Commentary
Oregon Daily Emerald
Friday, May 20, 2005
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■ In my opinion
A The sound of selling out
The sweeping change that oc
curred in the 1960s caused many
lasting impacts, such as the end of
legally enforced racial segregation
and the birth of widespread cyni
cism of government. Other relics
of the ’60s, such as the Harley
Davidson as a symbol of rebellion
and religion through LSD, have
proved less enduring.
The idea of artistic integrity
among musicians belongs firmly in
the latter camp. In the ’60s, most
musicians who wanted to be taken
seriously didn’t sell out. They be
lieved it was necessary to preserve
music’s credibility as a medium of
protest and social change.
How far we have come from that
ideal was driven home to me recent
ly, when I saw a new television ad
featuring alternative-rap artist Mos
Def hawking the GMC Envoy Denali,
a sport utility vehicle. My heart
sank. One isn’t surprised to see Brit
ney Spears shilling for Pepsi or Moby
selling his music to anyone who
waves a few dollars in front of his
self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual,
feng shui-liberal face, but when one
of the primary flag bearers of
alternative hip-hop sells out, it
means something.
Britney Spears and the like do not
pretend to have artistic credibility, so
when they sell their music for com
mercial purposes, it’s hard to consid
er it selling out. But Mos Def advo
cates revolution in his songs. His
2004 album, “The New Danger,” in
cludes the song “War,” a provocative
criticism of (presumably) the Iraq
conflict. It begins with the line, “War
is a global economic phenomenon.”
Well, guess what, Mos: So is the au
tomobile industry. When you lend
your name, likeness and words to sell
a vehicle that gets between 15 and 20
CHUCK SLOTHOWER
TAKING ISSUE
miles per gallon, it’s a tad hypocriti
cal to criticize a war fought at least
partly over oil. When you rap about
black oppression, do you envision
the route to victory over racism com
pleted in the GMC Envoy Denali?
Might better ways exist for black
Americans, whom GMC says it
specifically targeted with the Mos
Def/Envoy Denali ad, to overcome
oppression than by spending
$37,565 on an Envoy Denali?
While Mos Def represents perhaps
the most egregious recent sell-out in
alternative music, he’s hardly the
only perpetrator. It’s been dispiriting
recently to watch good, up-and-com
ing bands sell out even before they
hit the big time. Both Kasabian and
Pinback sold their music for televi
sion ads long before most casual
music fans could find the bands on
their own.
Other examples of good bands
selling out abound. Aerosmith has
appeared in ads for Gap, among oth
ers. The Stone Temple Pilots sold its
music for a car ad, an audacious act
considering the band’s song “Trip
pin’ On a Hole in a Paper Heart”
includes the lyric, “I’m not for sale.”
Other examples are too numerous
to mention.
While the Stone Temple Pilots decid
ed it most certainly was for sale, other
bands have stuck to their guns. Pearl
Jam never has and never will sell out.
The same is hue of Radiohead and Neil
Young. The Strokes and The White
Stripes both reportedly turned down
huge sums to sell their songs to Gap.
And U2, despite the use of its song
“Vertigo” in an iPod ad, has been very
careful for more than 20 years about
lending its music for commercial
purposes. So it is possible to resist
selling out.
I can hear the question in the back
of your mind: What's the big deal?
Fair enough; many people don’t care
at all when bands sell out. For them,
it’s a fact of modern life, like online
shopping or global warming. But I
see two main problems with selling
out: The first is that it destroys the
credibility of music as a medium for
protest or social change. American
music has long had a contrarian
thread that runs from slave lamenta
tions to Woody Guthrie to early rock
’n’ roll to Jimi Hendrix to Dead
Kennedys to Rage Against The Ma
chine to Green Day. People like
Mos Def betray not only that con
trarian tradition but also themselves.
Mos Def, a talented rapper with in
teresting things to say, now looks
like a joke.
The second main problem with
selling out is that it often compro
mises the music itself. When Moby
composes an album, does he think
about what his fans will like or what
ad agencies will like? Given that
Moby licensed every single song on
his blockbuster 1999 album “Play”
for commercial purposes, as VH1 re
ported, it’s a fair question.
Music should not be regarded as
mere advertising content. It’s up to
each contemporary musician
to prove he’s an artist arid not just
a salesman.
ch uckslothower@ dailyemerald. com
INBOX
Diverse faculty key step
to fixing COE problem
The Board of Directors of Commu
nity Alliance of Lane County would
like to express our concern about the
current situation at the University’s
College of Education. Students of
color, as well as LGBTQ students
and students with disabilities, find
the learning environment at the col
lege to be hostile, and they believe it
is risky to bring forward their obser
vations and complaints.
