Phase V: Intensification - Everybody Gets What They Want, in Spades.

Here we are now - entertain us! - Nirvana, 19!2

Everyone's been cast for a part in our play. - Severed Heads, 1998

In many ways, the Intensification Phase is very much like the Renewal Phase- it's an analytical situation, one of cool appraisal. However, the difference is one of scale and quantity, and in the Intensification Phase, the quantity takes on a quality all of its own. Example: drop a flea, a human, and an elephant from 3000 times their respective heights onto a slab of concrete. The flea would hop away, the human would die, and the elephant would basically explode. The flea lives, the elephant disintegrates - scale matters. And scale is critical to the Intensification Phase of Rock Music, and, in many ways, the Music Industry itself. It is the phase that presently obtains, but will not obtain much longer. We live in a world of intensified media (The Mass Music Industry, Rock and Roll, and broadcast Television are all roughly the same age, and have grown together through the same phases, albeit, not all at the same rate- for instance, standard broadcast TV is rolling into its Dissolution Phase as digital TV is being born, in the face of unquestionable cable ascendancy and internet access) and this media system is all encompassing to the dissemination of cultural ideas (both autochthonic and prefabricated) and distribution of cultural commodities (of most any variety). The development of computer networks and peer to peer (P2P) distribution systems seemed, at first, to have posed great challenges to the powers in the music industry, and the more reactionary among them have been the most litigious in trying to prevent P2P from arriving in any way that is disruptive to the status quo designs and desires of the RIAA and the media conglomerates.

Yes, at this writing, there are alternatives to Napster, such as Morpheus and audioGalaxy, but I predict their demise by June 2002. Their dependence on a central server for version tracking, advertising routing, and download tracking will prove to be their demise. Yes, both of their systems are based on the Gnutella engine, and are therefore much more decentralized than Napster, but their adaptations of Gnutella are enough that, I believe, the forces of reaction will likely take them down very soon, seeing how Napster has been completely emasculated into yet another music rental service. Some say, 'It doesn't matter, the MP3 genie's out of the bottle! It'll just drift somewhere else!' The problem with that position is its utter irrelevance. The RIAA and Entertainment Conglomerates care less and less about that, and are being aided and abetted by Microsoft. The RIAA and Entertainment Conglomerates are paying more attention to the '95% rule', which says that if you have a hackable system, 95% of the people who use the system will not have the interest or skillset to hack it. With appropriate rear-guard actions of litigating against the likes of Napster and any Gnutella-like service that has a central tracking server system to keep the fringes at bay, they can depend on 95% of the people being good little consumers and cheerfully accept whatever crap they choose to put in the Intensified Music pipeline (in response to the consumer trends and choices of said 95%). In this way, the Conglomerates maintain their profit margins, and have a built in radical critique of their actions, so they can more closely operate and serve the needs (however manufactured and artificial) demographic/economic support that permits their consumerist economic model to persist. As long as most of the people who are playing the game play by their rules, they are happy. If some are bending things and it gets noticeable, they'll litigate. And the few percent who are bound and determined to fight them- They Don't Care. It doesn't affect their profit margins or models too badly, and gives them a built in critique and marketing analysis / trend spotting tool. Just like a healthy dose of Marxism makes for a better capitalist.

This is all possible in our present Intensification Phase as it is a world of simulations. Everything in the environment always already exists in simulation - it is all there for the purpose of reproduction and mass distribution. Thus, the story of Napster is one of the crowning moments of the Intensification Phase of the Rock Music Market and in time, I believe, will be seen as a harbinger of its impending Dissolution.

