LA ROUX
What is commodity and what is it doing to our society?? Well according to dictionary.com commodity is defined as something that of use, advantage and profit. Commodity is actually a big part of our society. It is how we can attain clothing, food, shelter,vehicles, and many other physical things.
Commodification has also become a huge part of our culture. According to the text entitled popular culture by Raifor Guins and Omayra Zaragoza Cruz commodity is the basic unit of exchange. Using commodity is how we function in our society. For example, when we want to buy concert tickets we pay the cost of the tickets with money in exchange for the tickets, and if we want a new CD we do the same. People are also viewed as commodities in capitalism. The truth in that statement is shown in the music industry. Producers want to profit from musical artists and get as much as they can from the musical artist they are producing, Music promoters want to get money from promoting the musical artist, music agents want a percentage of the profits earned from a show done by the musical artist. The musical artist gives his or her talent to production companies and the world so they could profit in exchange for the ability to be a musical performer and earn profit as well. In addition to people being commodities, the commodity of culture is continuously occurring since the start of industrialization and due to increasing production it has changed our society. This is related to bizarre musical artists because many artists from other countries and cultures are coming into the United States and are giving us a part of their culture, which is shown in their musical styles, in exchange for the ability to perform in the U.S, increase their fan base, and attain income.
One musical artist who I find a bit bizarre is La Roux. Her singing, clothing, make-up, and hair styles are all unique and original. She has a disco/electronic sound. Her persona is off the wall and it makes people gravitate to her more. She is an upcoming artist who is from London and is being produced by a man named Ben Langmaid. She was once known as an underground artist in London, but is now popular in the United States. Both the producer and the artists are giving their abilities/talents which are commodities in exchange for something. As Karl Marx explained many years ago, the expanding of modern industry= spreading of bourgeois ideology which is to develop a production like the bourgeois. The bourgeois is the class that owns businesses and that hires the working class. This relates to the music industry because the people who own the recording studio, record labels, production companies, etc want to produce/record with the musical artist that is most likely part of the working class to make some money off of them as beginning artists and possibly make more money off of them if they become more popular.
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