In Monday’s class we continued the discussion of music transcending boundaries, using the example of the song Watermelon Man, written by Duke Ellington. The path of this song went from Herbie Hancock, to a renovation with Cuban influence by Mongo Santamaria, Johnnie Taylor transitioned it to soul, with a change in tempo to “white music”by Manfred Mann, followed by a rendition by Byron Lee and the Ska Kings, then taken by Jazz Jamaica, only to have the Herbie Hancock version sampled by Madonna. This song is another example of how music moves around, and by doing so it makes music political. It also raises the frequently mentioned question: is the crossing of historical ownership and cultural boundaries cultural appropriation? I think in some instances yes, it should be considered that. When we discuss Elvis Presley and other white musicians who benefited off of blues and soul without representing or defending the Black community then I think there is an issue of appropriation. You are reaping the benefits of associating with a racial community without experiencing the pain and hardship that comes with being a member of that community. We still see this today featured in mainstream pop culture with artists such as Miley Cyrus, who objectified Black culture and the rap/R&B genre without doing anything for the community. Once it no longer benefited her brand or her financially she dropped the act, and faux grill and dreads, and went back to singing country music “back to her roots”.

The discussion progressed to cover regulating digital media and content, how radio is considered a scarce public resource due to various frequencies a station can be set at so the government has to regulate it. Since it is a public resource the FCC declares it has to have some educational value/public good, which applies to television as well. There used to be a requirement regarding public interest and no “obscene or offensive content” but since television is no longer a scarce resource it is no longer regulated, but should it be?

Wednesday’s class (which I was unable to attend but I received the slides regarding the class discussion) the theme evolved from censorship of public goods to mass marketing in the media. This included the change from unique goods such as bakeries to mass produced items like wonder bread, which again ties into that industrialization has resulted in a grotesque impoverishment and Max Weber’s argument that in the modern/industrial ages the world has become rationalized. The class then discussed how crowdsourcing/collaborative filtering  is a useful technique implemented in digital media by sites such as google, where information will come up in the order of how useful it may be to the user rather than by popularity of the source. Another site that uses this is amazon, when it shows suggested purchases based on items you are currently browsing or purchasing (O’Malley, 2018). As a result digital technology is making it easier to track consumer preferences but can also result in locking consumers into a specific “mold”, which may appeal to some but deter others. For example if you continue to gender automobiles, advertising a truck as a “man’s vehicle”, it may cause women to not be interested in purchasing this car. If it were marketed to a broader audience this would limit deterrence. Like the “race records” we discussed earlier in the course, when things are marketed a certain way to only one demographic it will limit the consumer population, hence the cycle of blues from Black American musicians to White English musicians to then be consumed by White American media.