Is the audience for popular music created by the music industry?

The music industry is in control of popular music and therefore the music itself is homogeneous (a formula to make profit). According to Shepherd* it has been described as ‘ one of the gatekeepers positioned between the music industry and its audience’. Therefore the audience of popular music must be increased by the industries marketing but does it create the audience? Hirsch* describes the music press as an ‘institutional regulator of music industry output that acts as a filter between the recording industry and its audience’. So, there is an important link between the two (the output), the audience could be down to marketing. However audiences may purchase popular music because they enjoy it. Homogenised music isn’t always a success and is sometimes a one off hit. Overall, the music industry creates the market but not necessarily the audience, it depends upon what the consumers like and the availability of it.

*J,Shepherd (2003) Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: Media, industry and society, Continuum International Publishing Group, p 40

* Hirsch in Shepherd

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UNCUT Review.

The entertaining monthly music publication Uncut is aimed towards music and movie fanatics. In fact, it is targeting the older male (30+) and the lengthy articles suggest it is aimed towards people with spare time to engage with the magazine. Extended articles and reviews are the primary features of this magazine with the main cover story spread over twelve pages. These lengthy articles are descriptive and provide insight into great rock music from The Rolling Stones to more recent artists and musical festivals. The magazine is wordy but employs black and white photos to illustrate the importance of influential artists and encourages the reader to remember their youth. Cinema reviews and adverts for the targeted audience such as laptops are also incorporated, and with each issue of Uncut the fans are given a free CD and a pass to remember their youth and gain knowledge about new and legendary artists.

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Are Blackness and Whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?

Nothing is simply black and white, however these concepts can be useful in understanding the origin and influences of popular music such as life experience. Hatch notes how ‘pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions’. ‘Rock and Roll came about from white people’s fascination with black music’ (Shank) but this works both ways, within new styles and fusions of music such as Bhangra we can see that ‘black music’ is also fascinated with styles typical of ‘white music’. Longhurst asserts that ‘artists like Apache Indian could be taken as an example of this phenomenon…music can not be seen as racially owned’. Sam Phillips believed that if he could discover a white man with the ‘’Negro sound’’ he would be successful. Artists such as Elvis blur the lines between ‘black’ and ‘white’ music and hence these concepts are ideological (Tagg),‘black’ and ‘white’ music are fused.

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Can pop music achieve genuine political change?

Robin Balliger* defines politics in popular music as ‘songs which either serve or struggle against dominant institutions’. The RATM* protest against Simon Cowell and the Christmas number one is an example of this. Popular music influences society, so it is no surprise that popular music has been used to highlight political issues throughout history. Longhurst stresses that there are two reasons for this connection, the way that music ‘is seen as oppositional to established values in the broadest sense’ and music that relates to a political theme ‘the interconnections between Rock and politics’. This strong relationship between music and political change is apparent with Band Aid in the 1980s where music artists encouraged donations in order to ‘feed the World’. This did not solve the problem but it did make a significant change. Music alone cannot achieve political change but it is a useful tool and helps raise global awareness.

*Robin Balliger referenced from-Key terms in popular music and culture By Bruce Horner, Thomas Swiss (chapter 5, p57)

*RATM- Rage Against the Machine

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Does the emergence of the digital download signal the end for the music industry?

Digital technology (Internet downloads such as iTunes and Limewire) has revolutionised the way that we consume music. Illegal downloads and P2P sharing is theft and apparently killing the sales of CDs and ultimately the music industry (although the real reason isn’t clear). It has highlighted the negative effects and ignored the positive. Radiohead’s tracks were leaked onto Napster, which resulted in a top 20 USA hit and in 2000 number one in the Billboard 200 Album chart. Alderman discusses how the music industry ‘was banking on its control of songs that have now become seductive little packets of freely traded digits’. I believe that the music industry won’t end but will continue to develop. As Condry states ‘even if the RIAA manages to reduce p2p file-sharing in the US to Japan’s miniscule level, Japan shows us that preventing online sharing does not stop unauthorized copying’. Digital technology will always exist.

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What is World music?

In my opinion World music is global music (The Beatles) as opposed to local music and can be anything that is sung in English. The term 'World music' conjures up images of unfamiliar cultures and instruments in my head. I agree with Deanna Robinson who points out that World music and the issue that it is often homogenous is because the ‘international and local sounds are being fused to create heterogeneous World Music’. To me, this suggests that World music has commercial and marketing implications as local sounds are being used to create a sellable product. Likewise, Frith notes that with global media large corporations can market any product anywhere.

