Is the Audience for Pop Music Created By the Music Industry?

The music industry what Swiss describes as the "specific industrial structure of production, distribution and sale," that revolves around pop music.

 

The music industry is the group that decides which artists get recording contracts, for how much, and controls their style and image until their ability to sell and popularity decrease. Therefore deciding who the audience actually listens or gains access too.  By selling and promoting certain music and a ‘market for popular music recordings,’ the industry essentially creates it’s own audience.

 

Often, people working within the music press and those working in the 'industry' promoting artists crossover, causing a conflict of interests over promoting what they are actually selling. Similarly audiences depend on the industry for 'access to music.'

 

However, do people really just find music because the industry says it’s popular, or do people stick with genres and artists they like regardless of popularity or promotion?

Mix Mag Review

Like Clubbing? Like Gadgets? Like Fashion? Then Mix mag is for you. The world's biggest clubbing and dance music magazine mixes news and reviews with pictures of raves, comments on the biggest gadgets and a fashion.

Mixmag is glossy, current and features interviews with all the hottest artists in dance music.

Mix mag has something for both women and men and keeps a casual writing style to engage with a younger audience, however a large percentage of it's content is taken up with adverts for the gadgets it attempts to sell but also for gigs related to the artists it reviews which allows readers a first look at the coolest upcoming raves and events.

All in all mixmag is excellent for those keen on dance music and the clubbing scene and provides top info for it’s readers and has something for everyone which it’s mix of subjects and genres.

Are Blackness and Whiteness Useful Concepts in the Study of Popular Music?

Ideas of 'black' and 'white' music as seperate styles stems from the emergence of 'race records' in the 1920s, labels which specialised in 'black' music.

Producer Sam Philips also saw a difference in style, claiming "if I could find a white man who had a negro sound...I could make a billion dollars," and actively encouraging white artists to cover black music.

However Hatch and Milward claim that "pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions," and this is seen in Rock and Roll, a predominantly white genre with influences in black soul.

Similarly genres sterotypically seen as of one race often have successful oppositional artists - Jessye Norman's opera, Eminem making hip-hop. However, artists like Eminem becoming involved with black music may have more to do with social class and their economic environment. Meaning that race may actually have little influence on musical style.

Can Pop Music Achieve Genuine Political Change?

Street claims pop music is "a symbolic force, it deploys the power of language to create visions, articulate ideas and form bonds." If true, there is no doubt it could be used to voice political ideals.

Popular music genres have sometimes been related to political ideals (for example Punk/Anarchy) due to their connotations and artists have used their music to promote their beliefs, Bob Dylan for example, but whether they actually achieve political change is a different matter.

The musicians Red Wedge movement, promoting Labour in the 1987 elections, was a failure in that Labour lost the election. It could be argued that Bob Marley’s promotion of the beliefs of Rastafarians in his music is flawed as he goes against his anti-capitalist beliefs by mass-producing his records.

However, popular music can make a difference, for example Band-aid raised vast sums of money for African charities through songs and concerts.

Does the Emergence of Digital Downloads Signal the End For the Music Industry?

Since the Berliner's invention of the disk-based recording system in 1877, the music industry has controlled the way in which we consume music texts.

Worries of piracy have been strong since the 1980s, the BPI introduced an anti-piracy campaign to stop home taping, as they believed it would kill the record industry.

However, 39 years after the campaign was launched, and following the introduction of MP3 in 1992, the music industry still thrives.

Though Digital downloads and increased download speeds make it easier to illegally download than ever before, studies show that it is not necessarily damadging the industry. Lessig notes that following leaking of Radiohead's Kid A onto Napster, they experienced chart success for the first time in America

Despite a minor fall in sales, people continue to purchase music - especially judging by the recent sale of iTunes’ (the leading MP3 retailer) 10 billionth track.

What is World Music?

To understand ‘world music’ is it is important to understand the difference between the terms 'local' and 'global' in terms of their relevance to music.

'Local' could mean, undiscovered and authentic, whereas 'Global' could mean trans-national products, recieving what Frith, Straw and Street describe as global media attention. When we think of ‘global’ music we think of major stadium bands like U2, we certainly don't think of "world music" - generally unfamiliar styles which go against the anglo-american.

