Audio Recording:

Reference: Timothy Taylor, “A Brief History of Music and Capitalism Before the Rise of Neoliberalism,” Music and Capitalism

Image Artifact:

This is a picture of many musicians in a small town gathering together in 2822. They play different kinds of music and wear different styles of clothes, indicating the freedom of choosing the kinds of music people like in the future. In contrast, people in 2022 weren’t free to do so because most musicians’ main purpose was to make a living by producing music artworks. In this case, musicians that are not very well known can only receive a very low payment from the streaming platforms, which are the capitalists (Ben 4). But now, people choose the music they play solely based on their interests, resulting in a diverse community with a love for all the instruments.

Musical Artifact:

This video shows how musician Cosmo Sheldrake making his song Evening Chorus in the forest. The song is one of his wake-up calls which took nine years for him to collect the background sounds. In capitalist USA 2022, musicians got exploited from streaming services since what platforms want were only the profits so that the only way to make more money is to make musicians create as much music as possible. Platforms and music companies would also choose “success models” for musicians to mimic to fit listeners’ tastes, just as what Adorno says in “On popular Music”: “As one particular song scored a great success, hundreds of others sprang up imitating the successful one” (p202). As a result, musicians became less creative and the music they made lost their own characteristics, which is what we called standardization. While in socialist society 2822, private music company does not exist anymore, and musicians can work individually. There are no differences in wealth and all people can support their own lives. Musicians do not have to make songs to meet anyone’s interest to get more popular or make songs frequently to earn more money. Instead they can create whatever music from their own favors. The change in motivations of creating music makes musicians more creative so that songs become more diverse. Also with no add-ons on music, the form of it becomes pure-same as when it was created at very beginning-sounds and rhythms gathering together to bring emotions to audiences. Like what Cosmo did in the video, there could be no lyrics in songs and just the corporation of musical instruments and birds’ singings. Musicians do not have to stay in studio and have much free time to take a walk in the nature. We will simply feel relaxed and happy when hearing the singings from birds.

Citation: Adorno, Theodor. “On Popular Music”. Cultural Theory and Cultural Music, edited by John Storey, The University of Georgia Press, 1998, pp. 197-205.

Lyrical Artifact:

This is part of the lyrics from a popular song in 2822:

We are all same

No more differences in wealth

No more differences in health

Get up at whatever time I want

And work together to make a better life

We are all same

No differences

No differences

In capitalist USA 2022, people were in different classes due to the structure of production. Higher classes grabbed more social wealth in their hands while lower classes lived harder lives. Eagleton’s Why Marx was Right could prove this: “On a global scale, capital was more concentrated and predatory than ever, and the working class had actually increased in size” (P7). People in lower classes must work very hard-even in unhealthy conditions-to make more money to support their own lives. They worked in different private companies and most of their contributions were taken by the top of the companies. However, in the socialist society 2822, according to the lyric “We are all same”, there is no more classes to divide people. People have same social status and same wealth. “No more differences in health” shows how they get medical services equally and working conditions become much healthier. “Get up at whatever time I want”, they have more freedom in choosing their own living ways and there is no need for them to work that hard anymore. People work together to contribute to a common future life and everyone would feel satisfied in such society.

Citation: Eagleton, Terry. Why Marx was Right. Yale University Press, 2011, pp. 7.

Group Artifact:

This artifact represents the well being of factory workers in our society in 2822. It is the workers that create brain chips that allow everyone to have the ultimate listening experience. They are compensated equally as anyone else now because of the value that they bring to our society. They work in clean and safe factories and get wages that actually support them and their families. No one is being stepped on to make a profit now.