Financial corporations in the United States have gotten a bad rap. When it was revealed that bonuses increased significantly after the Wall Street bailout in 2008, many became disillusioned with the corporate side of America. Major companies are characterized as detached and apathetic toward the public, allowing greed to eclipse any compassion they might have for their patrons. Even though the stereotype does, unfortunately, hold true in many cases, it does not apply only to the businesses concerned with mortgage rates, stocks and investment banking.
In the past 20 years, the music, book and even electronics industries have been crippled by the introduction of money-hungry corporations. Formerly known as trades that would foster creativity, ingenuity and innovation, conglomerates frequently share the same insensitive characteristics of most other corporations and have overwhelmed the smaller contributors to the industry.
The music industry is the most widely recognized example of the adverse effects of big business interference. For major record labels, profit has become the first priority. It is not surprising to find greed and selfishness in businesses concerned with trading, investing and making money, such as on Wall Street, but the degree to which avarice has overtaken music is disconcerting.
Of course, any company’s main goal is to stay afloat by making a profit but not always at the expense of patrons and clients. Currently, the profits of an individual artist’s album sales go mostly to the record label, leaving the artist in the dust. Unless a musician achieves incredible popularity — the Beyoncé or Justin Bieber kind of popularity — becoming involved in the entertainment industry is largely unrewarding, monetarily speaking. It was not always like this. Decades ago, record labels were small companies looking to produce and distribute an artist’s music. It is no longer about the artist.
This extends past music into literature. The failings of the book publishing industry are not quite as highly publicized as that of music, but they are just as callous. Once again, priority is placed on those writers who can turn out the most profit: Dan Browns and John Grishams. It is extremely difficult for most debut authors to even get a chance at being published at a major publishing company like Random House or HarperCollins.
As for the electronics industry, a glance at the smartphone business reveals the detriments of large corporations. As of now, only a few operating systems run on the few major companies that control the market in smartphones — iOS for iPhone, Android for HTC Corp. and Samsung, Symbian for Nokia, etc. While competition between these opponents is fierce, there is virtually no way for fledgling smartphone software developers to pioneer new technology.
Thes profoundly different industries share this common thread of declining interest in creativity and growing preoccupation with income. Music and writing, art forms meant to be springs of originality and inspiration, have been shaped to fit a mold that obstructs many talented artists from receiving the credit they deserve. Reverting back to old ways that fostered growth in artistry is unlikely, but customer support of small businesses is imperative. These individual record labels, small publishing companies and the like are the source of ingenuity that has been lost to large corporations in recent years.
A version of this article appeared in the Thursday, Nov. 15 print edition. Nina Golshan is a staff columnist. Email her at [email protected].
