Remember that old saying "boys will be boys"? Looking back, the naive little phrase sounds quite devious in essence - a praxis of masculinity, that is embedded in the 'modern' man, teenager and boy. It's a no-brainer that the masculine dominates the feminine in every aspect of mass culture. Given that exceptions and exceptional female artists matter, yet the overarching control and production remains firmly male dominated. That canonical inequality, sustained by idolatry, cult-worship, consequently creates entitlement which then leads to a 'culture' of abuse, violence and crimes. Committed again and again by world famous singers, rockers, musicians, record producers and DJs. All such icons and superstars are as widely celebrated by the mainstream media and millions of fans. This article is a brief narrative about how machismo, celebrity cult worship, gender based violence and a nihilistic sense of entitlement,  has contaminated and proliferated within popular music culture.

Michael Jackson, robbed of his childhood, surrounded by 'vultures' that preyed on his fears and weaknesses - was so consumed by self-loathing, that he carved (surgically manipulated) his african-america face into a "caucasian death-mask". The same superstar went on to violate children inside his mansion, while mainstream media celebrated his "Peter Pan eternal childhood" image. Moral nihilism eventually consumed the world's biggest pop music icon, ending with his death (Propofol overdose), weeks before his 9th sold-out world tour.  

James Brown’s litany of domestic violence, is well accounted for by his daughter Yamma Brown. She recalls harrowing experiences of watching the "godfather of soul" repeatedly subject her mother to domestic abuse and denigrating language, mostly under the effect of alcohol and cocaine. Onstage fronting thousands of hysteric fans, the same "godfather" cried "I got soul, and I'm super bad!" How morbid or plain pathetic? And a vast number of African Americans adore the music (and persona) of the same wife-beating "godfather". Such is celebrity cult worship trash!

 

Rockstar Ozzy Osbourne's wife Sharon Osbourne recollects the days of "heaven to hell" - a period when she was repeatedly bashed, inside the singer's mansion, and no one from the 'rock sorority' came to her rescue. Eventually the police came and arrested Ozzy Osbourne - only to release the rockstar on bail, two days later. Oh! "iron man"...

Africa's first superstar, Fela Kuti, touted by the BBC as "Africa's Bob Marley" on record displays his contempt -"To call me a sexist… for me is not negative. If I’m a sexist, it’s a gift that I am proud of...” Given that Fela Kuti was deeply inspired by James Brown's success as a black man in America, yet few speak about the hate and prejudice that he harboured against homosexuality and certain white folks. Pathetic euro-centric institutions appointed Fela Kuti as an "ambassador of human rights". Kuti, a classic megalomaniac towards the end of his life, the erstwhile 'afro-cult' struck down by AIDS, he started calling his music “African classical music” – and is quoted in a new film saying "you wouldn’t expect composers like Mozart or Beethoven to write three-minute numbers, so why should I?" What's worse certain popular liberal musicians (Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel etc) remained 'mute' about Fela having multiple wives and spurting hatred for LGBTQ folks. The stories of stardom, wealth and hedonism fail to hide the "train-wreck" reality of the 'gods of pop music'. Regardless of race and background, through the 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond, famous artists have often been crushed under their own false sense of entitlement. As Pulitzer prize winning writer Chris Hedges encapsulates by saying "when you spend your entire life as a celebrity, you have no idea, who you are.."

Grammy winner and Guinness Book record holder, R&B singer songwriter, R. Kelly started his predatory pursuit of teenage girls early on in his career. Just like certain catholic priests prey upon the young of the parish, R Kelly too embodied certain "god-father" like traits, to charm and trap young girls, with promises of instant success. As early as 1994, R. Kelly had married an underage girl called Marries Aaliyah (she was 15). Her one and only album is titled "Age is but a number". Many folks played a tacit role in helping R. Kelly establish himself as a serial abuser over the next two decades. Repeated attempts to file charges or take him to court, were thwarted by his legal team, his record label (RCA) and largely ignored by mainstream media - till one could not hold back the sheer evidence, number of victims and mounting public outcry. His timeline of abuse, over two decades is now clear. In 2018, combined action taken by Women Of Color, #MuteRKelly and Buzzfeed eventually managed to bring the Grammy winner to court, wherein indicting him for several counts of sex-trafficking, sex with under-age girls, assault and rape. Such is the irony of R. Kelly's superstardom, who for three decades was cherished by fans and the media sirens as the "Pied Piper of R&B". Currently in jail, at the Chicago Correction Facility facing 22 felonies.