As stylistic innovation has been indexical for the past 25 years, the interest is no longer in forwarding the language of rock music - punk rock's demand of three chords and inner commitment evacuated any such effort. This was aided and abetted by a critical establishment hostile to any progressive movements in rock music, and who frequently derided such movements as pretentious and antithetical to their understanding of what constitutes 'good' rock music. This reactionary turn prevented the catastrophic demise of rock music in an emulation of the immolation Jazz experienced in the 1950s. However, what these critics fail to understand, (and given that we're talking Rock Music Critics, by and large, we're not usually talking about a cohesive group of intellectuals as much as we're addressing mouthpieces of one department in the entertainment industry - like film 'critics') is their position as the gatekeepers and prison guards of the dominant music cultural discussion system; so even as they decry the oppressive forces in music and tear down 'sell outs' they don't see how their petty carping truly doesn't matter - as it was all a pre-fab sell out from the get-go, and their discussion at this point is just another part of the cultural marketing machinery. A much more productive inquiry and critical stance for popular music criticism would be to abandon the reactionary Manichean us vs. them position that has hitherto obtained in the popular music critical system - where uncompromising progression and experimentation are ignored or derided at one end, and popularity is seen as an integral defect and indication of co-option on the other. Neither position is productive, and neither points to the concerns of the larger markets or the needs of a public drowning in musical product and seeking an intelligent perspective and worthwhile guidance. It would be much more useful to examine artists and their works for what they are, and to have a more affirmative / analytical stance that is critical insofar as it looks to the premises of the work and judges it success by the merits integral to the work itself and the context the work creates within the oeuvre of the artist's history and the culture at large.

But, I digress - the failures of the rock music critical establishment are many and too obvious to continue evaluating. Suffice to say, stylistic development in rock has largely ground to a halt as it circles its wagons and prepares for the long night of Dissolution. This saturation is also part of the Intensification phase - indeed, a large part of Intensification is the struggle to find profitable niches of commodity distribution in an increasingly saturated market. Hence the development of 'artificial' markets and niches. Examples of this had roots in the Legitimation phase and the packaging of Beatlemania. The difference now is that Beatlemania is past, and its lessons are laid bare for all to see. Such marketing strategies are premised on a large and naíve demographic - the youngest people are usually the most manipulated. This breeds cynicism, but only after one has been 'had'. Therefore, younger and younger groups of people are continually exploited with and by prefabricated heroes. This explains the continual success of youth oriented stars - from David Cassidy to Britney Spears. The demographic is always already too young to understand the manipulation, and is sucked in every time through the intensified and completely saturated media environment. Everybody gets what they want - in spades. The record companies rake it in, and a certain few artists make huge quantities of money, while the rest spend their lives working dreary day jobs when they're not crammed in an old van hustling from one smoky pub where no one listens to them to the next smoky pub where no one listens to them.

P2P will not beat this system. Increasingly complex digital copy protection systems (with forerunners like Macrovision) will prevent the vast majority of listeners from duplicating the digital data (formerly known as recorded music), and as long as some huge percentage is law abiding (say, 95%) the record companies and rights holders will clear massive profits. Hence, P2P and music rental systems will only serve to sharpen the system as the marketing data gained from download logs indicates with enormous precision ever smaller but targetable niches for the Intensified Market to service and exploit. In this way, P2P plays directly into the hands of the Intensification of Rock music and its domination by the entertainment industry, just as it announces Rock's immanent Dissolution.

The Intensification Phase came about quickly after the development of the CD, MTV, and the relaxation of anti-trust opposition in the government, courtesy of the Reagan / Bush1 administrations, and the craven compliant congresses they dealt with. It was at this time that the stage was set for the megamergers in the entertainment industry. As these mergers occurred, music labels, once giant corporations unto themselves, fell prey to media conglomerates who saw music as one more branch of their media empires.

The development of MTV was important this way. As I noted previously, music films had been around for quite some time, going back to the videola in the 1950s. I personally remember seeing a film of Les Paul and Mary Ford's song of 'I'm Sitting on Top of the World' while visiting friends in the UK in July 1988. Mary was wearing a blue checked country dress, and was sitting on a hay bale in faux farm scenery, singing to herself in multipart harmony with Les Paul's double-speed guitars merrily skipping into hyper drive behind her voice. I thought- my God, this is hokey! But then I realized this was probably shot in 1954 or so, and must have seemed otherworldly to viewers then.

