[policanada]

Has anyone else noticed how villainous bankers and finance folks are creeping back into pop culture? I suppose this has always been the case (Mr. Potter) but for most of my adult like characters like Gordon Gekko were romanticized. They were bad guys, but they weren't villainous (the villainous characters were mostly church authorities, lawyers and the like).

Recently I've noticed that trend reversing itself - which makes sense in the aftermath of the global economic downturn. Just interesting to see it happen, and interesting to see bankers themselves admit that their colleagues mistakes are responsible for the "bad rep" the industry is carrying around these days: http://share.fpconversations.com/mistakes.html

[Joe Liberty]

It seems to be a cycle that the country goes through every other generation or so, and I think it's directly tied to economic performance. When the economy is booming, the wealthy are envied and emulated. When the economy goes in the tank...well, we all need our boogeymen, nobody moreso than politicians.

[QatzelOk]

Since bankers control the money supply, it's unlikely they would allow themselves to be portrayed in a too unflattering light.

They own these propaganda vehicles, and will use them to smear the people they want to marginalize. They obviously don't want to marginalize themselves - they think of themselves as the "essential" class of humans.

[Joe Liberty]

Since bankers control the money supply, it's unlikely they would allow themselves to be portrayed in a too unflattering light.

That just sounds like naked paranoia. I challenge you to find a song about culture/society that does not express "progressive" values. The people who fund record companies don't give a crap about the content of individual songs, they just want a return on their investment. If whiny leftist songs sell better (and they usually do, since the vast majority of the target audience are teenagers), that's what they'll produce.

In addition, it is now possible for the average 13-year-old to produce his own song in his bedroom and get it in front of millions of people with a mouse click. The financiers have less say in their "portrayal" than ever before.

Bankers don't control the content of popular entertainment except in bad novels.

[QatzelOk]

The people who fund record companies don't give a crap about the content of individual songs, they just want a return on their investment.

And they don't care about the talent level of any particular artist. Unless it's their son/daughter/nephew.

And they don't care about the lyrics... unless they contain product placement or pro-hegemonic values.

And they don't really care about the results of this kind of propaganda, as long as it empowers them above other people.

And record companies don't sell albums. Large corporations do, and they haven't been doing very well lately. The strip-mining of the middle and lower classes has everyone doing the illegal download thing, and now semi-talented has-beens like Madonna and Bob Zimmerman Dylan have to tour to pay their cocaine bills.