Guitar globalization: ex-Rage Against the Machine axman Tom Morello decides to rock against the TPP.

AuthorCaruso, Vincent
PositionTrans-Pacific Partnership

President Barack Obama has taken his Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pitch on the road, hoping to rally support for the controversial trade deal. Meanwhile, ex-Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello has kicked off a politically fueled road trip of his own. With the support of nonprofit Fight for the Future, Morello's own Firebrand Records, and a musically diverse lineup of ideologically unified comrades, the nationwide Rock Against the TPP tour will compete with the president for hearts and minds with the ultimate goal of stopping "the biggest corporate power grab in history."

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For the Morello militia, no sphere of civil life is safe from the ravages of trade. "If it becomes law, the TPP... poses a grave threat to good-paying jobs, internet freedom, the environment, access to medicine, food safety, and the future of freedom of expression," the tour's website warns hysterically.

But the very concept of "rocking" against the TPP has an unavoidable irony embedded in it. To rock, one must have a guitar. And the reason so many Americans own guitars today is thanks, in large part, to past trade agreements like the TPP.

The Treaty of Mutual Coopera tion and Security Between the United States and Japan, adopted in i960, was the first nudge toward opening up trade relations between the two historic enemies. By the following decade, Japan-based Ibanez had started experimenting with the electric guitar template pioneered by U.S. monoliths Fender and Gibson.

This happened to coincide with mounting consumer dissatisfaction with the latter two brands. As the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards explains, for Fender and Gibson, "the quality started dwindling in the '60s and '70s. And after a decade or so, Japan realized they can make them better." The Ibanez products, cheaper and of superior quality, suddenly enjoyed consumer favor. The shifting industry landscape also inspired new U.S. upstarts to enter the market, most notably Mesa Boogie and Peavey Electronics.

By the mid-1980s, through corporate restructuring spurred on by their burgeoning competitors, Fender and Gibson had regained the status they command to this day. "Evil investment firms came in," Edwards jests, "and, seeing that these companies were undervalued and poorly managed, bought them out." Soon after, they reintroduced the brands, stressing their return to mid-century quality standards. "That's how capitalism works."

But the relaunch had a dark side as well...

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