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

Is it right to suggest that the audience has become a hypodermic receiver created by the music industry and fed these mass produced popular songs into their consciousness where by they are unmediated and this vicious cycle remains unbroken. Or do we occasionally see a breakthrough where an artist or a different genre emerges to smash this 'production line'.

Adorno would agree that all popular music sounds the same and that the music industry is purely a money making machine whereby if it strikes gold, it will attempt to replicate this model in order to produce success, this is where we see what is know as templates, artists/ boy-bands/ girl-groups rerecording similar songs to previous bands who were before them (probably all under the same management.)

However some would argue the audience are free to buy what they like and that popular music is still an art form. I would have to suggest that Adornos argument is a vast generalisation. However believe that it is only when the individual artist is permitted full artistic control say over the management that original music starts being made.

Kerrang Review

Kerrang can only be compared to marmite... as in its just jank! If I had to rate it using its K rating system I would give it one K- for Bollocks. For a quarter of your hourly wage at macdonalds its not bad for your money but I personally would rather spend mine on a cheeseburger! The glossy pages of the mag are split into main sections like any review style rag, commenting on meaningless crap such as Kourney Loves next escapades or interviewing the superficial Blink 182. If your serious about rock music then perhaps Metal Hammer is more for you but if your a pop-rocker then Kerrang is right up your alley because it covers rock more generally. Kerrang is basically SmashHits indesguise covered in teeny rockers and moshers!

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

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

‘Pop music has always depended upon the interaction between white and black traditions” Hatch & Milward(1987) The titular two concepts are simply sub-categories of Popular Music, and when studying Popular music one must acknowledge the other categories, which may or may not de-value the concept of ‘race’ especially in comparison to factors such as class, culture and social background. However it does stand as a theoretical starting point; some people feel the lines of blackness and whitness have merged, others feel there is an animosity between the two because history has shown that a corporation will find/ create a white artist as an alternative to the new form of musical art created by Black people.

However the lines between Black ‘Afro- American’ music and white ‘European’ music have been blurred for there are Black artist performing and creating European music and vica-versa therefore I think it is fair to comment that blackness and whiteness are becoming ever more futile in music as they are in society.

Can popular music achieve genuine political change?

Popular music has a long historical connection with politics, however achieving genuine political change is questionable, many would argue that Popular music simply contains political expression to portray the specific political message of the moment, others would argue it should '...exercise power over its listeners to shape and influence, (their) thoughts and actions" (John street in Frith. Straw and Street)

In July 1985 Live Aid raised £50 million and over 1 billion watched it was more successful than anyone had every anticipated however was harshly criticised for being "tasteless, self serving for those involved, symptomatic of existing geopolitical relations and politically inappropriate." Those who criticised were perhaps those who feared its success and the genuine effects of the music. Ultimately Live Aid did what it intended (which is more than can be said for general Politics) which was to raise money and awareness, it may not have been a 'symbolic force' that creates visions and a change but it served its purpose.

What is World music?

World music is a term which is surrounded by much academic debate. The concept has been arguably divided into two separate ideas; the first being that world music is traditional music of a culture that is created and played by indigenous musicians that is closely related to the music of regions of their origin, this is know as 'Local' (Frith, Straw &Street, 2002 pg 272). The other being 'Global Music' (Frith) which is essentially 'local' / any music reaching a global audience.

The term was created in the 1980s by Robert E Brown, largely due to a sudden increase of non-English language recordings being released therefore the music industry needed a marketing device in the media to classify any kind of non Anglo/ American music. (which was and still is the accepted standard global template for music in the music industry.)

Due to the ambiguity of the definition of world music, it can arguably, be anything from, Madonna to a Indian tribesman playing a drum.

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

Art is essentially a product of Human creativity, which would, indeed, assert the idea of popular music being a form of art. Now although the music (text) itself is universal and perhaps could be argued by some as true art, it must be contained by a particular i.e. vinyl record/C.D. which unfortunately transforms it into this 'mass produced commodity', for in order to sell a universal the text must be contained by a particular.

So to assert the idea of popular music being 'genuine' would be to oppose Adornos idea that 'The popular music industry is an all consuming production line that churns out mass produced inferior commodities' (Adorno on popular music 1941). However one must always consider the creativity undergone by the human because ultimately art is a skill, that takes time and effort to make a 'creation' and not just the creation of making of money.