The Trouble with Music (Paperback)

~ Mat Callahan (Author), Ian Mackaye (Introduction), Dave Marsh (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

There is a crisis facing music. The signs are everywhere, from the saturation of public space by tuneful trivia to the digital downloading controversy. Quantity has replaced quality. The number of units sold is now the criteria by which music is judged and high-gloss, mass-produced, low-content music is everywhere. You can't shop, eat, ride a bus or see a movie without hearing it as each day you are inundated with enticements to buy it. Like the replacement of essential nutriment by junk food, music lovers are expected to surrender their critical faculties and consume the phony McMusic that can be more effectively controlled and profitably sold than the genuine article.

Callahan unravels and elucidates the crises facing music as well as its liberatory potential. The Trouble with Music includes discussions of: technology and its effects on music making and listening; superabundance and the absence of critical thought; the development of radio; music criticism; copyright; the digital domain and the Internet; labor and music making; and the special relationships among words, dance, politics and music. A large segment of the general public seeks a relationship to music and an exceptional profit for those who own and control it. Callahan provides a means of evaluating music and a powerful critique of the music industry. Whether you whistle at work, sing in the shower or conduct concertos, this book will challenge and enhance how you think about music.

Includes introductions by musician and Dischord Records founder, Ian Mackaye; Rock and Rap Confidential editor, Dave Marsh; and an afterward by Boff, from the multimillion selling group Chumbawamba.

Mat Callahan has been a composer, musician, engineer and producer for 40 years.

About the Author

Mat Callahan is a practicing musician, and currently lives in Berne, Switzerland, where his day job is as a record producer. As a member of the Looters, pioneers in 'world music,' he was signed to Island Records, and their self-titled LP sold 100,000. They were the first band ever to tour Nicaragua, following the revolution there, in 1980.

Legendary founder of such seminal punk bands as Minor Threat, Embrace, Egg Hunt and Fugazi (Minor Threat and Fugazi have sold literally millions of records!). He is the owner of the fiercely independent Dischord Records, who celebrated their 20th anniversary a few years back.

Editor of Rock and Rap Confidential and the most respected political commentators on music.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: AK Press (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904859143
• ISBN-13: 978-1904859147
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #974,801 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable contribution to music & politics..., March 12, 2007

By	M. Kwet - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The "inherent problem with music criticism" (and art in general) is taken head-on in the foreword by Boff Whaley (Chumbawumba). He notes that on one hand, there's something he doesn't like about Bruce Springsteen - a "common man" - but on the other, "There are thousands of bands and musicians I do like whose cultural contradictions, stylistic failings, political ignorance and all the rest are gently eased to one side, just out of my sight, in a place where I can enjoy the music." This despite being "a sucker for context" and political meaning. (pg xv)

Rather than become apathetic, the task at hand is to do the best possible, within the limitations of subjective trappings, in exploring the topic at hand. An insider to the business, Callahan explores this topic effectively, dealing with theoretical issues and incorporating empirical evidence into his argument. The scope ranges from the over-saturation of music product on the market to the day-to-day lifestyle of musicians; from corporate moneyed interests to the problem faced by the many poor starving artists.

Callahan approaches the topic with an obvious social perspective - akin to some sort of anarchism - which frames his argument. Of course, if you already believe that music saturating the radio and television is predominately expressive of that which is tolerable by corporate interests - exceptions notwithstanding - then you'll find this a cogent exposition. As Noam Chomsky put it, would you expect to see a sitcom of a family living under the Mohawk Valley formula (1930s, employed by James Rand, president of Remington Rand; well documented and uncontroversial, however distasteful it may seem)? Yet propaganda as a form of manipulation to combat union organization was a very real problem for those trying to secure a decent life.

Similarly, mainstream media outlets are no shortage of songs about romantic relationships, good times, loneliness, social isolation, money and socioeconomic status; in short, a pallet of emotional experience and even some tales of injustice. Yet the true voice of struggle against power and authority, concentrated in the hands of corporate and political institutions, ensures that that dissent will be kept to the margins. Callahan quotes Prince on the subject: "The consumers of the commercial products of the entertainment industry r only as cynical as the industry has deliberately made them, by dumbing down their products, by xploiting artists, by making profit-driven choices and decisions, and by providing their own kind with obscene compensations and legal impunity that r completely out of touch with the real world of ordinary people." (pg 194)

The book concludes with a provocative discussion about intellectual property rights, downloading, and the public good. Callahan draws on original, time-honored sources of insight - like Thomas Jefferson, Adam Smith and Karl Marx - in considering the production and consumption of music from a sociological perspective.