So, too, MTV seemed like it had landed from some strange planet. Just as MTV appeared at the height of the Renewal Phase of Rock (New Wave), it was the harbinger of the Intensification Phase. The invention of the CD was the final nail in the coffin of the Renewal Phase. With the CD and MTV, the stage was set for a new round of consumerist accumulation, where MTV would manufacture the need through its manipulation of young minds with disposable income to procure the new digital format. Older audients were soon brought into fold through VH1, as MTV entered its Professionalization phase. MTV renewed itself with an analysis of it viewers, resulting in a reduction of music videos in favor of teen / young adult entertainment. As MTV became ever more tightly integrated with the Media Conglomerates, it became an important tool in the intensification phase of Rock. Groups like Nirvana and the grunge scene thought that being sincere meant something. What they failed to realize is that in the world of simulations, (as David Bowie proved in the 1970s) sincerity is just another pose. Nirvana et al were eaten for breakfast by the conglomerates. In the Intensification Phase, the niche fulfillment process of the Professionalization phase is itself professionalized  - niches are artificially, if not self-consciously, derived from the index. Each niche is held as a valid position, and is promoted relative to its demographic potential. Nothing shocks. Shocking material is seen as its own genre and niche. Every signifier of resistance is rendered a commodity. Stockbrokers bought copies of 'Kapital' by Marx, to learn and guide their system through the shoals of opposition, and the publishers of Marx thusly profit. Anarchistic punk rock becomes another business. That the business leaders don't wear suits and ties is of no consequence. The blue jeans of resistance in the 60s are now the emblems of corporate conformity.

At the height of the Renewal Phase, a number of groups made a living making music with left wing lyrics - examples: Gang of Four, Red Crayola, Au Pairs, Heaven 17, among others. This became another niche in the index. Their 'tradition' of resistance in music had its predecessors and will have its descendants. The contradictions in this situation are obvious, deep, and problematic.

1. For such artists to reach a large audience, they must engage in mass distribution of signifier objects, which are presented as commodities.

2. If their message reaches a large enough audience, problems of scale and continuity intrude on the message and the messengers, i.e., they become part of the problem.

3. The critiques presented by these artists are then assimilated to varying degrees by the very institutions and people the artists most oppose. This is done in order to make for a more seductive and convincing marketing system.

In each of these scenarios, the winner is the commodity culture as it is so closely tied to the economic substructure as social and reproductive forces blunt and quiet the disruptive forces.

The Intensified market would prefer to manufacture predictable needs to a predictable consumer who will dutifully procure predictable commodities. Given the inherently chaotic nature of markets, it is difficult to make predictions, hence, the emphasis on pre-packaged goods. Over time, certain markets have come forward as stable (i.e. acceptably variable) points of investment. This is nowhere near a comprehensive list, but it provides a general guide:

1. The youth market, and its turnover and demand for fresh young faces.

2. The resistance market. It will always fight against commodification, co-option, reification, etc., and is therefore eminently predictable, if cagey and wily. Following its movement in innovation and perspective points to new vistas and marketing niches and tools.

3. Nostalgia markets. As most popular music is music for mating rituals, when a population becomes less attached to the search for a mate (either by finding a mate and forming family units, or simply ages out of the hormonal extravaganza of early / young adulthood) their interest in developments in popular music decreases, and often freezes - where certain works remind them of certain and important times in their mating rituals. These times are burned into their memory, and the music of the time is closely attached. This permits the development of 'Oldies' formats for broadcasters to narrowcast their advertising message, as commercial broadcasting content can only be seen as a means to keep one's attention between commercial breaks. All demographics require service, and such station formatting permits advertisers to speak to constituencies that will likely have similar interests that are congruent to the product the advertiser is selling. This first began in the mid 1970s with the Renewal Phase of Rock and the first consolidations of the Rock Music industry and the Radio Broadcasting industry. During the Intensification Phase, this process is expanded. As it expands, its scale changes its quality, and Nostalgic Niches are invented to further the process. The nostalgia niche is bound to grow as populations expand.

4. Multi-cultural expansion of the index. With the globalization of the capitalist economy, cultures from around the world have been added to the index and can generate indices of their own as they develop and professionalize their own internal markets. Balinese / Ethiopian Heavy Metal Drum and Bass anyone?

The Intensification Phase has been the longest for Rock, going on some 20 years. As long as the demographic continues investing in the product at a sufficient rate where the producers and distributors find it attractive, the Intensification can go on for quite some time. Eventually, the demographic supporting Rock will either die off or lose interest, or some degree of both, and Rock will enter its Dissolution Phase.

It is my contention that it has already entered the Dissolution Phase. Unlike Jazz, whose decline to obscurity happened in a matter of a few years, Rock's reduction is proving to be more gradual. It's not going to disappear overnight-it's going to drift into the sunset bathed in a golden light - a reflection of the narcissism of its wealthy demographic.

Henry Warwick (hw@creativesynth.com)
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