Dehumanization in the Music Industry

“So, you’re saying a machine can do what any singer or an artist can do?” that’s what Fergie said when will.i.am explained how this new device works. (picture below) “I input my voice,” he said, “high notes, my low notes, then the whole English vocabulary. What you’re able to do with that, because of this artificial intelligence, when it’s time to make a new song, I just type in the lyrics and this thing sings it, says it, raps it, talks it.” Don’t worry, that doesn’t really happen in the case of the BEP, it’s just part of the script in their infamous Imma Be Rocking That Body video. This concept from the video basically supports the Ideology theory of transhumanism, which means using technology to develop human capacity and intellectuality for a "better society". This isn’t happening. Instead, however, the excess use of technology is leading the human population to a mental throw-down, mind-control because of the absent mind of the consumer, and dehumanization.


That machine in the video is already supporting one of the dimensions of McDonaldization which is control. Just like how people lost skills in fast food chain restaurants just trying to take an order, I believe soon enough artist will lose their creativeness and talents because they will rely on a machine to do the job for them. How do we know it’s not already doing that when the music industry, full of many secrets, is doing its job behind closed doors? There are dehumanized vocals out there that can be easily detected and you can name a few artists, other than The Black Eyed Peas.
Forget Britney Spears, she’s a different case, but artists like the BEP, Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj seem to have the right package to fall under dehumanized vocals. In almost every Ke$ha song you can hear an autotune, greatest examples are her singles that reached positions in the top 10 Hot Billboard chart like “Tik Tok” and “Take It Off”. And you can’t deny Nicki Minaj’s awkward rapping style (such as in her debut single "Massive Attack") and almost expressionless face features. This is definitely part of a dehumanized image in today’s society and it seems to be increasing. What will stop it now?

“This machine will take the peas into 3008. This is the future right here.” Continued will.i.am, while Fergie is still being raged and she replied “Right. So, we’re just not gonna go to the studio and not sing. Then, it takes the soul out of it.” Will.i.am still tries to convince the other peas. “You’re still gonna go to the studio and check out what the machine does.” While he continues to be persistent about the machine, Fergie gets up to leave and shouts “We’re not robots.” Scary, isn’t it? So, it doesn't just exist in food culture, but also in pop and music culture.

(The photos below show the album covers for the first 4 albums and then the ones released 2010).

Use your finger to stir my tea, and for dessert I’ll suck your teeth.
Be too sweet and you’ll be a goner, yup, I’ll pull a Jeffery Dahmer.
Listen to the track on the official Kesha channel on youtube.



Those were words from the second verse of Ke$ha’s Cannibal from the Extended Play of the same name. Of course, after hearing the disturbing lyrics, ignoring the catchy beat, I decided to simply search this unfamiliar name. Of course, I understood the rest of the lyrics; she wants to eat boys for breakfast and lunch and she’s proud of calling herself a cannibal that she shouts "I am cannibal." That at first didn’t disturb me as much. On the contrary, I thought it was creative for the EP to be called Cannibal since it’s kind of a step higher in her diet from her debut album Animal, but that’s not the point. The point is that she used the name in her song and I simply had to Google it; Jeffery Dahmer.

It turns out that Jeffery Dahmer was a real cannibal, before he was ironically murdered in jail the same way her killed his fist victim. Enjoying his secret activity as a cannibal and a necrophiliac (someone who satisfies his pleasures over corps and dead bodies) and especially bodies he kills himself. With more research, I found out that there’s an influence from the surrounding society to this created monster. He grew up in this environment where he picked up the habit of dissecting dead animals when he’s young, and it’s only natural that he’d want to progress to something bigger as he grows old; something bigger here being the human bodies.



Now, I’m seeing that pop music is spreading things I didn’t know because with it I learned more about the cannibal culture, as an example. There are different movies and books which are inspired by real life societies and culture of cannibals. The scariest productions of all are TV documentaries about the real cannibals. There’s obviously a real social aspect and a taboo that can’t be denied, or where would those songs, movies and books have their inspiration from? And I guess the way pop culture deals with this horrifying act is by making it part of it. In Ke$ha’s case, she made this image of cannibalism somewhat acceptable. When something becomes part of the pop culture, even out of another culture, it seems familiar and therefore we’re not afraid of it anymore. Why? Because it connects to us and becomes popular within us as well. I’m not trying to say we’ll grow to be cannibals, but we won’t fear it until we witness it.

Read this blog post to see the association of pop culture and societies acceptance of taboos.