This could be because of the cultural imperialism enforced by UK and USA artists, who generally gain"high market penetration" (Shuker 2002 pg 70) in all foreign nations, but who's charts are devoid of imported music.

‘World music’ may never meet the criteria to make it saleable worldwide but can still be appreciated through ease of recording music which make genres (that may never be heard live) available for sale worldwide.

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

The dictionary defines art as "the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance."

Using this as a basis, it is arguable that popular music is art, but only in some instances. There are certain mercenary aspects, the X Factor, for example, in its yearly creation of generic pop. However, raw talent and inspiration can still be found.

Though artists may still use their art to make money, their music is (as Bernard Gendron claims) the text, the universal and the copies they has no effect on the art which was originally created.

Taking the part of the definition which claimed art has "more than ordinary significance," this is essential to the nature of pop music, no-one could argue that people like Elvis and The Beatles were not significant in the development of culture in modern society.

How useful is a production of culture perspective in understanding the birth of rock and roll?

The ideas expressed within Peterson's article are effective in explaining the emergence of rock and roll. In particular his use of, what he calls, the six key factors do go some way to explaining this key development in popular music

However, while the changes in law, technology and the industry do explain how it was possible for rock and roll to emerge, they do not explain why.

The rock and roll genre is a complex mix of the genres of the time and the reason this mix became popular is not explained by this perspective, neither can it explain why it has had such an effect on all subsequent musical genres. Also, while Peterson discusses ideas of Showmen and Entrepreneurs, I feel more needs to be looked at performers such as Elvis and Jerry Lee Lewis as this perspective overlooks their ability to make classic pop and capture cultural feeling.

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

Rock is dominated by male performers, In the Rolling Stone 100 greatest guitarists , 98 are male. Bayton claims, "women performers have been more prominent in commercial pop and 'folk.’"

This could be because, as Bayton observed, because women are ostracized in magazines and guitar shops. Also, the electric guitar - a staple of rock, is considered a 'masculine' instrument and one that girls may avoid due to their cultural socialisation. Similarly Rock lyrics typically are what Frith and McRobbie describe as an "aggressive expression of male sexuality," Something that women may not be able to relate to.

However, Greig notices that female performers have developed different styles in order to express feminine issues. Kurt Cobain claimed in a 1993 interview that "The future of rock belongs to women," and when we observe strong female rock stars like Courtney Love and Janis Joplin it is fair to assume that this could be true.

Can Popular Music Ever Really Be Unplugged?

If we take popular by William's definition of "well liked," it is hard to imagine how this would be possible, as Theberge claims, "without electronic technology, popular music in the twenty first century is unthinkable.”

A key development in the creation of rock and roll, a precursor to modern pop was the electric guitar. Developed in 1932 by Adolph Rickenbacker, it is now one of the most widely used instruments in modern music. The Fender Stratocaster is easily identified by people who have even the tiniest amount of musical knowledge. The electric guitar is a staple in most popular music.

To be able to spread, and listen to, music, amplification and microphone technology would be essential. Today, almost everyone has access to mp3 technology, so even if a song was simply a singer and acoustic acompaniment it would need technology to be heard and to ensure it became "well liked."

Week One - Pop Goes The Culture

The lecture began by filling in a questionnaire about our musical tastes, stretching across the class from Nirvana to Lady Gaga, then discussing what we thought pop music was and then looked at Williams' (1979) progression of the word, which started as “base or vulgar," and progressed to meaning "widely favoured." We looked at Kassabian's description of pop as" art and culture of the people" and why this was a dubious description - art of the people should be accessible, but T-Rex's Strange Orchestra showed that it wasn't, art of the people should be oppositional to "high culture" but sales of Nessun Dorma would argue otherwise.

Roy Shuker's definition of pop as a "hybrid," an "economic product," with "ideological significance." – was possibly the most all-encompassing definition possible.

By the end of the lecture, we had learnt that the idea of popular music was not as clear-cut as we may have thought.