The idea behind McDonaldization
is similar to standardization. The
author of The McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer discusses how society
has begun to take on the characteristics of a fast food restaurant. Those
include, efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Efficiency
deals with finding the optimal way to finish something, getting things done
quickly while using the least amount of resources and money possible.
Calculability refers to finding something that is quantifiable. You should be
able to measure the amount of sales, and that’s all that matter because there
is no accounting for taste as it is so subjective. This also ties back into efficiency.
Predictability means that the consumer and producer will always know what to
expect and how to expect it. The last thing is this idea of control, which
doesn’t apply as much to music as the previous three.
These three ideas are important
because they have heavy implications for
people who are in a career that requires creation. Once the music industry
discovered how successful Nevermind was, Nirvana had created a standard from
which to work. They had created a formula that would be useful for the industry
to both produce their next record and all grunge records from then on. When
Nevermind became commidified and radio friendly, all grunge from then on was
doomed to a life of underground music or they could risk selling out like
Nirvana.
McDonaldization breathed life into
Nirvana in so
much that they became wildly popular. They were asked to play at big
festivals such as Reading and Leeds and to play at places like the MTV Music
Awards. Nirvana became ultra famous and garnered thousands of new fans in a
two-month span. But they had sacrificed their authenticity for this fame and
lost many old fans that considered this to be simply another example of a band
selling out to the man.
This idea of McDonaldization also heavily applies
to Nirvana's second album, Nevermind. This album was considered a departure from their first album for the most part. The
album had a more streamlined, radio friendly song. The album was considered catchy and more pop than grunge should be. Many
fans thought that Nirvana had simply gone into the studio and done what the man had wanted them to do and the result was Nevermind.
Of course many older fans abandoned the band while thousands more heard their music on MTV and the radio and been to turn
up at shows. This marked the end of authenticity for Nirvana.
Here's a video of Nirvana playing on MTV unplugged
in
winter of 1993, just months before Cobain's death.
