Reflection: Week 4 [Wednesday]

Marxism by nature being an anti-capitalistic movement is interesting when reflecting on my previous post relating to Radiohead taking on the music industry. After hearing more about Marxism in today's class, Radiohead's move against the music industry is more of a reworking of the old call to the workers of the world to unite and reclaim the means of production, which is definitely a contemporary Marxist idea.

Reading: Cobb [Studies]

Antonio Gramsci's twist on Marxism called "hegemony" is a refreshing turn in the history of cultural studies we have been reading up to this point. I agree that the dominant groups in society do have persuasive influences, and further side with Gramsci that the working class does have a choice in the matter. John Storey's example of Bob Marley's is a perfect one, with the Rastafarian's music standing against the same capitalist moneymakers in the music industry, while the same industry, labels, and promoters are profiting from the continued sales of Marley's albums.

We might have seen a significant hallmark in the music industry just this past year, with Radiohead's groundbreaking self-release via the World Wide Web this past Fall. Radiohead provided a download and asked the user to make her/his own price for the "purchase" of their entire new release. What is interesting is that 60% of people who downloaded the album, downloaded it for free. That being said, the album was then released on January 1st through TBD Records, a sublabel of ATO Records, and opened No. 1 on the week's music charts with sales of 122,000 copies. It's a start. But in the future, it'll take more artists with additional innovations to stick it to The Man and make a noticeable dent in the formidable force of the record industry.