The staff and curriculum at the
college are failing to prepare teach
ers, counselors and administrators to
teach and work with increasingly di
verse populations in our public
schools. Multicultural education is
extremely limited, and an over
whelmingly mono-cultural faculty is
not equipped to prepare culturally
competent future educators. This sit
uation continues despite a college
policy that calls for the infusion of
culturally diverse perspectives in all
the courses offered.
The College of Education current
ly has a number of faculty openings.
This is an opportunity for the college
to make a significant transition to
ward cultural inclusiveness. We
hope the college will hold these
positions open until qualified
candidates of diverse cultural
backgrounds can be hired. We par
ticularly support the idea of “clus
ter” hires so that a change in the
learning environment at the College
of Education can occur.
Until the supply of new teachers
includes more educators of color,
and until new teachers of all back
grounds are culturally competent,
our local districts are greatly ham
pered in their efforts to close the
achievement gap and otherwise pro
vide an equitable and culturally rele
vant education to all their students.
Carol Van Houten
Chairperson, CALC Board of Directors
University in drastic need
ofconstructive debate
The University has fallen victim to
extremist debates.
Nothing better illustrates our cur
rent anti-intellectual absolutist polit
ical atmosphere than conservative
author and speaker Daniel Flynn’s
lecture, sponsored by the College
Republicans. I attended this lecture
because, frankly, I have not heard a
rational political debate for a
while and hoped that Flynn
might shed some light into
conservative politics.
He spoke about his book “Why the
Left Hates America: Exposing the
Lies That Have Obscured Our Na
tion’s Greatness.” Instead of talking
about some of America’s problems
and how conservative ideas can
solve them, he illustrated America’s
greatness through outlandish com
parisons, such as black people in this
country making more money than
those in Africa, and how lucky
American women are to not have our
genitals mutilated.
The left represented itself in a very
churlish manner by jeering and in
terrupting the speech while Flynn,
unprofessionally, answered back
and egged them on.
The question and answer session
turned into a pissing match between
left and right. Flynn rudely evaded
questions, saying to one audience
member something along the
lines of, “the government doesn’t
owe your kid brother a school
lunch’’ and insinuating that another
audience member was stupid be
cause he didn’t understand Flynn’s
argument. The Leftists did every
thing but burn his book.
I pose a challenge to the College
Republicans and College Democrats. *
Find some political intellectuals who
can have a rational and scholarly de
bate on America’s issues. Those of
us who came for an intellectual dis
cussion don’t want to throw our
pearls before swine.
Sermin Yesilada
Eugene I
■ Out loud
“It really shuts down that idea of diversity
because it’s not letting a group of people have
a voice in a classroom setting just because of
their skin color.” — University senior Melis
sa Hanks, who filed a complaint May 13 with
the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for
Civil Rights against the University Office of
Multicultural Academic Support policy that
reserves early registration into several classes
for minority students.
“Our community is one of the only urban
areas in the world to enjoy a park at the cen
ter of its population that is managed for natu
ral values, and we ought to do everything we
can to maintain its wild and feral nature.”
— Fairmount Neighborhood Association
member David Sonnichsen, responding
to a proposed Interstate 5 and Franklin
Boulevard interchange.
“We’re talking about atomic dimensions,
the ability to manipulate atoms and molecules
at that scale. ” — Rich Linton, University vice
president for research and graduate studies,
on the University’s contribution of nanotech
nology research to the Oregon Nanoscience
and Microtechnologies Institute.
“Every six days, a new case of HIV is diag
nosed in Lane County. You can carry the virus
for 10 years and not know you have it.”
— Lani Edenholm, an organizer of the
HIV Alliance’s 19th-annual River Walk and
Run on Saturday.
“And when you compare anything to an
ideal, it’s going to fall short. ... Next to the
Candy Land you’ve got going on in your head,
America falls short.” — Conservative author
and speaker Dan Flynn, during a lecture
Tuesday on his 2002 book “Why the Left
Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have
Obscured Our Nation’s Greatness.”
“The University community is working to
ward a world-class arena — and that’s fine —
but does almost nothing about the fact that
faculty salaries are at the bottom of the heap.
Isn’t there something grotesque about the
sense of priorities?” — Professor Michael
Kellman, who served on the University Sen
ate Budget Committee from 1999 to 2002, on
faculty pay, which is about 86.2 percent of the
average salary at peer institutions.
“I have been through all those struggles,
but I overcame them ... and now I’m back.”
— University student Cory Mainor, after
receiving an award at the Black Women
of Achievement’s Ebony Man Showcase
on Monday.
“We have a lot of students who are victim
ized by other students — who feel like the
conduct process does not meet their needs.
(The existing code) silences victims of violent
crimes.” — Director of Student Judicial
Affairs Chris Loschiavo, discussing possible
revisions to the University’s Student
Conduct Code.
— From Daily Emerald news reports
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Jennifer Sudick Steven R. Neuman
Editor in Chief Managing Editor
Ailee Slater Shadra Beesiey
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Adrienne Nelson
Online Editor
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