Is the Audience for Popular Music Created by the Music Industries?

Theodor Adorno proposed the argument that popular music is a mass produced commodity in the forties. Pointing out that popular music is researched, marketed, produced and invested in much like any other commodity. This argument seems to bare considerable wait as genres and styles of music often contain sounds that bare similarities. Artistic interpretation means that often songs are repeated but in a different way or genre and creates different emotional and cultural responses to the originals (Dark Side of the Moon/ Dub Side of the Moon.) The creation and existence of sub-cultures whose function is to resist the products of culture industries also seems to refute Adornos’ assertions. Often music industries have been forced to react quickly in order to profit from an emerging trend it has not foreseen due to a shift in the political or cultural landscape. It seems, however, undeniable that the music industries that control more than one media outlet (Sony to give one example) can have no impact on how music is viewed and received. It can be said is that it is a dual entity, always in opposition and affected by many factors. Industry can create culture, culture can fuel or change industry.

Review of Mixmag Magazine.

Mixmag is your weekly read of choice for people who love all that’s alternative, underground, dancy or trancy. With reviews of up-coming albums, festivals and clubs it’s aimed at a mature audience but definitely not a nine to five one. Maixmag also functions as a one stop shop for all your mixing and DJing needs, as well as part time travel guide to the best club trance scenes in Europe. But articles aren’t all about where to find a decent rave or the best new beats on the block. Some take a humours, but still aggressive, side-swipe at authority and the introduction of laws that threaten the growth, or existence, of Clubland.
When albums or musicians are reviewed/interviewed emphasis is on the music not there soaks or grooming habits. Mixmag album reviews also come with a downloader’s guide suggesting the best tracks to download and ‘Like this? Try...’ tips. Good for bulking up you iTunes.
Rating: 7.5 turntables.

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

It’s my view that the ‘black music’ and ‘white music’ are useful for talking about the origins of genres of music or for looking at how different cultures combined in the evolution of popular music. However these terms become defunct, or at least highly questionable, when talking of the history of popular music very quickly. There have been many examples not only of sounds, genres and styles combining to make new sounds such Rock ‘n’ Roll. But also artist’s taking other cultures sounds and sometimes doing it better, Eminem for example or Jimmy Hendrix. The former emerged as a dominant and controversial white artist in a predominantly black genre and the latter for the same reasons. Also in the past and even the present there are numerous times when white artists have covered songs originally performed by black musicians making it more popular and vice versa. ‘Blackness’ and ‘whiteness’ are useful terms for looking at the history and genealogy of music or even analysing aspects of contemporary music, but cannot simply be used as terms on their own.

Can Popular Music Really Achieve Genuine Political Change?

Popular music has long been used as a vehicle to express political opinions, to promote policies and ideas. This is not just phenomenon that appeared during the sixties, one example is the anti-English folk songs of the Irish that spoke of freedom and the atrocities of the English. Popular music has long been seen as a threat by establishments. Whether Capitalist, Communist or Dictatorship, the awareness of music’s power to captivate and galvanise its audience into actions has often been cause for both concern and policy change or making. Examples of this include the Criminal Justice Act, the BBC’s refusal to play Paul McCartney songs about Ireland and Bob Doles campaign against Time-Warner’s promotion of Snoop Dogg. However not only does popular music cause its own censorship but can contribute to important political and social change. Billy Holidays song ‘Strange Fruit’ and the pictures that provided the inspiration for the song can be seen as playing an important, if minor role, in changing the attitude towards and social standing black Americans. In my view popular music cannot achieve political change on its own, but it can certainly start and aid the process.

Are youth Sub-cultures Genuine signs of Revolt of Simply the Manifestation of Style?

Sub-cultures can be a revolt. They can show dissatisfaction with the politics in the time of their conception, take for example the miner strikes during Margret Thatcher’s rule as PM. They can embody a new trend or movement in music, as we have been seeing recently with Emo. They can be formed around a minority community coming together for security like the black ghettos of 60’s America. On the other hand subcultures develop a style which allows for members of that subculture a free expression of identity through the image of the self whilst also removing and indicators of class or job they develop a uniform. You can be a bank clerk by day and a Goth by night.
However, often these projections of self image and the cultures, communities, grievances or sounds that initially started and formed the core of the subculture become common place. Adopted or marketed to the masses it is no longer a threat so the revolution, the statement, meaning or message dies and it simple becomes a fashion with no meaning.

Does the Emergence on the Digital Download Signal the end of the Music Industry?

This statement, or ones much like it, have often been used in the past especially when there has been any significant advancement, not just in the entertainment, industries but in all areas of life. Film studios said that TV would make the cinema obsolete, cassettes would kill the music industry. These prophesies of doom however did not come to fruition, the advances made merely change the way in which we listened or viewed product. Digital downloads are no different. Yes a few years back there was and a lot of ‘piracy’. Now however with more flexible DRM laws, the funding and software Apple is producing, which makes operating inside the law easier for the consumer, coupled with a growing awareness of the need for internet security more and more people are using legitimate legal sights which actually contribute the music industry. Also people will always want to go to a live concert. As I said this is changing the way we listen to music as now we restrict our tastes by not needing to listen to anything that we don’t like. We are becoming more insular.

Can poplar Music ever really be unplugged?

In the 21^st century electric, digital and general all-round technology saturation of our culture, and world, has reached the level where nothing is truly unplugged. Albums can be recorded and produced on a single piece of affordable technology in a bedroom. Though music can still be unplugged. Church choirs use their voices to produce music; schools sing songs and nursery rhymes accompanied by a piano. Okay these performances can be recorded, cleaned, produced and replayed electronically but it’s important to note that not ALL performances are. This would reopen the debate as to what classifies as ‘popular music’. If we, for this blog, we take that to mean mainstream artists, groups and their work, I don’t believe they can ever be truly ‘unplugged’ because of recording equipment used, the amplification to their voices etc. But I think that in those situations where the artist is producing an ‘unplugged’ album or concert then the meaning of unplugged changes, in other words it means that electronic technology, and equipment, will not be used to alter or distort the product in a way that would create an inaccurate record of the artists’ skills/work.