(December 16, 2005) — What gives music its lasting impression? It must be its catchiness or maybe its lyrics, because “it’s so profound!” Maybe, it was the artist who performed the song. These are all the factors, but I think the one thing that always goes unnoticed and is responsible for the decline of modern music is the capitalist motive behind all of it. Don’t tell me Britney Spears got pregnant because she’s so in love with Kevin Federline. How can you explain a pregnancy that coincidentally came around the same time she hit the ceiling of any more top hits that would make airplay? One word, Gimmicks. Don’t even argue that System of a Down is all political, serious, and down with their roots because apparently their lead singer even weighs the superficial and got a nose job. Anyways, what is an album of one plea against injustice juxtaposed against 12 more tracks of what sound like a documented study of the effects of crack on four people in a room with musical instruments? It’s American record label trash angled towards the typical angry teenagers who can’t express themselves. However, my favorite example, (and oh my, yes they are) is Green Day. Them young whipper snappers and their hooligan leftist polemics, or maybe just seemingly so? You have to be an “American Idiot” to buy the Green Day release of the same name. It’s useless trying to argue your self-righteous rebellion against conformity. The cliché “but I’m a punk” won’t work (at least with intelligent people), and it hasn’t since 1978. To advocate Green Day’s political message is not only to subordinate yourself to three fools who can’t play their instruments, but join the herd whose shepard is a shark in a business suit, making bank off your need to cling to and adopt a trash teen culture. He knows your teenage rebellious phases feed his capitalist scheme, and he knows exactly how to exploit it. I hope you really enjoy that “Che” shirt that was printed by a Chinese sweatshop and know your $20 just got pocketed by men in business suits. Who’s the punk now, huh? There is nothing bad about corporate music, unless it’s just bad music. Motown had it right and they kept things grooving, but they didn’t try to synthesize a generation of nonconformity and mindless rebellion, which in turn leads to the conformity of nonconformity. The Motown label flowed with their times, adopted their own culture which was distinctively African American, and that’s probably what led to the development of R&B and modern music today. Motown embraced music first, and it’s very apparent in its lineup of contributing musicians and songwriters/arrangers (not to mention their list of Grammy Awards and Top 40 Hits). However, today we see a very different picture, in which rockers advertise their identities only to be emulated by the masses, and rappers market overpriced apparel meant to make you “gangsta.” Where is the threshold for what determines what is artistic, and what is a corporate gimmick? Until the music comes first, the quality of music will continue to decline, and we’re going to see a growing cult of mindless teens setting blind faith in the invisible order of corporate agenda. The American Dream is to make the dollar, not to give it away, especially when compromising your intelligence and values.