Morris Dickstein stated in his article “How Song, Dance, and Movies Bailed us out of the Great Depression” that arts programs create employment in downtown neighborhoods, and thus can stimulate business and attract tourists. 1 According to a study conducted with information from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer spending between 2008 and 2009 remained steadily the same in all targeted areas besides “retail trade” and “leisure and hospitality”. This leads me to believe that overall, Americans did not seek out forms of entertainment during the Great Recession as much as they may have in the 1930s, and instead allocated necessary spending to areas such as housing, employment costs, and education. 2
In terms of tackling political and social trends, I believe that professionals in the popular culture industries who spearhead this would largely be musicians. A part of the lecture last week was about how musicians use their platforms to deliver messages as well as directly protest injustice within the country (i.e. Woody Guthrie and Billie Holiday), and today, with the success of music streaming, this concept has only evolved. For example, A Tribe Called Quest, in their song “We the People” criticize political and racial injustice from the 2016 campaign of the current administration. They demonize current political leaders by speaking to the racially charged opinions that circulate and how legislation targets specific groups of people in their decisions. With artists releasing music directly linked to their beliefs about specific issues, I feel that this mimics Dickstein’s idea that music in the 1930s were “degrees of direct or oblique reactions to dire social circumstances.” I also feel that with the surge of popularity following music streaming platforms, artists are now able to reach significantly wider audiences than they once could when it was expected that each song would need to be purchased in order to be heard. This closely resembles the groundbreaking technology with the radio, and how that technology meant music could reach new heights in its time. 3
- Morris Dickstein, “How song, dance, and movies bailed us out of the Depression,” The Los Angeles Times, last modified April 1, 2009, https://www.latimes.com/la-oe-dickstein1-2009apr01-story.html
- “Consumer spending and U.S. employment from the 2007–2009 recession through 2022,” Monthly Labor Review, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, last modified October, 2014,https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/Consumer-spending-and-US-employment-from-the-recession-through-2022.htm
- Morris Dickstein, “Facing the Music,” The American Scholar, last modified September 1, 2009, https://theamericanscholar.org/facing-the-music/#.XZ3uk0ZKhPa
