Commercial music – mirror of our image in society?

Commercialism in the commercial music industry is one of my favourite subjects about electronic music. I have seen many people denying themselves loads of fun, just because they are determined to different from everybody else. I’ll begin with the weirdest situation I ever witnessed in my life.

How can Commercial music affect our lives

I’ll never forget a story about a confused girl watching MTV. Suddenly, they started to play a song from her favourite bend. Her face turned cold, and unbearably confused. The problem was that this bend was her base of difference and being unique in the crew she’s hanging out. The event of playing their song in the MTV meant that she is just an average. Like all others in the world that were listening to this band. Her world of extraordinary personality fell apart in a 2.5-minute video of the song of her favourite band. Life to build, minutes to destroy, indeed. The best part was her comment after the video stopped. “Now I need to stop listening to this band, damn” – she said.

The thing that disassembled this cute girl was the music industry globalisation. The process that started somewhere around the development of cable TV. Today, this process is fused by the internet. Even MTV became too small to feed its appetite. Globalisation moved to channels like Beatport, Youtube, Amazon Music, Apple Music, etc. Globalisation is a way too big to cover it in a blog post combined with any other subject.

In the end, the why wouldn’t this girl want her band to become more popular? It’s essential to all artists to make enough money with their art and to secure their future. The question is why this ridiculous behaviour is most present with people that are supporting liberalism. Because being different is the core of freedom, does that means you have to be different to be free? Or is this just proof that dogmatism exists within antiglobalism movements?

Reject majority’s taste or suffer the consequences

I felt this problem in youth. Most of my life, I lived in Croatia. The electronic music in this environment was known as a sign of rebels. Therefore, mixing commercial music with underground was sacrilege from both sides. Now, some styles like Trance, and beginnings of EDM where almost impossible to find. DJ’s and producers of those styles got stigmatised as “popcorn” makers. However, on the far west of Europe, the same genres were mainstream. There you would not experience discrimination due to openmindedness of the consumers. They were curious to try more, and they weren’t making judgments based on taste, and mostly they didn’t divide society according to music taste. The primary was to have fun, not to express their affiliation.

New world

In conclusion, thanks to globalisation and the internet, nowadays it is easy to find supporters. We do not depend on the environment around us. Enjoy this era of freedom. Don’t ever criticise those who play differently. Just the fact you don’t like it it does not mean it is wrong or bad. Keep on the mind the song from Mumford and Sons, the Cave. Give support to artists and spread info about them. Your message will eventually come on the solid ground. I can ensure you they will do the same for you. And if they don’t, enjoy the fact that you are better then them, in every sense.

In other words, there is no such thing as a lousy music genre, just people with very low music tolerance. People without the gift to hear the whole spectrum of the sound are limited to see music as a colour. If it sounds blue, then it is what they listen, because they are the part of the blue team.

I will close this post with a suggestion to watch the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man.” 

Or share a comment. I am sure you have something to say about this. Start the discussion. Even if you don’t agree with me, I would love to hear what you have to say about this. Different opinions are healthy to observe whole matter. Thanks.