Sunday, April 05, 2009

I swung my fiery sword, I vent my spleen at the lord

Just a quick entry to vent the general malaise I've been feeling all day. As per usual, the proverbial back breaking straw is musically related. But anyway, upon opening a stack of mail from various record labels at my desk this afternoon (I'm the music director at a little radio station for those who are just joining) I got a CD compilation of Michigan artists from a label that had the letters DIY prominently figuring in its name. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, only that the label is based in California. Having someone else print up artwork and distribute your music sort of seems to be contrary to the DIY spirit, dont'cha think? Not to be some kind of pedantic Ian MacKaye type prick about it, but is nothing sacred? It's just a bit disconcerning to see a concept as anti-corporate as DIY just turned into another marketing buzzword attempting to capitalize on the "underground", but that's not really a new thing either. It happened when Nirvana got huge and look at the current state of rap/hip-hop which has devolved from visceral DIY form of art to a commercial for athletic gear and expensive vodka. Maybe I've just been reading too much Naomi Klein lately.

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