simonj
Jun 26th, 2005, 01:18 PM
I wrote this about Asymmetric Broadcasting and Cultural equity, but it is profoundly influenced by the thoughts, writings and lifes work of Alan Lomax, the commentry of Adam Curry and the editorial critiscism of my Girlfriend.
I have considered this for a while, I guess I can call it the Jennings Precept.
There are three core ideas I want to get across.
1)We can force mainstream media to move in a positive direction
2) Broadcasting asymmetry can be redressed
3) Cultural inequity can be redressed
====
There are a few remarkable human beings that stand out in the course of cultural history, Alan Lomax was one of them.
http://www.echo.ucla.edu/volume4-issue2/folk-media/lomax_typing.jpg
Alan Lomax 1915-2002 Visionary
"Who??" OK, he is not that well known, but lets see if his work rings a bell. The Sound Track of Brother where art thou (G.Clooney, C.Durning)was mostly folk songs recorded in Southern US State Prison Farms by Lomax or his father.
Mobys Platium Album "Play" was successful largely on the back of Lomax recordings. In using the blues-drenched songs in his calculated dance tracks Moby bought feeling and passion, depth and Soul.
This is great because it bought this folk music to a wider audience.
Moby found this music in Sounds of the South, an Atlantic Records box set that was a reissue of an original seven-LP series created in 1959 by Alan Lomax.
A self described folk song hunter, Lomax had a driving, maybe even devouring, passion for folk music around the club. His mission in life was "to record the world".
Alan Lomax spoke of Asymetrical Broadcasting and cultural equity a long time ago. Sounds complex, but it is a fairly simple thing.
If you have got a few big broadcasters with their multimillion dollar transmission systems going out to multi millions of people with their few dollar reciever systems then things get out of balance.
It has been that way since Marconi. In the beginning governments owned transmitters and stations, they decided what we heard, what information we recieved.
In democracies, we have always seen the need for an independent media, but independent media needs funding.
Commercial radio was more driven by commercial factors and so had to be more innovative, more in tune with its listeners to borrow a phrase.
The development of Chat Radio has changed the Information Driven station.
Music Charts developed by the Music Industry have changed the way music driven radio works.
But commercial interests and greed, and sheer practicality of getting money to maintain the broadcast infrastructure will stifle real independence.
Podcasting will help solve the problem rebalance the Transmission / Reciever dynamic because we dont all want to listen to the same type of music, or programming for that matter.
=========================
Culture Flowing Oneway this causes inbalance
Commercial American music and programming is really dominant.
Its almost entirely a one way flow, but because of linguistic factors Irish Australian, British and other Anglophone Artists can flow back into the American System.
There is a cultural inequity in broadcasting.
You dont have to like a type of folk music to realise its importance.
You dont need to like Experimental music to realise its importance.
The asymetric and cultural imbalance of current broadcasting forces us into having less choice in what we listen to. It is partially redressed by CDs, Tapes etc. but the more I hear, the more it sounds the same.
But lets be straight about this, we all get tired of listening to the same stuff again and again and again, equally we want music and content that suits our taste.
Standardising playlists, taste and content reduces cost, increases profit, but reduces innovation and range.
This standardised music mentality is a threat to experimental music and traditional music in regional cultures around the world.
It may not be by intention, but something so powerful drowns out other voices.
Podcasting will help preserve our diverse folk and experimental music, enriching humanity.
=============
MARKETING NEEDS TO CHANGE
The music industry is worth millions and millions of dollars, its big money. Radio Stations play what they are told to play by record companies to promote sales.
There are some really innovative American bands, but most of the commercial music we hear on commercial stations is built around a formula.
It is a product, the entertainers dont write their own music, they dont decide their own image.
That image is decided by a small number of executives, what is "Normal" is decided by a small panel and thats not right.
They use this percieved idea of cool and do it for one reason, Money. It is packaged and franchised to sell Records,Burgers, Fries and Cola, Dolls, Cameras and Clothing.
Normality is not something the panel at idols can, or should, decide.
Every group, every tribe, nation, town, family, individual, we all have our own individual tastes, and those that our cultures, peers and life experience instill in us.
I do respect the fact that they entertain and make a lot of people happy, that can only be a good thing so good for them.
Popacts are fun, I like some of them, it helps me stop being so bloody serious.
But there are times I want serious new music, I want Jazz or indie or rock.
There is now massive pressure on artists to produce best selling albums, staying within the formula and discouraging innovation and playing with new ideas.
If U2 were signed with a major record label today, they would be let go after their second album.
In the broadcast news networks "if it bleeds, it leads" mindset.
Marketing is also run by fear, buy this or you wont succeed, buy the alarm system, smell this way or you wont get laid, whats next "Does your earwax smell??? Try Nutrawax, and look like Brad"
Podcasting is going to change a lot of things and it will be a success, especially with the drive of people like "Podfather" Adam Curry.
His ideas with copy and paste culture are very thought provoking.
Podcasting means those few who can afford transmitters and stations are going to need to become more democratic, more answerable.
We must as podcasters try not to hurt others because what we are doing is powerful.
We influence people,we must be aware of that, and not abuse that.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands put it best I believe, in a speech she once said that just because we have free speech does not give us the right to abuse it.
Podcasting is helping new music, new bands with podcasters like CC Chapman who find and promote new talent.
Podcasting is helping native folk music and will help redress that asymmetrical imbalance and cultural inequity, it already is making a major difference in places like Hawaii.
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/lomax/lomax3a1.jpg
Podcasting will bring more balance to mass media and change the culture of keeping people boxed in through fear of the world around us, its a beautiful place, enjoy it, even if you got smelly earwax.