Reductionism is a series of related ideas yet pertaining to a distinct philosophical theory. That is "reducing" one to another, usually considered "simpler" or more "basic" in all things living or non-living in the universe. The three major fields of Reductionism cover theory, objects and meanings when applied. We attempt to apply Reductionism to the current state of mass culture and social media.
Recently Ray Kurzwiel, visionary, scientist and ex-synthesizer pioneer stated in a lecture that "technology, as we see it now, doubles it's processing power every year - and will continue to multiply (not add) at an exponential rate : forever, making it impossible to map or even rationally quantify the nature of this digital universe. Which seems forever growing like a self replicating virus, in terms of speed, size, memory and span of life i.e. information. All the information shared between the people of the earth. Via trillions of feedback loops - mirroring like neural networks inside our brains. Yet we are not virus nor a set of predictable neurons. All this information - be it personal, erratic, superficial, critical, cultural, economic, religious, political etc. etc. is finally blowing holes into the archaic theories of Sigmund Freud : A gutted philosophy, that human beings are untrustworthy - The internet has castigated the pan-american game-theories of of John Nash. The online 'world' is witness to thousands of hordes, digital juntas, shifting tribes and people connecting & confronting over what is popularly agreed as 'cyberspace. At the turn of the millennium, it was evident that the internet was the best place for those seeking interpersonal and often anarchistic independent desires and content. But that changed fast. The disturbing visions of Ayn Rand manifested itself quickly into a near totalitarian web : A virtual world yet mostly targeted at replicating every possible aspect of reality : available for every person on earth via a phone or computer. George Orwell's [1984] political nightmare steps into real life and TV - as many leading states begin to spy on their citizens - en mass they violate/exploit people's lives, rights and personal information. Alvin Tofler's prediction of reducing job satisfaction and a technology dependent society, too has unfolded globally. The archetype cyber-punks inside Nueromancer by William Gibson, have become reality : As individuals can and do attempt to bend or destroy existing systems of control & authority : repeatedly allover the world. The information revolution has gradually destroyed all theoretical differences of capitalism and communism : it has bombed talent out of the picture replacing it with hype and mediocrity - It has categorized billions of people regardless of race, language, orientation or color or region as binary forms, as data, as accounts. The internet has also been the single most significant reason for the rise of culture as a global favorite. Culture in it's myriad forms has become a tool to define identity or to destroy the opponent. Be it political, artistic or business. Online propaganda has practically busted the old value systems and even threatened verified facts & information - the order of merit has been vanquished by digits. Binary assessment would replace organic craft by sheer volume and speed of change. Millions of voiceless unsung personas across the world, would step into an arena where anything is possible yet nothing seems to make much sense after a while. A constant state of hyper-normalization. Approx. 21 million songs are sold on i-tunes.com every day and this staggering volume is not even 15% of all the music available online. The number of songs uploaded by pirates, labels, artists, musicians, producers, DJs, fans, bloggers and people in general is now near-impossible to track. Why Bother ? As the same numeric logic applies for visual, cinematic, photographic and written media being posted online. Number systems control and define us as an individual or group or corporations and even regions or nations. Software makes sure we follow the protocol day in & out.







Film-maker Adam Curtis points out, with mass evidence, that "the algorithms are very strong inside the networks of social media .. rapidly we are trapped inside an echo-chamber of alike culture and ethics". Globalization and information technology would become the bane and the boon of 21st century humanoids, searching the answers to questions which may mostly be irrelevant if not utterly diabolic in nature. On social media, you or I or the distant Icelander or Kenyan is a value inside a giant system. The same value-system applied to the greek celebrity Kim Kardashian or the super-jock DJ Hardwell or Pope Francis or the president of America or ISIS Inc. The numbers 'next' to us begin to matter way more than what we are or what we can be. Millions abide and fool each other online every day by numbers and serving the system - feeding the horrendously powerful hype machine - and the proof is everywhere, on every major social media network. 90% people using social-networking are deemed persona non-grata. The heap of global consumers. Devalued upon a continuos treadmill of hyper-normality. Be it a twitter celebrity kissing open the season's best festivals for $1000 a tweet - or a crowd-funding guru raising a million dollars for a breast-replacement tragedy album - or Mark Zuckerberg peddling fake political news on facebook - all adds upto numbers which exposes the desire to notch a million hits for another fistful of dollars. The chances of this article being read completely, are 1 : 9610, as per Google Analytics : Also telling me to monetize my blog. Why ? because the website [or me] reached approx. 905,000 hits. A point of merit ? Yet.