A side note: the review by "Sociologyman" misses the point completely. That this book be compared to "the National Enquirer" should tip you off that his review is more of a tantrum or diatribe with some references (instead of quotations from the actual book) than a perceptive critique. I recommend reading this book understanding that the nature of the topic at hand is especially prone to political perspective and evasive to the establishment of rule-based absolutes.

Kudos to AK Press for publishing this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good arguments badly made., August 6, 2007

By	jblyn (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

The only thing worse than a ranting polemicist is a ranting polemicist with whom you basically agree. Because although I find much of Matthew Callahan's central thesis sound---that popular music today is vacuous and provides a relentless soundtrack to the doings of a world that's become more and more inundated by superficial crud---ultimately he comes off as tiresome and humorless as any true believer, left or right, who grasps at any straw that justifies his mission. He uses the term "anti-music" quite a bit in this book, but, like it or not, one person's "anti-music" is another person's grand symphony, and he fails to make a convincing case for his term of art.

Added to this is Callahan's inability to grasp some of the strange ironies in the world of pop music. For example, The Ramones, who he briefly refers to as one of many punk bands in the vanguard of revived rebellion against the established order, contained one rock-solid liberal (Joey Ramone) and one rock-solid conservative (Johnny Ramone) who hated each other (though I gather this was for more personal reasons than political). And since the dawn of time, there have been outbreaks of teenage rebellion, and what's "healthy rebellion" and what's "hooliganism" depends on whose ox is being gored.

One important point that Callahan does make well is that the venues musicians and their own ORIGINAL musical voices use for others to hear are drying up rapidly, and in too many cases it really HAS come down to the bean-counters calling the tune, literally, on most of what the public gets to hear. This is a topic where Callahan's vague discussion points give way to righteous rage about this state of affairs, and right-on, say I. Music is NOT just a commodity, it's an art form and all of its permutations deserve fair, open hearing in as many ways as possible. Anyone who says different is full of it.

So, love the spirit of the book, but I have a feeling that, although I don't know Matthew Callahan's music, it's probably more effective than his writing.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fight anti-music, December 30, 2005

By	Michael J. Iafrate "catholicanarchy" (Morgantown, WV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mat Callahan's The Trouble With Music is a scathing look at the "music industry": capitalism's disastrous effects on music, the people who make music, the people who listen to it, and the entities that profit off of it.

Callahan's argument is based on the distinction between what he calls authentic music and "anti-music." While there are many ways one might evaluate the idea of "authenticity" in music and other art, Callahan claims this is not simply a matter of taste. For Callahan, these two categories are discernable in fact: anti-music is music made in service to corporate "major" labels that are actually owned by large conglomerates and maintained by persons who care nothing about music, as opposed to authentic music which emerges organically from human communities themselves.

The book tackles this theme from a variety of angles, with chapters dealing with music criticism, the history of radio (including college radio), the role of dance and performance, lyrical themes, and the notion of intellectual property rights. Callahan grounds his dead-on rants with references from philosophy, history, and art criticism, including thoughtful appropriations of Tolstoy's What Is Art?, Theordor Adorno, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Karl Marx. Two of the more insightful chapters deal with the absolute joke-of-a-debate about filesharing, and a scathing look at how capitalism uses "left-leaning" celebrity musicians (such as Bono) to give the appearance of political progressivism while leaving the entire capitalist system unchallenged.

One weakness of the book is that Callahan focuses only on the corporate "major" labels while not really dealing with the independent music industry and how it at times tends to mimick the majors. As a musician involved in the indie music scene, a critique of "just how indie" the independent music system is would have been appreciated.

Callahan's strength in looking at - and combating - "anti-music" is that he doesn't simply want to fight it because it frequently results in aesthetically "bad" music. Ultimately, what Callahan is after is an answer to the deeper question: "What kind of world produces such music?" In answering that question, he gives the reader near-mystical hints at his vision of what a world truly in love with music, the infinite, would look like:

"What if the only people who made music were those who loved to do it? What if they only people who listened to music were those who loved to listen to it? What if MTV went off the air, the radios went silent and all that was left were people organizing their own concerts and playing the music they loved? What if the only recordings that were made were those musicians who had something important enough to say that it justified their own investment in it? What if the only way to find and hear this music was PAYING ATTENTION?!" [www.catholicanarchy.org]