Week 5 - Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

Popular music cannot be unplugged as to keep it popular it needs to be distributed and in order to do so the music has to be performed with technology to be recorded and placed on to CD. There wouldn’t be the varied genres we have today, such as Rock music, where all of its sound is consisted of technology and its misuse. For instance the Stratocaster by Fender in 1954 and the feedback made by the closeness of the amplifier and instrument constituted a trademark sound and an iconic style for rock n roll. A need for microphone and amp is important in the creation of popular music so not to overshadow the other instruments when performing, such as drums overpowering vocals. It can be said Radio 1’s Unplugged is contradictory as techniquly the music is not unplugged as to be heard it is recorded. The points that say popular music can be unplugged are always justified. Such as singing acapella, but there is the need of a venue that would have to have the ability to carry a voice to make it loud enough for audience appreciation. Also the banging on an inanimate object (a table) can be performed to produce popular music; however as it is the use of scientific knowledge it makes the table technology.

Week 4 - What is world music and why does it exist?

World music is a genre that covers all music that is not part of mainstream pop music within Western Europe and North America (English speaking countries). It has an "ethnic" element to it that can be seen as pop music that embodies influences from the third world. World music has sounds that reflect a particular culture through the use of geographically specific musical structure, instruments, and lyrics that can also reflect a cultural, social, and even political realism. As an audience we can determine world music as a musical style that is rooted to a culture which is opposed to our own. When musical styles and cultures mix using a range of cultural instruments and styles it is called world fusion. Meaning, it doesn't necessarily matter where an artist is from or their background, if a performer uses different ethnic influences that are apparent in song then that is World Music. Robinson, Buck and Cuthbert indicated that international and local sounds are being fused to create world music, and an example of this is Punjabi MC who has taken Asian cultural music and fused it with a Western hip-hop beat. This music exists as we live in a globalise world where culture plays influence on the music that is made in each country. Without it a distinctive sense of national identity would not be distinguished. It can be said this genre is used as a marketing device, sometimes referring to any kind of foreign music, especially in a foreign language.

Week 3 - Is popular music a commodity form or is it art?

With an artist it is difficult to determine whether they are an artist for the ability to express a feeling or idea, or whether they are truly in it to make money. Adorno agrees that popular music is a commodity. Adornos idea of Pseudo Individualisation explains why popular music is a commodity as the illusion of exclusivity is achieved by marketing a music album for a second time for instance which is practically the same as the one before. Even covers of songs like ‘against all odds’ by Phil Collins has had its structure re-used by the likes of Westlife, seeing the music as just a selling commodity. Popular music is a universal text which is sold, a done so by being contained by a particular consisting of a CD or vinyl. Although music is part of a performance when expressed, which makes it a form of art. Like art, good music can not be achieved by just anyone, there has to be a variety of talent involved. Musicians are referred to as artists for such a reason. With artistic covers achieved by producers and musicians such as Mark Ronson there is the idea of popular music being an art. Popular music is not consumed more than once by a particular artist as other commodities are such as a good pair of Converse shoes. As a consumer we’ll buy a similar style or connotation of music to that artist.

Week 2 - What are the strengths and weaknesses of R.A. Peterson's production of culture approach to the birth of rock 'n' roll?

In 1955 R.A. Peterson introduced six factors that were behind the cause of Rock ‘n’ roll. Though behind this production of culture approach there are strengths and weaknesses that favour and hold back this idea. What was happening in society and did happen with laws, technology and industry structure, it gave reason for this emergence of something fresh and innovative. Rock ‘n’ roll arose because the major networks of NBC, CBS and Mutual dropped their hold on everything which gave way for the emergence of new music to be heard. For instance after war in 1947 there was much air time to be filled so smaller radio stations came forward to fill schedules which thus resulted in gramophone records to be utilised. With this flood in the radio market, stations had to stand out by playing a range of music. As Rock ‘n’ roll was a new sound it made any station be prominent from the rest, so Rock ‘n’ roll made stations and therefore itself popular. Draw backs of the approach is that it doesn’t actually address music, and more so Rock ‘n’ roll as a genre. The ideas are based more on culture and society. Rock ‘n’ roll was not the only genre at this time also so why did this approach to the production of culture help Rock 'n' roll to explode in the music scene over others. Finally, Peterson doesn’t explain the feeling of music that Rock ‘n’ roll gave at the time, and why this was so different, therefore he doesn’t use aural understanding (his ears!) of Rock ‘n’ roll to comprehend the genre.

Week1 - What is Popular Music?

Throughout centuries the meaning behind popular has changed. In early 16th Century, what was referred to as popular meant that it was ‘low or base, vulgar, of the common people’ as Raymond Williams (1976) proclaimed, though the term became widely favoured as a synonym for good by the 18th Century. Anahid Kassabian believed ‘popular’ to arise from and of the ‘folk’. Meaning that such people create music for their own enjoyment, creativity or expression which is usually home-made. Although in todays understanding of popular, ‘folk’ appears to be in opposition. With the control of business enterprises surrounding popular music, profit becomes a large motive for musicians. Additionaly the commercial orientation of popular music takes music away from its grassroots ‘folk’ level, and thus its consumption is what makes music popular, as Robert Burnett informs ‘when we speak of popular music we speak of music that is commerically orientated.’ Therefore when music is commercialised, sells, and becomes favoured (whatever the genre) it becomes pop music.