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Music, Marxism, and the Hype About D.I.Y

1997; Monthly Review Foundation; Volume: 49; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.14452/mr-049-07-1997-11_4

0027-0520

Barry Stoller,

Research, Science, and Academia

When surveying the job landscape through the somewhat sheltered eyes of youth, any number of individuals, no: surprisingly, find the "career" of musician imbued with far more interest, status and freedom from wage tyranny than most others. The appeal of "making it" in the music business—with all the fame, glamour, money and "artistic expression" that goal implies—is a very powerful inducement indeed, and especially so for youths who question their opportunities for achieving economic independence in the sphere of job listings found in the classified ads. Motives for pursuing a musical career—expressed often as "working for myself" and "doing something that I really like"—tap into the very psyche of the Jeffersonian myth of the American Dream and provide 21 popular notion of capitalism at its most benevolent. Every sixteen-year old pumping gas at a summer job certainly finds irresistible the image of an Ice-T or a Slash—guys who definitely look like they might have pumped a little gas in their teens—telling the gas station manager to screw himself and then embarking on a satisfying adventure of "hitting the big time," handsomely paid and amply appreciated for expressing such potent revenge fantasies.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.