If Alan Lomax were alive today and see us follow in his steps of innovative product for the small interest groups I am sure he would be a very happy man, if not a little full of himself, but it was that confidence that made him the fantastic, remarkable person who he was[/b]
I have considered this for a while, I guess I can call it the Jennings Precept.
There are three core ideas I want to get across.
1)We can force mainstream media to move in a positive direction
2) Broadcasting asymmetry can be redressed
3) Cultural inequity can be redressed
====
There are a few remarkable human beings that stand out in the course of cultural history, Alan Lomax was one of them.
http://www.echo.ucla.edu/volume4-issue2/folk-media/lomax_typing.jpg
Alan Lomax 1915-2002 Visionary
"Who??" OK, he is not that well known, but lets see if his work rings a bell. The Sound Track of Brother where art thou (G.Clooney, C.Durning)was mostly folk songs recorded in Southern US State Prison Farms by Lomax or his father.
Mobys Platium Album "Play" was successful largely on the back of Lomax recordings. In using the blues-drenched songs in his calculated dance tracks Moby bought feeling and passion, depth and Soul.
This is great because it bought this folk music to a wider audience.
Moby found this music in Sounds of the South, an Atlantic Records box set that was a reissue of an original seven-LP series created in 1959 by Alan Lomax.
A self described folk song hunter, Lomax had a driving, maybe even devouring, passion for folk music around the club. His mission in life was "to record the world".
Alan Lomax spoke of Asymetrical Broadcasting and cultural equity a long time ago. Sounds complex, but it is a fairly simple thing.
If you have got a few big broadcasters with their multimillion dollar transmission systems going out to multi millions of people with their few dollar reciever systems then things get out of balance.
It has been that way since Marconi. In the beginning governments owned transmitters and stations, they decided what we heard, what information we recieved.
In democracies, we have always seen the need for an independent media, but independent media needs funding.
Commercial radio was more driven by commercial factors and so had to be more innovative, more in tune with its listeners to borrow a phrase.
The development of Chat Radio has changed the Information Driven station.
Music Charts developed by the Music Industry have changed the way music driven radio works.
But commercial interests and greed, and sheer practicality of getting money to maintain the broadcast infrastructure will stifle real independence.
Podcasting will help solve the problem rebalance the Transmission / Reciever dynamic because we dont all want to listen to the same type of music, or programming for that matter.
=========================
Culture Flowing Oneway this causes inbalance
Commercial American music and programming is really dominant.
Its almost entirely a one way flow, but because of linguistic factors Irish Australian, British and other Anglophone Artists can flow back into the American System.
There is a cultural inequity in broadcasting.
You dont have to like a type of folk music to realise its importance.
You dont need to like Experimental music to realise its importance.
The asymetric and cultural imbalance of current broadcasting forces us into having less choice in what we listen to. It is partially redressed by CDs, Tapes etc. but the more I hear, the more it sounds the same.
But lets be straight about this, we all get tired of listening to the same stuff again and again and again, equally we want music and content that suits our taste.
Standardising playlists, taste and content reduces cost, increases profit, but reduces innovation and range.
This standardised music mentality is a threat to experimental music and traditional music in regional cultures around the world.
It may not be by intention, but something so powerful drowns out other voices.
Podcasting will help preserve our diverse folk and experimental music, enriching humanity.
=============
MARKETING NEEDS TO CHANGE
The music industry is worth millions and millions of dollars, its big money. Radio Stations play what they are told to play by record companies to promote sales.
There are some really innovative American bands, but most of the commercial music we hear on commercial stations is built around a formula.
It is a product, the entertainers dont write their own music, they dont decide their own image.
That image is decided by a small number of executives, what is "Normal" is decided by a small panel and thats not right.
They use this percieved idea of cool and do it for one reason, Money. It is packaged and franchised to sell Records,Burgers, Fries and Cola, Dolls, Cameras and Clothing.
Normality is not something the panel at idols can, or should, decide.
Every group, every tribe, nation, town, family, individual, we all have our own individual tastes, and those that our cultures, peers and life experience instill in us.
I do respect the fact that they entertain and make a lot of people happy, that can only be a good thing so good for them.
Popacts are fun, I like some of them, it helps me stop being so bloody serious.
But there are times I want serious new music, I want Jazz or indie or rock.
There is now massive pressure on artists to produce best selling albums, staying within the formula and discouraging innovation and playing with new ideas.
If U2 were signed with a major record label today, they would be let go after their second album.
In the broadcast news networks "if it bleeds, it leads" mindset.
Marketing is also run by fear, buy this or you wont succeed, buy the alarm system, smell this way or you wont get laid, whats next "Does your earwax smell??? Try Nutrawax, and look like Brad"
Podcasting is going to change a lot of things and it will be a success, especially with the drive of people like "Podfather" Adam Curry.
His ideas with copy and paste culture are very thought provoking.
Podcasting means those few who can afford transmitters and stations are going to need to become more democratic, more answerable.
We must as podcasters try not to hurt others because what we are doing is powerful.
We influence people,we must be aware of that, and not abuse that.
Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands put it best I believe, in a speech she once said that just because we have free speech does not give us the right to abuse it.
Podcasting is helping new music, new bands with podcasters like CC Chapman who find and promote new talent.
Podcasting is helping native folk music and will help redress that asymmetrical imbalance and cultural inequity, it already is making a major difference in places like Hawaii.
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/isam/lomax/lomax3a1.jpg
Podcasting will bring more balance to mass media and change the culture of keeping people boxed in through fear of the world around us, its a beautiful place, enjoy it, even if you got smelly earwax.
If Alan Lomax were alive today and see us follow in his steps of innovative product for the small interest groups I am sure he would be a very happy man, if not a little full of himself, but it was that confidence that made him the fantastic, remarkable person who he was[/b]