“That’s very different than our traditional understanding of ownership, and that leads to all kinds of different crises.” They live on servers in the form of ones and zeros, and those servers are not controlled by us,” he says. “We are no longer in control over the media that we purchase. Avoiding a lengthy social media controversy in 2022 is tantamount to ensuring your product can be displayed on the family-friendly shelves of a K-Mart or Target in the Nineties.Įxcept, as Sinnreich notes, there’s a distinct lack of ownership on the part of the consumer in today’s music landscape. Now, with the advent of streaming, the calculus for artists and labels alike has changed. In those days, record labels were more beholden to the big-box stores that carried CDs - and the parental concerns that came with them. At the time, Hilary Rosen, the former president of the RIAA, told the New York Times that “I think it’s a combination of both not wanting to stifle artists, but wanting what I feel is a very real sense of corporate and social responsibility.” Universal Music essentially overhauled the lyrics on Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP ahead of its release to sell a “clean” version to retailers. In music, it recalls the dawn of the CD era when hip-hop first began to overtake the charts. “And as we all know, whoever controls history controls the narrative and in many ways helps to determine what the future’s gonna look like.”
#All i do is win remix rap genius series
“I t is a nested series of complex dynamics over basically who gets to write cultural history, who gets to maintain the public archive,” Sinnreich explains. And in 2020, the company hid search results and recommendations for an award-winning independent film, Cuties, which was targetted by conservative activists in a coordinated social media campaign. Fans online have claimed that Netflix altered episodes of its hit series Stranger Things. At the launch of its Disney+ service, the company made an effort to erase the record of some of its less tasteful history, pulling old cartoons with racist imagery, and adding disclaimers to others. The edited version of the song would go on to win the group a Grammy in 2005.Īram Sinnreich, a professor of Communication Studies at American University sees t he changes made by Lizzo and Beyonce as part of a wider theme taking place across mass media. The Black Eyed Peas’ most famous single, “Let’s Get It Started,” was initially titled “Let’s Get R*tarded,” with the original version featuring the slur sung throughout the chorus until it was quietly altered nearly a year after its release. In a statement to Rolling Stone, Beyoncé’s team noted that the “word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced.”Ĭonversations about ableism in pop culture aren’t new.
“ When Beyoncé dropped the same ableist slur as Lizzo on her new album, my heart sank ,” read the story’s title.
The activist Hannah Diviney, who played a large part in the campaign to change the Lizzo lyric, published a column in The Guardian condemning Beyoncé’s alleged oversight. Commentators online took issue with the use of the word “spaz” which has been described as a slur used against those with disabilities, especially cerebral palsy. Beyoncé’s lyric change follows an almost identical situation that unfolded with the release of Lizzo’s single “Grrrls,” which the singer shared last month. Ye’s never-ending Donda 2, from earlier this year, floated around the internet via a smattering of uploaded versions, which might have simply been the beginning of a new trend in music. Then, the singer Kelis shared a series of Instagram posts expressing frustration that her hit “Milkshake” was sampled on the album without her knowledge, describing it as “theft.” Both instances raise questions about the increasing malleability of music as a digital product.Īlready, albums from major musicians are often updated with deluxe editions featuring added songs. A verse on “Heated” was altered after activists noted it contained language that has been described as ableist. Lyrics from two songs on Beyoncé’s new album Renaissance were updated as a result of discussions on social media.
0 kommentar(er)
