Does the music industry create the market?

To some extent both the music industry and the audience are responsible for the market. On the one hand the music industry are the ones who own all the music and distribution rights, and in theory should be able to dictate trends and control the market. However the reality is that the audience has a far greater role to play than the more common passive consumer, they pick what music to buy and more often than not adopt trends from the independant labels which are then picked up by the major music companies.This degree of choice and the existance of independant labels means that the music industry is actually very limited in its ability to create and market trends, relying instead on the audiences current taste to cater to. It is this almost symbiotic relationship between the industry and the audience that creates the music market.

Uncut Review

Uncut is a magazine targeted at an older almost vintage generation. Mainly for the over 30`s Uncut has many articles on classic favourites such as Bon Jovie, as well as features on various historical musical events of the later 1960`s 70`s. Seeming to have evolved with its audience many of the adverts are targeted at people of means, with adverts for top of the range cars and high quality cameras. A large number of the adverts are for musical based products as well as HMV and upcoming Festivals and shows. Also featured in Uncut are reviews of some of the latest music which has been released, thereby catering to its audience’s desire for the new as well as the retro. Many of the articles are text heavy and whilst they do contain images are targeted at a more informative read than a purely visual treat.

Are Blackness and Whiteness useful concepts in the study of Popular Music?

The concepts of blackness and whiteness are to some degree useful when studying popular music. They allow theorists and other people studying trends to identify where the music is from and how it is originated. It is however only useful as a starting point, of far greater importance are issues of class and location these types of issues have a greater relevance to why the music is the way it is but ti is difficult to access these ideas without finding a way of dividing the music up first. These issues are easier to address if there is a framework to build upon which is where the ideas of blackness and whiteness in music come in helpful. They are not defining concepts more guidelines which help to address underlying social issues in the propagation of certain types of music.

Are subcultures a sign of revolt or an expression of style?

To an extent sub-cultures are a sign of revolt, often they are revolting against parents or social situations that the youths that belong o them want to be different from. At the same time they express the style the individual wants to be associated with, this expression of style is also in a way an expression of revolt. For example punks like to associate themselves with shocking imagery such as Nazi symbols and Hitler pictures, not due to any association to being a Nazi but to be associated with a particular style which in turn expresses a form of revolt. This revolt is not a particularly political one it is just more a way to express freedom from parents and situations which the individuals are nevertheless tied to. The music involved in these sub-cultures is a further expression of this style and therefore revolt.

Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

Current popular music as we know it is impossible without electronic technology. Whether in the production or distribution stages electronic technology is vital to popular music. Whilst it is undeniably true that popular music as we know it is impossible, a form of popular music is possible without electronic music. A lot of music can be produced without the use of electronic technology, many local music’s such as Folk music are very popular and do not rely on electronic instruments or equipment. Whilst it is possible to produce the music it is another matter entirely trying to get that to a widespread audience. Without electronics, many of the recording copying and reproduction techniques we use wouldn’t exist and therefore make it a lot harder to create albums or singles. Also performing in large arenas would be very difficult for a lot of types of music. Essentially popular music could exist without electronic technology but it would be nothing like the Technology based popular music we are used to.

What is world music and why does it exist?

It is very difficult to define world Music as it isn’t actually a `true` genre. One way to consider it is as the global music, music which is globally produced and distributed. However whilst this would seem the most logical answer it is not in fact the one that places such as HMV and other music distributors use. Quite often the category `World Music` contains music from non-English countries with foreign language as its basis. This is not a strict definition of course as some foreign language music belongs in more clearly defined genres. World Music as a genre essentially exists to describe any indigenous local music which has been distributed worldwide and doesn’t fit into any of the other genres. Therefore it would seem that World Music is in fact local indigenous music which is globally distributed, ironic really.

Is popular music a commodity or is it art?

Popular music is without a doubt a saleable commodity, in its functional artefact form, different to other commodities of course because it must bring something new or apparently new each time it is sold again. This Apparent newness is one of Adorno’s arguments against popular music, he suggests it is standardised with a hint of pseudo individualization to trick the audience into consuming it again. Of course the flaw in his argument is that popular music knows it is like that and does in fact have a different criterion to the classical music that Adorno prefers; this doesn’t necessarily make it any less of an art form in its text form than any other type of music. Adorno’s theory mainly fails because he is trying to compare it to classical music which can also suffer from standardization and pseudo individualization as can all music, just because it does it does not necessarily make it any less art.