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FILEDOWN_POP

                                              February 12, 2007

  Chris Cutler writes
  in the book                        (Chris Cutler has done electronic
  "File Under Popular"               music with Fred Frith, and played
  (1993) from Autonmedia:            drums for the band "Henry Cow".)

   In chapter I
   "What is Popular Music?":              The middle three chapters
                                          of this book of eight
   "... the market is not a simple        chapters are about
   measure of what a community of         Sun Ra, The Residents,
   people wants.                          and Phil Ochs.

   "Indeed, the meaning of a                   Obviously, he
   consumer choice is complex and              has a clue.
   partial -- and when we set out
   to analyze charts and sales,
   whether national, local, or even
   amongst special interest groups,
   the most we shall be able to do
   is reflect the operation of
   choice made from among a limited
   number of commodities.

   "This number is not limited
   organically, through the innate
   dynamic of an indwelling culture,
   but by the so-called 'economic
   realities' of the marketplace,
   mass-production and
   mass-distribution.

   "It is a number limited also in
   a more subtle way, by the
   ideological preferences of the
   marketeers and through the
   operation of the apparatus of
   taste-formation and
   demand-creation, inevitable
   concomitants of mass-production
   and marketing.

   "Such a popularity is a very
   conditional thing, and any
   conclusions drawn from it must
   likewise be very conditional."

                  -- p. 5, additional
                     whitespace mine


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