The Nationalism of “Pop”

Whereas Peter the Great chose the nationalism of Tchaikovsky musically to represent Russia during the nineteenth century, George W. Bush has chosen the “pop” of Rupert Murdoch to represent America in the twenty first century. His News Corp., a corporate monopoly, in an insatiable conquest to compete with Ted Turner recently bought the long standing traditions of the Wall Street Journal. Will there be any media left unmaimed from his voracious appetite for a New World Order? All ready the Russian Five’s need to rely on intrinsic folk and religious elements, in American, have been replaced with Rupert Murdoch’s Nationalism of Pop. Bush has chosen this Nationalism of Pop delivered by News Corp. to represent Big Brother, disguising America’s attempt at the Russian Five. While the internet briefly became the “new revolution” of music, quickly it succumbed to the sheer monetary power of corporate monopolies. Microsoft’s recent attempt to buy Yahoo is another attempt in a long line of well-planned corporate mergers meant to centralize media at the expense of freedom. Why would Time/Warner want to own the rights to all American music? Is this a good thing? Is it a good thing America’s past music systematically has been taken off the airwaves leaving them drenched in the conservative whining of new Pop Nationalism? America once was a country of “Rebels Without a Cause.” We were the Russian Five, not the Communist Nationalism of Stalin. Rupert Murdoch’s sheer wealth has bought the former venues of American musical freedom, and they now are stained with the skid marks of Carson Daily, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jay Leno. These late night talk show hosts are nothing more than hawkers for the man. Only Craig Ferguson, as he proved when speaking for the white House Press Corp., is worthy to battle such a covert incumbent revolution. He sees it for what it is. David Letterman used to be the bearer of this torch, but Ed Sullivan like in the Night of the Living Dead, inhabited his body. How could it be in such a short period of time the freedom, exuberance, and creativity of the Apple Macintosh via “the internets” has become constrained and dictated by corporate America? It seems the only place this freedom may be found today is in the nurturing world of academia. Unless you have a child in college or have the scratch to take a college course, the rest of America has to sit while Rupert Murdoch shouts at us through his network. The simple cultural traditions that have made America great are buried beneath cheap circuits in digital media. Liberate music! Free the vinyl LP. Free the ferric oxide cassette tape! Let the earth’s elements that are slowly evaporating in the cloud of Global Warming take on new purpose and strength and battle the evil microwaves. Matter over mind. Analog over digital. Man over machine.