a lot of questions.
For reasons I can’t quite understand, a slew of recent ‘politically charged’ or ‘meaningful social commentary’ editorials (see: French Vogue’s seriously questionable Lara-Stone-as-post-racial-morphing-woman editorial, by which I mean “do you think her tits will be generally acceptable if we make her black?”; W’s “politically and religiously charged portfolio featuring supermodel Linda Evangelista” conceived by artist Maurizio Cattelan) are making me super-uncomfortable, and it’s not the debatable content or artistic intent that’s bugging me out, it’s the fact that it’s debatable to begin with. Why do I have this bizarre feeling about these specific ‘high profile fashion magazines’ publishing ‘politically charged editorials?’ (Which we’re all aware are basically beautifully constructed artistic advertisements, and which I obviously am totally okay with and think are related to a ton of ‘really good art’ and which I avidly seek out and admire etc, etc, etc; it’s not about that, or even about fashion magazines also making social commentary or influence, which I also do believe is possible.)
So why are these editorials in particular, at this point, feeling more desperate, empty, uninspired, boring, and downright offensive than usual? Why does it annoy me that this is field for debate at this point? Why does it feel like a distraction rather than actual commentary (and what do I even mean by actual commentary?) Why do they feel so obviously like more pathetic attempts to grab and hold our attention? This is like one step away from Lady Gaga being confused about what feminism means and talking about being a hermaphrodite and pretending that’s so queer-friendly and progressive or whatever when it’s really just marketing strategy. Shock them! Be political! People will buy shit if you’re political! Yeah!
I’m not sure how the rest of this even relates, but somehow all these desperate-seeming ‘media’ and ‘publicity stunts’ — both in music and in fashion, and in their respective media — get me thinking too much about both of those industries and their media — and their blogs, and the directness of their internet-facilitated industry-to-consumer communication. Which in turn gets down into these weird concepts about new media and consumerism and issues of identity politics (because let’s face it, for me at least, a huge part of my public identity — disregarding ‘ideals’ and interpersonal relations — relies entirely on music and fashion, and I get about 85% of my information and ideas about both of those things through this here lil’ glowy screen.)
What I see as an enormous part of the crux of the ‘music industry’s problem’ is that the rise of the internet etc has lead us to question precisely what the monetary value of music really is — similarly, really one of the main things itching the dying media as well. Is intellectual property/information/art worth money, and even if it is, how can that be profitable? (Keep in mind I work in music marketing and have enough criticisms I could make about that, but on a base level don’t find it immoral or disturbing.) There’s another layer to this problem then, too: is the music something we see as an ‘item’ worth ‘paying for’, and is the journalism about the music — consisting traditionally of (usually asinine) reviews of music and shows, and of promotional interviews and photography — worth money as well?
Fashion, on the other hand, isn’t going anywhere. Their industry obviously is threatened and their media is in trouble as much as anyone else’s — which in turn obviously reflects the severity of the crisis elsewhere — but people still buy clothes, they still want clothes, they still want to dress themselves in a ‘fashionable’ way for whatever myriad of shallow and not-so-shallow reasons, with explanations running the gamut from misogyny to the most complex marxist sociological breakdown. There is a concrete product which people, in theory, need, and want far more than they need (once again, for any number of reasons.)
In economic disaster people question why and how much they need or want, and of course we question the morality and sustainability of it, blahblahblah — but there’s no solid argument as to whether or not the end product ought to have value, probably because there’s very little public opportunity for direct access to the actual product itself without an exchange of money. And while we can question the extremity of the gap, there’s also little question as to why ‘nice’ or silk clothes are pricier than ‘poorly made’ or polyester clothes, whereas in music it’s difficult to say if ‘good’ music should be worth more than ‘crappy’ music, since that’s impossible to quantify to begin with. (Interestingly I think this also begins to bring up arguments about copyright and intellectual property, though I suppose you do see those lawsuits in fashion as well as music — though in music they also tend to be industry-to-consumer whereas in fashion they’re intra-industry. Which I guess brings in a whole other thing comparing remixing/sampling/whatever to what we essentially do every day getting dressed, which is putting together other people’s intellectual property/art/design/whatever for our own purposes.)
So then what is it that these two industries — the ones in whose spheres I spend much of both my professional and personal lives, whose media I contribute to or consume most often — have in common (other than the fact that CMJ is coming up and I’m scoping out a new winter coat to help me weather it), and why do I feel this itching need to compare and contrast the crash and burn of their respective media and the dire circumstances facing them at large? (And why do I feel like I’m writing notes for a dissertation? Do I miss college that much? Do I want to go to grad school or something?) And how does this relate to, once again, Lara Stone painted in blackface and Linda Evangelista sleeping in an empty closet?
