Art as a commodity
 | | Mariah's hotelroom | American pop star Mariah Carey held two concerts in Tunis as part of the "Adventures of Mimi" Summer Tour. The event was considered one of the "biggest music events" ever held in the city. As Tunis was preparing for the concerts, 30,000 medium-sized promotional posters were hung up in the entrances to the biggest hotels and public squares along with 1,000 giant-sized posters and pictures of the star.
In Tunis alone, 12 points of sale were set up as part of the publicity campaign. Tunisian newspapers have scrutinised the precise details of Carey's performance, as well as her physical preparations. Le Quotidien for instance said that Carey had tried to lose 14 kilos of weight, adding that she loves pizza. La Presse was rather more concerned with the technical aspects of the preparations, revealing that the organizers requested assistance from expert French sound technicians.
It's not very often that someone as "famous" as Mariah Carey performs in Tunisia. Public opinion actually perceived the concerts as a success and this will give recognition to Tunisia, which will benefit our tourism and bring in considerable earnings from the huge amounts of money invested.
As was expected, thousands of fans did really attend the concerts. Yet, what strikes one, is the way the so called star stripped out of her clothes during the concert lowering the tone of the performance. Far from being just a musical show, it turned out to be aimed at diverting people's attention from salient matters towards the merely sexual. Such an "event" contributes towards corrupting and trivialising people's minds so that they stay intellectually starved and socially inept. It seems essential to me to perceive it not as a "big musical event" but rather as a form of cultural domination.
Mariah Carey's music for instance ought to be seen in the light of the commoditisation of art. What has happened is that any aesthetic creativity in its production has needed to become integrated into the mass market production techniques. Triggered by a desire to cash in on the new, frenetic economic urge to produce new waves of art, aesthetic innovation has inevitably become infused with the forms, categories and contents of the dominant culture industry, which is denuding the aesthetic value of any art forms.
Today art exists, but it now lacks a genuine reason for existing other than as a medium of exchange. The present commercialisation of art has actually distorted the cultural values that have existed for centuries and there is now a tendency to treat works of art as mere "commodities". (Alarab Online - Mariah Connection)
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