The Solution - Revolution

From a macroeconomic standpoint, globalization is the natural evolution of a free market. On some level, national and international policy-makers can affect the mechanisms that slow or accelerate the globalization process. But there is no way any kind of nostalgic, grass roots, anti-global movement will stop the march of economic progress – or is there?
Why examine music – a seemingly inconsequential entity – when considering globalization as a realistic, applicable situation as opposed to a macroeconomic concept? Surely it would be more prudent to examine the horrendous economic impact that globalization, the World Bank, and the IMF have had on, say, the banana industry in a place like Jamaica, than to complain about the bad, formulaic music that is the result of the consolidation of the music industry.

Yes, music is incredibly inconsequential when compared to the economic devastation left in the wake of world globalization practices. When considering the following concept, the consequence of the actual act of globalization, in this case, is not the highlighted factor; instead consider that the music industry is the one area where, starting mostly with the dawn of the 21st century, grass roots entities actually have made progress toward a reversal of the trends that have pushed forth unceasingly since the Industrial Revolution.
The groundwork for this reversal lies in the basic concept that, although formally one needed a corporate entity to produce, package, market, and sell music, the actual base product is a commodity that is individually created. This is essential because, with the disintegration of manufacturing in the United States, any product that needs to be manufactured will inevitably fall into the web of globalization through outsourcing. Therefore, to enter that web, it must be tailored to the specified molds laid out by the Big 4 and entered into the global music production process.

The only solution to a problem of this magnitude is a paradigm shift in thought, a revolution that blows apart the very groundwork concepts that define the music industry. "They" were right when they said the revolution would not be televised – television is so passé. This revolution, the cultural movement of the 21st century, will be DIGITIZED.

It swept in like a riot: Napster blowing open the minds and consciousnesses of the public to the initial possibilities of digital music. Sure, people downloaded licensed music like they were robbing the local Harmony House. But for those who dug deeper there was more to find.

The first inkling of change afoot in the way music would be produced and distributed sprung up in those unregulated early days of purely bandit downloading. Samples from mystery D.J.s – combining different tracks and samples, making their own digital hybrid creations, all from their privacy of their own P.C. – gave stimulating bits of foreshadowing concerning the future possibilities of the medium. Their music, streamed out on the net, gained great popularity for the alias that created them – see D.J. Danger Mouse and his Grey Album. No studios, no bulky equipment, no executives looking over their shoulders, telling the producers what would sell – just the artist and his tools of creation. It is culture in its purest and most creationalist sense – a kind of independent expression that has been repressed for too long in the U.S..