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

Shuker says that “all popular music consists of a hybrid of musical traditions.” The music industry is driven by massive multi-national recording companies, retailers, press, merchandising and music technology. This structure was created to maximize profits for the record companies. Because of this, the popular music market discourages taking creative risks and therefore, popular music generally sounds the same and this sound is popular for a mass audience. The music industry controls the sound of popular music that it has created and therefore the audience.

However, there is a new driving force behind the music industry - TV. Shows like the X Factor draw attention to popular music, and builds up new pop stars. For example, Joe McElderry sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” which also featured in Glee, this drew attention to a song which otherwise may have remained unheard by the current popular music audience and the result was another number one for them. This suggests that though the music industry may have created the popular music audience, this is slowly changing.

A review of Uncut Magazine

Roy Shuker said “Music press…plays a major part in the process of selling music as an economic commodity…investing it with cultural significance.” Uncut magazine is aimed at an Indie Rock male audience, who are interested in the music and the associated life-style.

The article “ALBUM REVIEW: PAVEMENT - QUARANTINE THE PAST: THE BEST OF Pavement Domino”

(http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/pavement/reviews/14036) is written in a heavily stylized way. The band are referred to as “smartass slackers…burrowing into the footnotes of rock history via a series of cryptic, elliptical EPs that felt like in-jokes”. The article is written in a knowledgeable but patronizing fashion with the journalist well-versed on the bands history and ensuring the reader knows just how clever he is. The language is intelligent which also suggests that the reader is smart. It mocks pop culture drawing on the age-old rockers opinion that rock music is better than pop music.

The front cover is iconic with its red, white and black colour scheme. The main focus is a picture of Liam Gallagher and headline “The Rolling Stones” - gods to people who like Indie Rock. Overall the effect is cluttered with lots of information on it, because the audience who buys this magazine are rock fans and therefore want this detail of information.

As music has become more popular, music magazines have grown, this could be just a more focused advertising strategy for the bands.

Are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?

Barry Shank suggests “that the transformations in popular music that we associate with the rise and development of rock were the result of white fascination with black music.” From this, concepts of blackness and whiteness are useful with understanding development of popular music. This doesn’t mean that people only listen to their relevant racial group music style, however, it means that the beginning of popular music was based in different life situations. For example, blues music developed through the slave trade, and this background is important to understand to fully appreciate the musical sound. Therefore, to study popular music is to understand its background. Through the development of popular music, sounds that began as either Black, White, or Asian etc, have began to fuse so in the modern era these musical styles do not exist separately but more as different genres which appeal to broad spectrums of the audience. “Pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions” David Hatch.

Can popular music achieve genuine political change?

The link between music and politics has always been apparent. Folk songs such as “We shall overcome,” used during the time of The Civil Rights Movement, highlight how music provides a powerful way of expressing emotions. Rock music has long held political messages supporting change and the advent of Punk Rock saw sentiments against authority reach controversial new levels. The Sex Pistols song "God Save The Queen" was banned because it was against the monarchy. Longhurst sees pop or rock as “oppositional to established values and politics” and music is used to influence people although it can be used to promote the establishment. Red Wedge, an independent organisation used popular music to promote the Labour party before the general election of 1987. Popular music can achieve political change with some success. This was seen in 1984 when Bob Geldof created Band Aid and used popular music to raise money and awareness, where Government policies were failing.

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

Since music has been available via digital download, the music industry has seen a down turn in CD sales. Sites such as Napster, made it easier for people to discover music and trade it online, basically turning all users computers into a file server, sharing commercially produced copyrighted material. This was made even worse when tracks that had not even been released became available illegally. Due to this, many within the music industry think that digital downloading will signal the end.

However, this is a very sweeping statement because there are still millions of people who download music legally and pay for it. On top of this radio and tv companies still need to buy licenses to air music videos and songs. Radio charts are still popular but now also include downloaded music. This will be the way the music industry must go in the future: developing their offering to keep up with developing technologies. By increasing their online presence and security the music industry will not finish.

What is world music?

Jan Fairley suggests that the relationship between global and local popular music is becoming more complex in the modern era. World music can mean two different things:

1. Anglo-American pop music that can be heard anywhere. These artists are owned by multinational record labels who try to create music that will play everywhere and therefore they try to make the music similar as possible.

2. Local indigenous music that is a cultural identity. This can involve going to hear a local band at the pub. It could also be a more cultural sound for example, bagpipes in Scotland, Country & Western music in Tennessee.

These types of local music are becoming more global through the Internet and through the homogenous record labels who have recently started taking these types of music adding a more “pop beat” to it and releasing it for the whole world to hear e.g Taylor Swift.

Therefore I would suggest that world music in fact refers to all music.

Is popular music a mass produced commodity, or a genuine art form?

Adorno said that “the whole structure of popular music is standardized,” that it was symptomatic of the politically and aesthetically destructive nature of the capitalist mode of production. The industry is an all-consuming production line that churns out mass produced inferior commodities. One of the biggest popular musical events of the modern era is The X Factor. Simon Cowell builds up new popular music ‘stars’ who exhibit part-interchangeability and pseudo-individualization, they all fit into the same cookie-cutter model, singing old songs that have been re-versioned. Winner Joe McElderry sang The Climb by Miley Cyrus which was written for her by an employee of Columbia records.

However, the “production” side of the music industry is becoming less important with the infiltration of the internet, where popular music that hasn’t been created by a massive record label is becoming more freely available. So maybe popular music is moving back to becoming a more genuine art form than we have seen recently.