution and Music (radio edit)

The last time I had a longform thing, I had an interlude with a metaphor on perspective. I have another interlude in store, but it’s less brief, and more direct. Here’s what I meant by the “why” on Stupid Hoe, and it involves a brief recap of world history. Super reductionist, bone simple, meant to establish a blunt point.

Rulers shape history.
This is usually seen as a description of territorial changes and strategic decisions, but internal culture is just as important.
The dominant music of the time is a reflection of the dominant rulers of the time.
Western music (classical and later jazz & blues) was the dominant music of the time due to the industrial revolution.
The industrial revolution was a huge technological leap that put white guys ahead of the game, while changing the players from autocrats to businessmen.
They are still ahead of the game.
The ethical problem is, adhering to the musical rules of the people in charge.
The ultimate extreme of this statement is, by playing tonal music, or classical music, you are beholden to dead kings. Years from now, the people making rock and such things on a major scale will have similar signifigance; that their music will have the taint of the rulers that benefitted and delighted in it. Tonal music (classical) is ornate and exclusive, to serve the kings and queens of it’s day. Modern tonal music (pop) is mass producable and packaged, for the profits of the businessmen of today.

Spelling it out more specifically, the sound of our time is the sound that resembles the old white men that control the means of production. Rap acts in defiance of this, as the sound has very little resemblance to that canon, but is profitable to the point that ignorance of it harms business. Labels had to restructure to include rap, and thus allowed them to exert their knowledge. This is why it is hard for record labels to develop an act on their own to participate in rap: It’s easy to tell when there’s that kind of dirt on people.

By these terms, traditional Jazz is doomed, and probably for the best since it was the sound of the great wars. So how does guitar music, the instrument that came to prominence in the time of the Military Industrial Complex, survive spared the residue of the ruling parties?