The definition of World music is debatable, subjective and personal. Jan Fairley sums it up, ‘the relationship of the ‘local’ and the ‘global’ in popular music is one of the most complex, controversial and significant issues of the new millenium’.

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Is pop music a mass produced commodity or a genuine art form?

Art is a form of self-expression; a moment of inspiration and something that cannot be reproduced. However some people disagree, Adorno states that ‘the whole structure of popular music is standardized’. Nevertheless standardization has been evident within folk and religious music so why is Adorno only focusing upon popular music? He suggests that it is homogenous and exists to distract people from realising how dull life is, he does not seem to attempt to understand the passion behind popular music and art. This puzzles me because both art and music have different meanings to individuals. He considers that all popular music is a mass produced commodity, but CDs are mass produced and the music is different. I believe that popular music is a form of self-expression and therefore art. Alternatively, Adorno says it is ‘an all consuming production line that churns out mass produced, inferior commodities’. Both viewpoints are valid.

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How useful is a production of Culture perspective in understanding the birth of Rock 'n' Roll?

Richard A. Peterson's views about the development of Rock ‘n’ Roll are effective in explaining the emergence of it and help our understanding but there are gaps in his theory.

Peterson’s catalysts of Rock ‘n’ Roll, (6 key factors) provides a good insight into the sociological and economical problems at that time. However he fails to consider how much of an impact the actual sound of the music had and how different it was to music before. I strongly feel that Peterson’s theory was flawed, he ruled out one major contributing factor, the extraordinary sound of the music. Another weakness of this theory is that it does not explain why it was this genre of music that emerged. Influential new artists such as Elvis Presley are ruled out as a factor so therefore he is overlooking other factors of why it was Rock ‘n’ Roll and why it was popular.

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Is it Reasonable to Consider that Rock Music is Gendered Male?

Male musicians dominate rock so it’s reasonable to say that it is gendered male. Ninety-eight of the Rolling Stone 100 greatest guitarists were men, which raises the issue of why?

‘Male fans buy a guitar; female fans buy a poster’ (Bayton). Men aspire to be their idols whereas women fall in lust. Frith and McCobbie look at this ‘gendered’ heavy metal as ‘cock rock’. Prince (Purple Rain) used his electric guitar as a powerful phallocentric symbol and to some men is their ‘girlfriend’. Women are more successful within ‘pop and folk… predominantly that of vocalist rather than instrumentalist’ (Bayton). Janis Joplin had to become ‘one of the boys’ to succeed.

Androgynous musicians (Bowie & Motley Crue) leave little room in the market for females. Overall Rock music is masculine, ‘women's presence has been…minimal’ (Bayton). However since female 'rockers' like Avril Lavigne females appear more in rock. Rock music is changing.

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Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

‘Unplugged’ music, (even acoustic) cannot be ‘popular music’ because recording and distribution would not be possible, which limits the audience. Technological inventions have made it so that society is so dependent upon technology that we take it for granted. Theberge notes that ‘without electronic technology, popular music in the twenty-first century is unthinkable’. Lee De Forest invented the Audion, initially created to boost power signals of long distance telephones, which has been used for music. Amplification developed to enhance the power of sound; made music accessible and became "part of the establishment of Rock and Roll” in the 1950s, allowing artists to amplify electric guitars/microphones (Little Junior Parker) and singers (Elvis) to be iconic or influential.

Technology has shaped and influenced popular music and therefore can never really be unplugged. Without technology music only reaches small audiences and I believe that we are dependent upon technology and would have difficulty reverting.

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What is popular music?

‘Popular music’ is difficult to define because the meaning depends on whom you ask. The word 'popular' derives from the Latin ‘popularis’ which means ‘belonging to the people’ and Raymond Williams in ‘Keywords’ defines 'popular' as something that is ‘widely favoured’. These definitions seem accurate as new technology means that music is available to everybody on demand and therefore popular music is the people's personal favoured choice.

Personally, I consider pop music to be chart music. Although I have realised that it can be from any genre, time period and differs between cultures. I think that Roy Shuker outlines the meaning of pop music well, which is that it ‘consists of hybrid musical traditions, styles and influences’. However Robert Burnett states that popular music is primarily concerned with profit. This is often the case (X Factor) but a lot of musicians make music simply because of their love for it.

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