Approx. 1.2 Billion people might use facebook at least once a week or Google would host roughly 1 billion active users in 2016 or YouTube would reach to 7 out 10 people on earth : Approx. 210 million 'personal 'photographs were posted on tumblr, instagram and pinterest in 2016 alone. Below these oceanic patterns would be millions self styled porn-stars, celebrity magnets, pop-icons, politicians, sports stars, DJs, cat fetishists, major brands, social and scientific zealots, religious crooks and spiritual hoodwinks and a few million semi-naked women [showing ass] Dropping further fathoms down, the mass majority of internet users comprise of hundreds of millions of shopkeepers - Vendors of what-you-may-never-need products, services, ideas bombarding away at the continuum of propaganda. Yet what overshadows all, from above, is the presence of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Verizon, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, I-Tunes, Spotify and a few other viciously competitive monoliths. Like lofty skyscrapers and hovering zeppelins of the current online landscape : As gigantic icons of unquestionable innovation, success and profit. Yet beyond the hype and hoopla, eventually the internet is a system. Churning endless amounts of data, predictions and numbers into vast amounts of money for a few epic monopolists. Fact, that the iphone is a 'perfect product' made of taxpayers money and perpetuating economic slavery. The Iphone contains several key components, previous developed by the US Military, using american tax-payers money. The phone also contains metals such as cerium, europium and neodymium which is mined by africans under the most miserable conditions - exploited in Congo by Belgian and American cartels. Eventually assembled by Foxcon, a industrial monopoly from Taiwan which employes 600,000 people of which many commit suicide every month] Little do most people care about the suffering and instead haggle over software updates for a faster life.


Average americans were listening to 7 minutes of music on a given website in 2004 - which now has plummeted to give or take 55 seconds. The chances of you hearing new music has exponentially risen to approximately 1 million tunes being uploaded every-week, yet the chances of you actually remembering or even liking a new piece of music is down to 1 in 4810 attempts. Standing as quantic equations of success - Over time, it has become evident that a clear devaluing effect is in place, inside the mechanics of the internet. Like every new economic manifesto and free-market game-plan since WW2, the benefits of online success favor a select few, and that too for short periods of time. Post 2007, there would be no real democracy online. Young visionaries like Aron Swartz would be driven to commit suicide because of State and Corporate bullying - As Tom, your default 'first friend' on myspace.com, would rake +14 million dollars a year. The age of start-ups [2003-12] would promise millions of people a chance to exploit the digital vista like never before, and in reality would favor just a handful to quickly industrialize all information technology. Just like the outcome of capitalism and communism, witness the last 100 years.


Yet, technology is not to blame. Nor are the exploitative corporations and silicon valley kids who rake in billions every year with our content, our actions, thoughts, images, music, words, art, propaganda, rants, business and selfies. 95% of the information [out there] is a result of Us. Our existence. Our creation. [and not google, soundcloud, whatsapp or facebook or your favorite app or website] Yet it's a reductionist's game versus an alchemist's fantasy : after all the hype and individual hope has been sequestered via inhuman number systems. Billions of investment dollars dunked into cyberspace has eventually created domination, devaluation and dependence. We literally created (and paid) for the internet and the opposite of what was expected happened. Facebook in co-horts with the FBI, NSA and various powerful information systems is currently selling private userdata in order to manufacter consent as well spy on individuals labelled as "dangerous" by the state. Founder, owner Mark Zuckerburg is a glaring example of how a powerful tech-capitalist who believes that technocracy can outrun democracy.




The internet has a peculiar yet complete seductive effect across users, telling us that the value our efforts online, will yield profits or benefits over time. To an outsider the internet is like a giant snake eating or feeding itself continuously : Growing massively. As we feed this schema and live off it via constant visibility, propaganda, information, views, love, hate, secrets, contempt or even controversy - we seem to actually achieve less and less in terms of personal growth or even satisfaction. 15 years ago the much celebrated possibility of individuality and living utopian personalities online has been crushed by uniformity : by pixel sizes, word limits, templates and by constant monitoring and increasing tariffs. You must pay to play. The dream is (almost) over. The final frontier never arrived as them technocrats had predicted. A terrible hoax or a flaw in the system which failed to deliver the promise of digital democracy and freedom of the self. What the internet ordains us to believe is actually the opposite of what is served to it's invisible masters. The hits, the likes, the hearts, dislikes, hash-tags, the embeds, the shout-outs and every social media protocol we indulge in : accrues even more profits/control for the involved corporations : and so will be this paradigm, forever, superior than the individual. The bubble of buying the audience, listeners and followers is bust. The loudest and most mediocre of humanity have now become the Online Champions. A truly diabolic spell of fame and suspicion caste upon human culture(s) and identity. The idea of personal information and space, has been depleted by our browsers and the digital mining corporation behind it. Repetition effects innovation in a converse way. Be it the 17th century or 2016. Be it potatoes or FM radio sets or .mp3'. Be it political or cultural propaganda. Be it bit-coins or EDM. The same logic would apply for a large group of people or the average individual. Exceptional moments and continuos hype would guarantee the rat-race within the internet to exponentially rise every year. Quasi cultures and demagoguery thrives, yet only as tools to serve profit and propaganda.


