I think they’re absolutely correct.  The case of Michael Jackson is a clear story of how an unregulated market of child labor produces great innovation and massive amounts of wealth.  Win-win, right?

I also like the Randian overtones that a genius like Michael Jackson would have just not been a performer if the compensation and rewards were not good enough. He would have just kept it all inside, and done something with better returns on his time, like credit default swaps.

I’ll see his “Michael Jackson is a Neo-Con Capitalist Hero”

And raise him a “Footloose”

I do believe central planner Joe Jackson actually did invent Michael Jackson.  Michael may have proceeded to reinvent himself, but it was his overbearing and abusive father who first set him on the stage and brought him and his brothers to stardom…

Nothing screams the success of the free market like huge amounts of money based upon government granted monopolies!

Don’t record companies create stars?  The performers no longer even have to have a lick of talent.  They just have to be willing to shamelessly whore themselves out and have their lives invaded by paparazzi.  Sure, MJ had talent but that was 20 years ago.  Where is the talent in stars such as Britney Spears? 

Shapiro should examine her example of the success of capitalism a little more closely.  Jackson followed the same path as the U.S.  A spoiled, bloated bankrupt carcas ruined by excess and shallow, superficial values.  No matter how much money Jackson made, it was never enough.  No matter how much he spent, it wasn’t enough.  His great “success” never made him happy and. although it protected him from criminal prosecution, it ultimately isolated him, twisted him mentally and emotionally and killed him at an early age.

If MJ is a shining example of success, I’ll pass.

Whatever his personal eccentricities — perhaps, in part, as a result of them — Shostakovich represents a communist success story.

No entrepreneur could have invented him, and no corporate bureaucracy could have transformed classical music in the way he did.

Oh, and the Bolshoi? Pure suck. When their stars defected, they all became waiters and cabdrivers over here, and they weren’t very good at that.

Don’t record companies create stars?

Yeah, you can only go back like 30, 40, 50 years to find examples of the record industry creating stars.  They figured that trick out pretty early, it just seems like they’re more addicted to it now.

That said, Hannah Montana annoyed me.  Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus playing on the same stage just freaks me out.  They’re the same person!  She’s just wearing a wig!  You don’t have to present that as a double-bill!

But what’s really fucking awesome is that Shapiro is trying to defend the magical hand of capitalism by invoking the record industry.

Yes, the same record industry that’s spent the last decade running to governments (not just the U.S. gov’t, but those evil One-Worlder international bodies) in a desperate bid to prop up its failing business model. The same record industry that regularly screws over creative artists with creative accounting, while rewarding the violent thugs, risk-averse lawyers, and incompetent MBAs who run the show. Heck, switch out “lawyers” and “MBAs” for “commissars” and “apparatchiks” (thugs remain thugs), and you’re not far off from describing Melodiya in the ‘70s and ‘80s—bet the non-classical division had its share of cokehead hack producers, too.

In other words, it’s an industry that only a Rotarian Socialist could love. Which is no doubt why Ilya Shapiro, Libertarian, holds it in such high esteem.

No central planner could have invented him, and no government bureaucracy could have transformed pop music in the way he did.

This sounds like a pitch for Rocky IV: The Musical.

I went to high school with Ilya Shapiro (several years behind him).  He quoted Ayn Rand extensively in his graduation quotes.  Not surprised he’s ended up a highly paid right-wing assface.

Nothing screams the success of the free market like huge amounts of money based upon government granted monopolies!

I wonder if Shapiro actually understands that copyright is a government creation, and not simply natural law as willed into being by Supply-Side Jesus.

I say this, because as far as I can tell, the commies arguing this in the real world amount to a big, fat zero.

You’ve never met some of the hardcore Marxists/Maoists at my undergrad alma mater who have made similar/identical arguments.  Any music to them which did not focus on the glorification of working class/revolutionary struggles is “Bourgeois garbage” as far as they were concerned. 

Though they are an extreme few and so obnoxious that even many hardcore Marxists/Maoists are sometimes annoyed…..they do exist in some numbers….and you are bound to meet more in formerly/nominally communist countries like Mainland China.  Fortunately….the vast majority of people..even in those countries dismisses them as obnoxious sanctimonious cranks.

Unfortunately, remnants of this mentality is one reason why rock music has had a hard time gaining a popular following in Mainland China…even in the Beijing area….and why the PRC government has been able to suppress them with little protest since the beginning of the 1990s. 

But what’s really fucking awesome is that Shapiro is trying to defend the magical hand of capitalism by invoking the record industry.  Think about that for a moment—-the industry that’s failing so bad that they’ve resorted to suing the fans in a desperate move to save themselves is supposed to be the crown jewel of this argument about the wonders of low tax rate free market capitalism.

The record industry is a basket case.  What with mouthing Pro-capitalist values while relying on the state not only for IP laws…the very foundation of their existence….but also to pass and enforce more laws in order to maintain and prop up their moribund business model. 

