Music Speaks

by Anjula Narang
(major)

The idea that music is information tends to turn people's heads. The art of information stands as the largest growing field in both business and society. How does the age-old art of music fit into this category? Can music even be considered information? The rising popularity of mp3's proves that people value music as a source of information. Hundreds of groups are advertising their band on the web at mp3.com, from popular music groups to those struggling to make a name in society. The web sites serve as a vehicle for bands to display their message to the public in an uncensored atmosphere. This atmosphere cannot be presented solely through record labels because the labels monitor what the public sees. Music speaks to the public through its words and sound. Musicians use the web as a source to present the information their music holds.

Music as a form of information implies that music has the ability to influence those people who listen. The record label gives the public a chance to purchase compact discs and tapes, to attend music concerts and to acquire paraphernalia to support the band. However, record labels restrict a band's ability to present a true, unveiled, and strong message. The labels keep a music group in a position where the group will attract the highest number of "customers" or "followers." As a result, the web opens a field of free advertising for these label connected groups. One of the biggest users of the web is Public Enemy, an old rap group who holds strong views. Their web site draws attention to different issues of politics and racial equality, issues that would be difficult to present with a record label dictating the ultimate end product for a band. Public Enemy, themselves, states on their site (www.public-enemy.com) that their next tour is "More than a tour, this is a campaign." The access to a huge source of information, the internet, allows the group to present true reasons for their performances. These reasons can get lost in the process of marketing, but Public Enemy grasps onto the meaning of their music, to address political issues that surround society. Their ability to advertise would seriously decrease without the use of the web. It remains the strongest and quickest vehicle for bands to release the image desired by their music to the greatest number of people.

As a result of the freedom of music and its message, the road of communication widens. Music becomes communication between an artist and his fan.

Music speaks to a person. As Weaver explains, the art of communication opens one person's mind to another's, "affecting" it in a certain way. Music holds this position in a portion of society and information. The art of information influences the mind, music being one of these arts. The artist needs the open field to present their image, they need the "mechanism" of the web to use the "mechanism" of music in order to "affect" another's mind or thoughts. Public Enemy does this through its web-site. Music stands as an influential art while web sites become a free voice for musicians and labels work as the vehicle to marketing; a perfect plan for a band to develop a firm position in society. A scholar, by the name of Walter Benjamin, brings up the notion of "aura" in his article "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Benjamin argues that each work of art contains a certain feeling of presence in itself. That presence or meaning becomes the art's "aura." Public Enemy gives an aura to their music by giving their fans a source to move from, the web-site. Stating their tour's purpose is a campaign and not simply a source of entertainment, gives the words they sing and aura, a certain purpose as opposed to simple words in lyric. Public Enemy loses this strong ability with the absence of the free voice of technology.

Smaller bands and well-known bands realize the gift of technology at their hands in order to present the information wrapped in the art of music. The web allows these growing and established artists to enter a world surrounded by technology. The sciences, humanities, and arts become allies working together to present an image of information. William Wordsworth, a romantic poet, used nature as his vehicle, African American slaves used Gospel music as their vehicle of information and bands today use the growing technology. Music enters a field of competition, freedom of interpretation and vulnerability to plagiarism through the openness of the web. But in addition, it becomes an open market for the bands to prove themselves as an inspiration and valid source of information. New bands can make a name, growing bands can strengthen their thoughts, and popular bands can have a meaning, all of which creates a source of information for a starving society.