The internet and information highway is a part of human evolution. Not a biological part, yet a cultural one, visible in the daily and practical consciousness of human beings, across the planet. Unlike any religion or political or cultural epoch, the internet is omnipotent now. This is evolution : or as some theorists say 'de-volution' An on-going Reductionism of human aspirations and innate values, colliding with technology.

** The article does not concur with many existing success models on the internet. Further, it does not praise the unilateral and democratic effect of the internet felt by millions of users, across the world for the last fifteen years. It critically scans social-media systems and the future routes of human culture. Outside existing propaganda based mass culture, the internet and social media is public property and should be open to change, to chance and even challenge. Like nations, like societies, like culture, art and ideas, the people own the internet and the space within. Not the corporations nor the State. Consumerism and current social media networks stand against such principles and ideas. We search a new paradigm : for individuals outside the maze of reductionism. A critical revision.



Dedicated to Aron Swartz :
Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986–January 11, 2013) He was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer and Internet 'hacktivist'

" According to Adorno, the spread of technology served the culture industry in U.S. and eventually to the rest of the world, just as it helped tighten the control of authoritarian governments in Europe. The result was a sweeping transformation in the conditions of the production and distribution of culture. This transformation spelled the erosion of the free circulation of cultural works in the bourgeois era and their monopolistic control by the culture industry. Adorno believed that this decline in the conditions of circulation and production permitted the wholesale standardization was apparent in the culture industry's promulgation of hit songs, creation of singing and movie stars, and reliance on a series of invariant types, slogans, and repetitive formulas "... " 

Today, almost 60 years to that prediction, do we witness all cultural success as an eventual and iconic system of autocratic power  ? Or it is just a calculated and automated industry made for the sole purpose of achieving maximum profitability.

http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC20folder/AdornoMassCult.html

"… hammer into every brain the old lesson that continuous friction, the breaking down of all individual resistance is the condition of life in this society. Donald Duck in the cartoons and the unfortunate in real life get their thrashing so that the audience can learn to take their own beating ..."  Theodor Adorno : Institut Frankfurt 1964.

Someone at a musicians circle claimed that there were close to ten thousand musicians in Mumbai, circa 2010. Though the claim sounded quiet preposterous, that figure today is not really far from reality. The IMI (Indian Music Industry), a phonograph conglomerate based in Mumbai, claims 4000 plus registered members. The Cine Musicians Union in Mumbai who recently celebrated its 50th anniversary, declares another 1000 plus members on their annual roster. There are hundreds, if not a thousand professional musicians in Mumbai outside the 'unionised' span of the above organisations; percussionists, pianists, arrangers (a very odd term used only in Bollywood parlance), guitar players, violinists, tabla and dholak players, flautists, sitarists, saxophonists, players of bongo, duff, rabab and all such instrumentalists that record and make a living on a daily basis, inside roughly 500 studios in Mumbai. Add another 500 odd studio engineers who record, mix, shine and pimp the almighty Bollywood Sound Machine!

The film industry in India, thrives and literally breathes on the music that these very people contribute to every day and night, feeding this giant mechanism; The Sound of Bollywood. Be it film songs, background scores, television adverts, radio jingles, pop music, product promos and anything that requires that 'effective and consistent' sound to convince the masses, the household audio, that the characteristic gloss, emitting from Mumbai is heard and consumed in the far corners of this nation, and increasingly across the world. Surely we are not talking about how to make your mark inside Bollywood : The most 'alluring and windrush' music industry in the world right now.


Lets take a look at the funnier side of things instead. A capricious view inside Bollywood's audio galaxy. Lets get a load inside the world of hard sell. Lets go feel the loudness booming from the music director’s studio. Lets bring up the artful and foxy game between film companies and record labels. Lets meet a superstar singer who most often does not write the lyrics, nor conjures the melody. Lets hang out with the music producers who have the loudest and hippest sample tank. Lets stupefy ourselves (just for a moment) at the lyricist who has written more than 8000 songs to date, mostly about love and its unrequited status. See how a remix is 'done' in less than 6 hours. Lets listen to the ulterior soundtrack of Bollywood!


