Music’s accessibility as an art form, both in listening and performing, have made it historically one of, if not the most culturally and politically impactful art forms in the modern United States. Paired with the fact that the major music labels were generally owned by incredibly wealthy capitalist conglomerates like Sony or Warner Brothers, one might worry about the ability of the individuals running these corporation’s ability to reinforce a self-benefiting notion of “common sense” and manipulate class consciousness through curating the kinds of ideas that can be expressed and distributed en masse through song. I would contend that this worry is largely misplaced, especially in the 21st century.

In 1979, Brittish punk band The Clash released their seminal work London Calling a double LP that attacked capitalist consumer culture, western imperialism on the massive record label Columbia. Although the ideas disseminated in the album certainly ran contrary to those of the label and Sony, one of the world’s largest companies who bought the label years later, they had no mind to censor the message. That is because the diffuse effects of that album’s ability to shift the collective consciousness away from participating in consumer culture were far less significant to the label than the fact that they were going to be making money hand over fist.  London Calling was a smash hit, going platinum in multiple countries. These executives were more than happy to indirectly stir up working class passions if it meant that these passions could be converted into gold.  One could posit that the ideas expressed in London Calling are radical, but not truly outside of a very liberal definition of “common sense”, but there are plenty of successful bands that openly support anarcho-syndicalism backed by independent labels such as Godspeed You! Black Emporer, which just played a packed show in North Adams two days ago.  Hell, the complete recorded works of world famous murderer Charles Manson have been published by various labels and are available on Spotify.

These examples show how the industry of music cannot really stop radical or anti “common sense” ideas from being heard, but (and this is more in line with the actual prompt) it can certainly actively promote certain artists over others that align more with “common sense views”. Often referred to scornfully as “industry plants” by musicians an fans who seemingly prize their own sense of independent artistry, these artists often (but not always) align themselves strongly with whatever the current state of common sense is. Conservative and reactionary music has become successively less “cool” after the liberals essentially won the culture war (which could change soon but who knows), but the broader notions of individualism, “pulling oneself up by the bootstraps”, and certainly gender roles and heterosexuality that all have a had a role in the American “common sense” are certainly promoted widely throughout genre’s such as country and pop. However, these notions are under constant, albeit less well marketed, attacks by modern musicians who see themselves, despite their comerical sucess, as perpetual outsiders to the system and “common sense”.