Artistry in Media

Why do I keep talking about a “Media Conspiracy?” It is because when I went to school for music a large part of my education in music came from film and television. Deep in my heart I always wanted to compose for the symphony orchestra. I knew finding a job scoring music for movies was an impossibility, because the television and film industry are like most things in the American Capitalist system. Take for example the FBI “sting” that occurred in Columbia, South Carolina in the late l980’s. Local lawmakers were caught on videotape taking bribes at a downtown hotel. “Onesy, twosy, threesy….,” were the words spoken as legislators accepted hundred dollar bills peeled from a bank wad by an FBI plant. Talk about the “Good Old Boy” system. This is the reason I moved from the South to the Midwest. The history and lineage of the American South were cemented in stone, unwavering, and oppressive. To make money you had to move elsewhere. Nothing much has changed, and all that “Old Money” still is sitting in those plantation houses. A geographic region that said to me, “What boy, you think you can make it when the rest of us are stuck here in Columbia?,” I left sitting in the dirt. It was not easy, but changing your environment is half your battle of success. Opportunism only works if you go to places where there is opportunity. For most of us this can be difficult, because learning to be transient usually is reserved for military families. Starting over in a new geographical location can be difficult, because often the people in a new area will not let you bring your previous identity. They require you to acclimate to their community and relate to them how they are capable. If that means you must grow a new skin then so be it. The media industry has become conspiratorial because opportunities that once existed are gone, much like many of America’s manufacturing jobs. If the Republicans that kept yelling, “Socialist” at Barack Obama would take a moment to consider that the private sector itself systematically has eliminated many of the jobs Americans need to survive, then that word would not frighten them. American automakers asked the federal government for 15 billion dollars in aid this week to fend off their ailing businesses. Is this Capitalist? Is giving Wall Street 700 billion dollars of American taxpayers’ money Capitalist? No, it is Socialist, and who did it? Not Barack Obama. The media industry has been rooted in hypocrisy and propaganda for the eight long years Mr. Bush has been in the white house. Media, being television, film, and music has been a driving force of our economy since its inception. With the influx of the Extreme Right into our governmental system, the Extreme Right also invaded our media industry. Hypocritically all of the things Mr. Bush’s administration were shouting about all ready were ensconced in our media system. Reality TV must have been the beginning of it. Whence did this come? The media became successful at diverting America’s attention away from its own shortcomings, spinning it like a top. All of the precursors to working in the media industry were dismantled along with its jobs. People ask where the jobs are? When media moguls buy up American media for their own personal gain, eventually it will become apparent that the industry they have purchased is not autonomous. It takes blood, sweat, and tears, and mostly artistry. Artistry vanished from the airwaves like an invisible death ray. The jobs that once were responsible for making American media successful were removed, and with them went the result. Media has been trying to cover this up for eight long years. Talent? No where was this more apparent than in the presidential election coverage. The production, the stage, the theatre of politics disappeared with the media industry. Art, the tangible thing that studies, interprets, translates, and embodies life has been removed for monetary reasons. It was too expensive for media moguls to fund. Like the swath of greed-ridden CEO’s in America’s recent history, media moguls want to keep all of the money for themselves. In the early days of America it was called a corporate monopoly, and in fairly recent years it used to be illegal. A particular administration was responsible for loosening these shoestrings, allowing the mouse to play. Now the mouse has been eaten by the cat, and the cat is hungry.