In Bollywood, the process of a song becoming a chart breaking hit appears mysterious and even alluring as a game of poker for the ace gambler. Yet the masters of this art, this congress of composers, the vaudevilles creators of fat sounds and the bards of utterly basic rhymes are continuously trying to get to the top of the heap. Try and ride the apex of an industry, which has never stopped turning up or has shown any sign of slowing down. Each person in this hierarchic order of manufacture plays a pivotal yet repetitive role; each one must endure the given struggle, each one is constantly learning new tricks and skills to swim through the ever changing tastes and trends. Each one, jostling and edging themselves against the other; the successful ones, cheering and sharing accolades at the glitzy industry award nights. Each one sometimes, unknowingly or vagrantly ripping or copying a melody, harmony, beats or even words and poetry!


Take a look at how a typical Bollywood film song comes to form. What happens before you get lambasted by the latest hit song. Most often, with the much negotiated film contract drawn and signed between the director of the film, along with the producer and the film company; a hunt will ensue for the best music director available, given the budget and weight of the tentative star-cast. Wait! Did anyone bother approving or holding up the script? What’s the plot? Never mind, we need hits and we need them now!

The most bizarre convention that has continued in Bollywood for decades, is that almost all songs of the movie in question are composed, recorded and mixed even before the film crew have begun shooting. The director will contract the music director to deliver the outstanding (if not golden) songs, which in turn will be the nailing factor in committing to the future success of the film. The music director holds the key to this very challenge. Well along with his trusted crew and buddies of course. And for now, the action, drama and dancing can take a back seat.

Lets take a normal scene in a Bollywood movie plot. The girl is missing the boy; the boy is far away and lonesome. The music director and the lyricist will brainstorm in session, with pen, paper, guitar, keyboard or just a cappella, in order to arrive at an opportune melody and meter to express the feelings and mood of the above mentioned scenario. With the basic tune in place, the music director will summon the 'arranger' (an archaic term which has existed since the 60s where the erstwhile conductor was rechristened, as modern instruments crept into the old orchestra) to create the appropriate music and beats for the song to be. Today off course this is done mostly on computers, synthesizers, digital recorders and samplers as music producers do, the world over.

This is where the undertaking gets funny. The director of the film steps in further to give insight to the music director about the plot, who in tandem with the lyricist’s verse and chorus creates the much anticipated melody, which in turn must find the best suitable voice (male and/or female) to bring the song to life, closer to perfection, and further be 'pronounced, powered and pumped' by the music producer, who almost takes on the role of a cook; his job is to bring a basic melody to its greatest possible sonic results. Eventually recorded, balanced, sweetened and compressed to sound 'fat' and 'fresh' by the mix engineer. The producer of the film gives the approving nod inside a plush studio and the involved singer, producer, instrumentalist and the music director share the exalt. Presto! Do we have a hit song yet?



Well, not really. One final and often unnerving deal is to win the confidence or convince the heavy weight investors of the movie and the bigwigs at record labels (who will eventually purchase the music rights from the investors) about the 'Hit Factor' of the song in question. Will it reflect the time, money and invested efforts of the people involved? Screw that! Will it bring in crores of rupees via royalties, ringtones, overseas concerts, reselling rights, DJ remixes and the eventual guarantee of constant airplay on television and radio, for at least 5 weeks?

This very excruciating, twisted and often whimsical decision routine sets the performance and throbbing index of Bollywood music, on a daily, monthly and yearly basis. And what do these decision making bosses know about music? The invested capital and its might speaks for one and all. This musically inclined pot-boiler of creating popular music for Bollywood movies is virtually unknown to most of the mass consumers and the bedazzled fans. If your latest song can ride the waves for 5 to 6 weeks, you’re in business. If it can stay hot for a year or more, you’re virtually Timbaland!


Hit or shit, Bollywood's music making factory is a well oiled workhorse for creating fast consumable music and it is homogenized, hierarchical and totally industrialized. An ever inviting core that provides not only employment to a multitude of artists, techies and artisans, to some luckier ones a complete 'life in the fast lane'. Yet, it churns, it burns, giving rewards to newer successful 'players' and in turn claiming and caging the older ones into hegemony and eventual obscurity. The music must go on; the songs must break previous records of popularity (revenue). At any cost, music and songs are the lifeline of Bollywood cinema.