How can socialists bring beauty back into the arts, especially in music?
Beauty has transcendent qualities which are as important for socialists as they are for Christians and the peoples of old. When you are surrounded by nothing but ugly, you start to see the world as nothing but ugly, and begin to lose faith in your fellow working man. Beauty thus builds a sense of solidarity between workers as much as it builds a connection between the spiritual and the material. "Beauty is truth."
Our music today is disgusting. Most of it is chaotic, distorted and off-kilter. Music sampling, which makes up the backbone of hip hop and electronic music, has turned producers into god-men and has completely destroyed the collectivist element of music creation. The Soviet Union, meanwhile, had public orchestras play for the people out in the open free of charge. China bans hip hop and teachers its youth classical music as any socialist nation should.
Beauty is crucial to socialism and we must use socialism to bring it back.