I heard on the radio today in Oklahoma a skit that went like this:

“What does it mean when the radio station plays a pop song next to a rock song? It means you have two DJ’s that hate each other. Don’t worry, you’ll know what side of the fence we’re on ‘cause we only play rock!”

A few weeks ago I read something about some children’s cartoons being cancelled because their target demographic shifted. This in itself wasn’t an issue however the executives line of reasoning was that the new audience wasn’t as likely to purchase related merchandise as much as the previous audience. This logic dictates that to maximize profit consumers must be divided into groups that can be manipulated.

Divide and conquer, it’s brilliant. Unfortunately it sucks for us in terms of humanity. I mean, I like rock AND pop music and I don’t feel that they’re mutually exclusive. These divisive lines drawn by those in power are meant to control us, our thoughts, and ultimately our dollar flow. I have no problems with selling a product nor programming a radio station to play exclusive genres of music but to employ the “us vs. them” mentality reflects the sad collective mental state we live in especially when that logic is extrapolated to the political arena.

As Jack Kornfield said you have to program your own mind or the world will program it for you.

TagsMarketing, Music Business