From their actions, their actual ideal economic system is a form of medieval feudalism where they are the aristocratic class relying on their proximity to state power collecting sinecures procured through the oppressive taxation on the rest of the populace….

“twisted him mentally, physically and emotionally and killed him at an early age.”

Fixed that for you, badkitty.  Hope you don’t mind my taking the liberty of doing so.

Oh, and the Bolshoi? Pure suck. When their stars defected, they all became waiters and cabdrivers over here, and they weren’t very good at that.
paul on 06/26 at 07:27 PM

The Bolshoi, perhaps.  But the defections of the Kirov included Nureyev and Baryshnikov - hardly cabdrivers, Paul.

@phylosopher,

I befuddled me for a second, but I’m pretty sure Paul is being sarcastic.

Dan:
“I wonder if Shapiro actually understands that copyright is a government creation, and not simply natural law as willed into being by Supply-Side Jesus.”

Holy Crap! My ribs are sore from laughing. I’ll remember that…Supply-Side Jesus. That’s just beautiful.

Google ads just seen on this thread: 

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...interesting…

You’ve never met some of the hardcore Marxists/Maoists at my undergrad alma mater who have made similar/identical arguments.  Any music to them which did not focus on the glorification of working class/revolutionary struggles is “Bourgeois garbage” as far as they were concerned.

Agreed.  Cf. the now-defunct Maoist International Movement’s movie and music criticism.

That said, Shapiro’s “argument” makes about as much sense as, “Let’s see your precious New Deal make a puppy or a rainbow!  It can’t?  Then Keynesianism is dead.  Q.E.D.”

If only the march of history could have stopped in 1983, right?

Let’s see, Saint Raygun was the Preznit.  The constant FEAR of nuclear annihilation was in vastly more competent hands than those of Kim Jong Il.  Gays were too busy dying of AIDS to ruin our marriages.  No fucking ****** had been elected to the White House yet.  The CIA was running rampant, deficits were up, the military was growing by leaps and bounds,  welfare queens were getting their comeuppance, there was none of this crap modern music that kids these days listen too, and taxes were falling (at least for real people).  And Star Wars! (The weapon system, not the movie.)  So yeah, in pretty much conservative heaven.*

*At least as close as you can get outside the 50’s sitcom world that they like to believe existed.

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Wasn’t the marginal tax rate like 70% at the height of Jackson’s career?

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I don’t know anything about Soviet-era music, but their statues sure as hell are creepy.  And tacky.  I can’t imagine the officially sanctioned music was much better.

IF you want to talk about art, ginormous mainstream success, and social welfare, I should note that without the British national health care system and welfare state, I don’t think J.K. Rowling could have written Harry Potter.

I just can’t picture Jackson and Quincy Jones conferring in a world with higher marginal tax rates and saying, “Eh, does the baseline of ‘Billie Jean’ really need to be that awesome?

So what’s the “baseline” of a song? Is that what its marginal tax rates are “bassed” on?

(BTW, listen to the bass in “I Want You Back” and compare it to that of “Billie Jean.” The former rates a fabulous 90% marginal rate; the latter—maybe 20%. Generations’ worth of institutional skill and craft lost to the fuckin’ MIDI machines…)

I don’t know anything about Soviet-era music, but their statues sure as hell are creepy.  And tacky.  I can’t imagine the officially sanctioned music was much better.

In the case of Mainland China, one factor in their victory in 1949 was the fact they propagandized their message into the Chinese entertainment and pop culture of the 1930s and 40s. 

For instance, the current national anthem of the PRC started out as the main theme song to a 1930’s era patriotically themed movie called Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm.  Heck, this and other Communist themed songs were so popular that even most of the anti-communists of my parents generation can sing them almost verbatim. 

Of course, this was composed during the Nationalist China era which meant the songwriter/filmmaker had a more free creative hand in the process. 

Despite this movie’s pivotal role in the foundation of the PRC, the anthem was banned and songwriter persecuted during the Cultural Revolution….a period when adherence to political orthodoxy was mandated in total….much of the arts and music of that period became as abominably tacky and bad as the Soviet “Socialist Realism” art of the Stalinist era. 

In fact, the only tolerable version of a popular Cultural Revolution song called “Socialism is Good”* IMO is the rock version seen here....mostly because it uses the rock medium which is subversive considering Western rock music has been considered “corruptively bourgeois” by Maoist era authorities.  To some extent….this mentality continues into the present…one reason why rock has not only failed to gain a following in China..but has been vigorously suppressed by the PRC government at certain points. 

In short, if the “all art/music” should be exclusively on working-class/revolutionary struggles/themes” regardless of whether the resulting output is tacky/crap or not” people had their way….the Chinese Communist Party’s revolution may not have been able to succeed. 

* Original here.

All Singing!  All Dancing!  All Marxist Musicals!

