Analysing Popular Music Assignment Sample

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Introduction

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In the music business, popular music is defined as music that has broad appeal and is often delivered to big audiences via the use of various media. These musical genres and styles may be appreciated and played by persons who have little or no formal musical training or experience. "In comparison to both art music and traditional or "folk" music, it is a polar opposite". Although art music has traditionally been distributed via the performance of written music, it has increasingly been distributed through the use of recorded music since the birth of the recording industry (Johnson, 2018). Traditional music styles, such as early blues songs or hymns, were handed down orally to smaller, more localised audiences, such as church congregations.

Discussion

Identification of One Instance and Critical Assessment of How Forms of Popular Music Can Meaningfully Contribute to Movements Seeking Social or Political Change

Popular music has become one of the most effective techniques for individuals to transmit social and political ideas because of its wide audience. Generally, the most traditional manner of transmitting political and social ideas to broad audiences is generally via campaigns. Many of these efforts involve public speeches and participatory events in order to guarantee that the message is understood. The use of lectures in such campaigns might lead to repetition and boring, thus it is necessary to choose a medium that people are ready to listen to (Jenkins, Peters-Lazaro and Shresthova, 2020). Due of music's entertainment value, most individuals are more likely to adhere to a song and its accompanying messages regardless of their own choices in genre. Music that appeals to a wide range of demographics is a good fit in the category of popular music.

Aside from its immense economic value, popular music has great social and political potential. When government institutions focus too much on a few issues, they end up neglecting others, which has a negative impact on the public at large. There are many ways in which popular music acts as a reminder of some of the issues that governments need to address as well as a clear image of how things are in relation to those issues. Instances such as these demonstrate the feasibility of Philip Tagg's notion, particularly in terms of how the popularity of the music influences its social and political impact (Raby et al., 2018). A continent away from their home, the financial worth of popular music as a commodity was realised by Kragen and Belafonte, who aren't themselves artists, because of their awareness of the possibilities of the music to help solve problems in society.

Critical Assessment of How Technological Developments Have Registered an Impact on the Production or Consumption of Popular Music

The use of technology has become pervasive. Consequently, it is not unexpected that it has had a significant impact on twentieth-century music. Musical transmission, preservation, hearing, performance and composition have all been affected. Increasingly, people encounter musical sound that has not at some degree been affected by technology: innovation is engaged in concert venue amplification, recordings and broadcasting, as well as the design and manufacture of instruments (de Sousa Jabbour et al., 2018). There are now instruments that glance such as "piano", "keyboards" and audio like "piano timbres" but are actually devoted digital synthesisers; virtuoso artists who use the turntable as their instrument now appear in both the disco and live performance worlds.

For instance, many church organ systems now use synthesised or recorded noises instead of original pipes; Musical expression is being transformed by technology, yet many artists are still unaware of how much of an impact it is having. New synthesisers, processors, sample tricksters, and other professional tools are being created as a result of improved technology, which has a significant impact on music composition (Prior, 2018). People may now hear a wider variety of noises and sounds, some of which they may not have before encountered.

Critical Assessment of instances of How Digital Technologies may have Impacted on Contemporary Patterns of Music Consumption

An interesting area of study is the evolution of popular music consumption media through time, since each new form has a substantial influence on music fans and the industry as a whole. Vinyl records and CDs first introduced the notion of a whole album, which compelled the audience to make a long-term commitment to the entire album. Individuals began to value records as a social good, similar to how we value computer goods now (Nowak and Haynes, 2018). Intrinsic worth was created by the customer's need to possess an album as a tangible object, and this desire shaped culture. A Marxian concept of social utility value and a heightened psychological identification with the physical record resulted from this pairing.

Vinyl records, as a tangible product, satisfied human demand for possession. To put it simply, today's infatuation with cell phones may serve as an analogy. While smartphones are mostly used for their applications and functional capabilities, people also want to own the phone itself. Because of this, people were more attached to the album as a whole, which resulted in more intense listening sessions and more loyalty to the brand (Li et al., 2020). As a result, the experience of holding and listening to a physical record strengthens one's emotional connection to the music. It is because of the emotional connection people have to the product that they become more invested in an artist and their work.

