EA Arts Ensemble: Rupert Murdoch Wants YOU

It's no secret that Murdoch's company News Corp has been in an acquisitive mood for some time--they recently have tried to purchase the media firm Dow Jones, which owns, among other things, the Wall Street Journal. More importantly, at least with regard to this blog posting, News Corp owns Myspace, the new media phenom that has lonely singles and not-so-singles, bands that have yet to leave the bedroom for the garage, aspiring filmmakers, and even comedy troupes vying for everyone else's attention. And, although they have yet to be as ubiquitous a force as every other neighbor kid with an electric guitar that might be in a band (or maybe just a Guitar Hero aficionado who plays Rock Band every now and then), those who make the more 'experimental' garden varieties of sound have been making themselves heard as of late, and now have a couple Myspace-approved genres with which to tag their music profile.

Anyone in this class start a band profile (yet), and if so, did you notice the seeming wealth of genres to choose from? Leaving aside those which have been historically related to relatively pioneering in the popular, er, "sound" realm (i.e. Industrial, Ambient, etc.) budding EA Arts Ensemble'rs with an eye towards self-promotion can choose from these pertinent choices:

Acousmatic / Tape Music
Electroacoustic
Experimental
Live Electronics

and of course

Other

(it's worth noting though that there's been a bit of a screwball movement of those who would rather humorously label themselves and thereby have fun with genres and unsuspecting Myspace music searchers)

So why this allotment of recognition? Is there somebody "cool" at the right hand of "Tom"? Rather, I think it's a testament to the data collecting powers of a site like Myspace, where everyone, regardless of what they put in their interests section (for instance) can be spammed for friendship/praise/credibility/booking/$$$ by any number of real and/or otherwise profiles clued into their presence by one particularly half-thought out keyword. Thusly the all-commodifying power of global capitalism seeps its way into the friend request and event invitation boxes of even the most noisiest of noise mavens...tribute page or no.