And, yes, the movies in that documentary absolutely exist—it is not a Spinal Tap-like spoof.  A friend of mine took a class in Russian cinema at U of Illinois and saw a few of them.

It’s much the same in China, as far as I know, but dog only knows what goes on in North Korea.

The Communist Chinese party propaganda department before the revolution had more creativity and ability to grab popular attention than their Stalinist counterparts….until they become the rulers and emulated Stalin in their cultural productions. 

As for North Korea…here’s a sampling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_KKgzVspag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epps8m8648w&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HByXYxYN7H4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEMgX8irYM8&feature=channel_page

Generally speaking, “officially sanctioned” music is preening, superficial garbage regardless of the kind of government that sanctions it.

I wouldn’t be confident to make blanket statements like that without considerable research.  I know you’ve hedged your bets with “generally speaking,” but just to offer one counterexample: post-independence Guinean popular music.  The country was a one-party state with a cult of personality around the leader.  The state established a monopoly on professional music, set up a system of official regional and federal traditional ballets, traditional ensembles and popular orchestras, and forced the pre-existing private orchestras (who mostly played foreign music) to incorporate modernized arrangements of the country’s traditional music into the repertoire.

The results were pretty remarkable.  Granted, the one thing that doesn’t really age well is all the praise songs for the dear leader, the dear leader’s ancestors and children, and the Party.

Just a handful of examples—there’s no end to this stuff:

Bembeya Jazz National — Armée Guinéenne
Balla et ses Balladins — Sara
Kouyaté Sory Kandia - Souaressi 1970
Syli Orchestre National — Sara (1969)
Kélétigui & ses Tambourinis — Soundiata 1968
Les Amazones de Guinée

the nazis somehow made perversely good government sponsored music, the propaganda swing of Charlie and his Orchestra.

Was there any point in the 1940s when Soviet soldiers were using swords in battle?

I want the answer to be “well, this one time…”

Because that would be cool as shit.

“Was there any point in the 1940s when Soviet soldiers were using swords in battle?

I want the answer to be “well, this one time…”

Because that would be cool as shit.”

From what I remember from history class, Soviet soldiers used whatever they could get a hold of - there was a time when they used only the bayonets, and not the rifles, because they couldn’t make enough bullets. So, anyway, I can totally see them using swords.

“In my day, we were lucky if we got issued a shovel to dig our graves with!”

...but it also created thousands of jobs in the…marketing industries…

Wait, I thought you were supposed to be making arguments for capitalism?

Has this fun little oddity been thrown into the mix yet?

Maoist: You got your running-dog capitalist corrupt western colonialist peanut butter in my beautiful socialist chocolate!

Capitalist: You got your monolithic zombified yellow peril communist chocolate in my tasty freedom-loving peanut butter!

They eat.

Maoist & Capitalist: Uh… this is pretty good!

Generally speaking, “officially sanctioned” music is preening, superficial garbage regardless of the kind of government that sanctions it.

You take that back.  The genius of “Let the Eagle Soar” is unrivaled.

In what way did Shostakovich transform classical music? By writing third-rate pastiches of the Mahler symphonies?

Like his First Symphony?, or the 4th, which was banned by Stalin, because it wasn’t as ‘melodic’ as Stalin liked.

After the competition Shostakovich met the conductor Bruno Walter, who was so impressed by the composer’s First Symphony that he conducted it at the Berlin premiere later that year.

String quartets vastly inferior to Bartok’s?

I wouldn’t say that, but there are a lot of things HH writes that I wouldn’t say as well.

Howbout an opera like Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District?

From the Wikipedia(as was the above:

According to Shostakovich scholar Gerard McBurney, opinion is divided on whether his music is “of visionary power and originality, as some maintain, or, as others think, derivative, trashy, empty and second-hand.”[33] William Walton, his British contemporary, described him as “The greatest composer of the 20th century.”[34] Musicologist David Fanning concludes in Grove that, “Amid the conflicting pressures of official requirements, the mass suffering of his fellow countrymen, and his personal ideals of humanitarian and public service, he succeeded in forging a musical language of colossal emotional power.”[35]

Of course, William Walton didn’t know anything, right?

I’m working on a few of the preludes and fugues for myself, they show as much imagination as anything Prokofiev wrote for the piano.

These idiots think This Land is Your Land is a communist anthem.

Don’t these people realize that Soviet Communism is, you know, fucking DEAD and has been for 20 years now?

Jesus, they may as well be talking about the dangers of absolute monarchy or feudalism! Join the 21st Century, morons.

The Sovs did have a pretty kickass national anthem. I’m sure Shapiro’s seen “The Hunt for Red October” so he should know this. And I be he has sophisticated and thought out opinions on Baldwin vs. Ford vs. Affleck as Jack Ryan.

No central planner could have invented him, and no government bureaucracy could have transformed pop music in the way he did.

Counterpoint: <a >El Sistema</a>.

Ah, fuck. El Sistema.