Assessment of How Far Independent Music Labels can be Seen as Standing Outside and in Opposition to the Major Recording Companies

The big record labels in the United Kingdom may be subject to an investigation into whether or not their business methods corrupt the music industry. According to a letter from the government to the "Competition and Markets Authority" (CMA), "Sony," "Warner and Universal Music" should be investigated. Besides that, it has requested the regulator to look into YouTube's market dominance. A "total reset" of the music business was sought by MPs in the wake of "pitiful returns" for musicians (Savage, 2021). After hearing testimony from artists including "Nile Rodgers", "Elbow", and "Radiohead" after a six-month investigation into music streaming, the "Culture Select Committee" made the call in a devastating assessment this summer.

"Streaming has brought huge benefits to the recorded-music business, but the talent behind it – singers, songwriters and composers are losing out," Julian Knight, who leads the group, said. Concerned about the financial influence of large record companies, he asked the CMA to probe their placement on playlists and in stores at the detriment of indie studios and self-releasing artists. When asked about a market research, the government indicated there "may be merit," but that the CMA would have to determine whether it should proceed. "Initial ideas" for a probe will be discussed at the board meeting next month, according to a watchdog representative (Hesmondhalgh, Jones and Rauh, 2019). The UK's recorded-music business trade group, the "British Phonographic Industry" (BPI), has declared it would cooperate with any further investigation. In a "complex and dynamic environment," it stated, "we look forward to discussing labels' role in supercharging the careers of British artists" if the CMA conducts a study.

Demonstration of the Knowledge regarding in What Aspect is the Contemporary Music Industry Characterised by Post-Fordist forms of Business Organisation and Industrial Practice

New communications technology and multinational corporations (MNCs) are being brought together in Dan Schiller's relevant criticism of "digital capitalism", the convergence of TNCs from a classical political economy perspective. It is because of this approach's essentially functionalist tone that we cannot fully understand how cultural transformation, cultural dynamics, cultural conflict, and cultural inconsistencies drive and problematize these activities (Bedná? and Danko, 2020). Douglas Gomery's work is notable for its emphasis on the brittleness and finiteness of business performance in the face of market volatility. However, this is done within the confines of conventional political economy, which does not examine key concerns raised by post-Fordist theory.

Because of this lack of cultural rationale, he points out that in the 1980s, Disney adopted two new "brand names" for its film production groups, but he does not provide an elaboration. Later, we'll return to Disney with a case study to show how the new business structures are exemplified by the company (Stavrou and Achniotis, 2021). In 2001, Vivendi, a French media conglomerate, purchased Seagram, a Canadian beverage corporation, for US$34 billion, making it the third-largest media firm in the world. In addition, networks of collaborative partnerships and the purchase of shares in other businesses bind these firms together.

Application of the Judith Butler’s Notion of Gender as a Performance to the Stage Personae of Pop Music Artists

As JUDITH BUTLER demonstrates, the acquired performance of one's gendered behaviour is an act, one that is forced on individuals through conventional heterosexuality and calls into question the idea that certain gendered behaviours are innate. A more radical application of the idea of structure is therefore offered by Butler who calls this "taking the social actor as an object instead of the subject of formative activities." If they might suppose that a person can be said to form himself or herself, Butler asks how much of the actions are defined for all through the position in language and tradition rather than by own actions (Granata, 2021). As a postmodern and poststructuralist, she uses "subject" to emphasise the language aspect of the place within what Lacan calls "the symbolic order," a network of signals and rules that shapes our perceptions of reality.

Instead of assuming a stable consciousness that allows to play different gender roles, Butler argues that the very act of playing a gender role is what makes people who they are. While some theories hold that the actor's gendered self exists independently of their performances, Butler believes that the actions really construct their gendered selves, which he calls "a powerful illusion" that they are willing to hold on to and believe in (Blackburn, 2020). There are both subtle and obvious coercions behind the belief in "natural" conduct, which is essentially the product of the conviction in the power of "social censure and taboo".

