Page 127 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

Music 111

One result of this is a media environment in which we no longer raise an
eyebrow when Janis Joplin ’ s “ Mercedes Benz, ” a mournful indictment of
materialism, is featured in a commercial for the luxury car manufacturer,
or “ Lust for Life, ” Iggy Pop ’ s ode to drug culture, is used to promote whole-
some Royal Caribbean cruises. On the other hand, the practice of sampling
– lifting a segment of recorded music from its original source and incor-
porating it into a new song – is a keystone of much contemporary dance
and hip hop music, and has enabled the creation of exciting new musical
compositions fashioned from a bricolage of borrowed sounds. Sampling
has sparked lawsuits by individuals and corporations who own copyrights
to songs and believe they should be paid whenever those songs are used to

make profit for others. However, many artists maintain that sampling is
essentially no different from White rock ’ n ’ roll artists ’ appropriation of
rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel, the intellectual property rights of
which are rarely discussed in public or legal discourse.
Due in large part to advances in media technology, in recent decades
delineations between musical genres, and between the subcultures that
grow around them, have become more permeable, and new hybrid forms
are beginning to appear. Successful mainstream artists such as the Rage
against the Machine and Linkin Park blend rap and hard rock; Missy Elliot
and M.I.A merge hip hop with Southeast Asian instrumental arrange-
ments; Shakira and Jennifer Lopez inject Hispanic influences into dance

music. Given the fluidity with which contemporary artists and fans move
between genres and musical traditions, it may seem unbelievable that
young men from the same socioeconomic class once engaged in physical
combat over differences in musical tastes, as British “ mods ” and “ rockers ”
did in the early 1960s. Of course, it would be inaccurate to claim that the
hybridization of musical genres signals the end of tensions between identity
groups. Instead, we must consider the ways in which the lines that divide
people according to differences in race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and
social class are continually being redrawn, and the ways in which music
both challenges and reaffi rms those divisions.
The cross - pollination of musical sounds and themes occurs not only
across genres in the American music scene, but is increasingly a transna-
tional phenomenon. Indeed, it is problematic to speak of American or
Middle Eastern or South American music as separate and distinct categories
anymore. In the American recording industry, the term world music is used
to market music made by indigenous people that is strongly informed by
their native traditions. Many critics argue that this designation reinforces