Analysis of How Far Can Notions of Cultural Imperialism be Applied to International Flows of Popular Music

According to several theories, popular music’s from across the world enter, travel through and exit Asia, ranging from cultural imperialism to Asianization. As Dave Laing explains, the left coined the term "cultural imperialism" to describe what amounts to political rule on a global scale in the cultural realm. There are parallels can be drawn between both the contemporary function of multinational media and electronics businesses and the past colonial role played by Western states in the subjugation of the Third World (Smandych, 2019). Restrictions placed on a cultural imperialism strategy, which claims that "the global cultural economy is an overlapping and disjunctive order" that cannot be comprehended in terms of "current centre-periphery conceptions." Appadurai's "disjunctive flows" might be understood as laying the groundwork for a post-imperial paradigm of global cultural analysis.

"Disjunctive flows" might be hidden by the homogenising tendencies of international pop music, and the variety of sounds from particular eras and locations was frequently misleadingly submerged inside a western-centric definition of hybridization. As a result, there have been requests for a perspective to these challenges that may identify distinctive tendencies of Asianization as a uniquely Asian form of modernity and globalisation (Salih, 2021). This movement's core is made up of experts from the "Inter-Asia Pop Music Studies". However, these scholars have also cautioned that attempting to transfer Asia's development procedure might easily lead to the fallacy of Asian uniqueness, closing the door to any global discussions.

Critical Analysis of How a Particular Musical Genre might be Considered a Syncretic Cultural Form

Immigrant populations in Germany face a serious danger from spontaneous racist assaults, and this is a problem for rappers who are emigrating into a new culture. In this way, German Rap is structured semantically. Immigrant hip-hop artists of the second and third generation have rebuilt the daily reality of prejudice they have experienced from "kindergarten." In order to pass on their experience to the next generation of HipHoppers, they have used their music to recreate and modify their own experiences (Lum, 2018). Their quest for a distinctive style, one that they no longer had to defend, that is, one that did not need them to legitimise their own work by accepting any identification attributed to them or forced on them, is the syncretic moment here.

As a result, German HipHop was transformed into a "newspaper of the street" that reacted to danger and terror. "In cross-cultural encounters, the marginal guy is the crucial figure. As the civilizations collide, he envisions some kind of reciprocal adaptation and interconnection taking place. When it comes to cross-pollination, no one does it better than him (Vaziri, 2020). At first, he does not know that there is a cultural battle going on; then via some catastrophe or sequence of crises he gets aware of it and the outside struggle resonates in his consciousness; and lastly, he attempts to and occasionally succeeds in adjusting to his circumstances."

Critical Assessment of the Growing Relationship between Social Media and Popular Music and Identification of the Ways in which Artists are Making Use of Social Media to Engage Audience and Evaluation of the Relationship, Establish Instance of How this may Benefit or Affect both Artists and Consumers

Artists may use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tiktok, and YouTube to promote their work and draw in new audiences. Music videos, lyric videos, images, and skits may all be used to illustrate a musician's genre and personality. One of the most significant aspects of being a successful musician is creating a following of devoted fans and listeners. New albums, live events, merchandising, and the capacity to advertise a musical artist are consistently sought after by the public (Ku et al., 2019). Fans and artists are linked via social media. If individuals are a fan of a certain musician, users may interact with them directly via social media channels.

Artists' ability to better connect with their followings through social media is one of the most valuable benefits of the medium. Artists may use platforms to share their views and emotions, as well as to document their daily lives. These are bits of entertainment that people are eager to see. They'll be able to get a closer peek into their favourite musicians' personal lives, and they'll be able to connect more with them. Each social media platform's audience may be thought of as distinct communities in their own right (Bennett, 2018). Fans on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are instances of an artist's devoted following. Loyal fans provide musicians with the kind of support network they need to continue making music for the foreseeable future.

Conclusion

In this way, by considering the above discussion, it is concluded that artists and musicians alike must invest more time and effort into expanding their online presences. They live in a society where social media and the internet have a significant impact. No, it doesn't look like things are going to change any time soon. Keep in mind that when it comes to advertising their music online, it's like building a brand. Do their best to portray yourself online, whether users are an individual or part of a band.