Does the audience play an active role in the production meaning in popular music

The answer to this question is a two sided coin. Popular music simply would not exist without an audience to market it at. However an audience would have nothing to listen to and decide if they love or hate a piece of music without the music industry producing and marketing it. If a song was released without a retailer selling it, no music press, no merchandising, would the record sell? Probably, yet without a retailer, consumers would not no where to purchase the record. Without any publicity, hardly anyone would know of its release or even its existence. However “Recordings generally sound the same, with some variation due to handicraft nature of music production” ibid. A person could love rock music and another loves classical, is it fair to say their music sounds the same? Of course not. Everyone has a different music taste and to say recordings generally sound the same is an unfair comment, recordings can simply not sound the same due to different sound, speeds, voices and instruments. Audiences help move the music industry along. If an audience gets bored of a type of music, they buy less of it and sales drop, helping companies create a new music sensation to cover the gap in the industry. For example, The boy band era (Backstreet boys, Boyzone, Take That, West Life), the girl band era (Bewitched, Spice Girls, Eternal) Pop rock era (Sum 41, Blink 182, Linkin Park, Bowling for Soup) now where in the era of reality talent, for example. Shane Ward, Girls Aloud, Hearsay, Kelly Clarkson and Lemar. Do consumers help create the production meaning in popular music? Yes they do, however it is the music industry that creates and markets these artists, for us as consumers to help further their careers by buying their music.

Hip Hop Magazine review

Hip Hops a mag targeted at your typical Hip Hop lover. Peeps that know the ins and outs of true underground music and interested in upcoming talent. Looking at the language, topics, images, colours and adverts, its easy to say hands down that the mags target audience is working class men. Aged between 18-30. The mag has hardly any ads, this could be because it might not be big enough to attract companies that want to be associated with the mag. The little ads it does have are of small underground venues and music shops like HMV, which only take up half the page or less. You’ll also see articles about loving beer, Hip Hops 100 hotties (featuring in every issue a naked woman, telling readers about what she does and wants out of life and stuff). Also articles on gang beef, with pictures of cows wearing bling and also, a recipe for a real mans dish. The colours the mag uses are mainly dark with a few bold colours like yellow and red. The mag costs over £3 but but is pretty thick for its contents. The mags made in Britain, so features a lot of British hip hop culture with the odd American influence every now and then. HIP HOP also comes with a cd of new artists out on the scene (which are mainly British, but Iv never heard of). I dont know anything about Hip Hop culture and wouldnt be interested in the slightest to learn by reading HIP HOP. This mags for TRUE HIP HOP listeners.

Are blackness and whiteness useful cncepts in the study of popular music

Russell A. Potter suggests in his book ‘Spectacular Vernaculars: Hip Hop and the politics of Post-modernism, that race is one of the most difficult and much debated subject when it comes to the concept of popular music. Music is a form of expression, through voice, movement, rhythm, beats and notes, which brings people together. This can be through subcultures, for example bringing ‘Grungers’ together through their love of rock and ‘Goths’ through their love of metal. This concept also works with cultures and race. Race and ethnicity are very useful in the study of music as everyone is different. We come from different backgrounds, different up bringings and grow to have different views and beliefs. Cultural music directs its voice mainly at specific audience, usually at people of the same race, this being as someone of the same ethnicity would be more likely to take a further understanding of the messages within the music For example, someone black singing a reggae song about their struggles and fighting for freedom, would maybe have a stronger influence with someone of the same race. Not to say that ‘only’ someone black can understand and listen to black music. This concept also works for Hip Hop, Bhangra and Rap.However, culture and race within music has also helped music evolve over the years. Hip Hops authenticity has gained a large amount of commercial value and has grown in importance as the music has gained a valuable market share of commercial radio and stations such as kiss and smooth are well known for playing this type of music. Artists today challenge authenticity and make money from a type of music. For example, Eminem within Hip Hop and Rap, Amy Winehouse and Soul. And also, in the 1960s black artists would produce rock ‘n’ roll songs, but white artistes would cover the song and get the credit. Produces saw the market for how well ‘black’ music would sell, it opened peoples eyes. And culture within music, white, black, asian or other, may not be as influencial today as it it was 50, 60 years ago, but society has changed andmusic continue to also.

Can popular music be a genuine force for political change

There is no denying that music has a very large impact on people’s lives and can certainly be a powerful force. Yet can popular music be a genuine force for political change? I would have to say no it can’t. Music is very powerful in the fact that it brings people together, for example sub cultures like hippies with flower power. Hippies fought for peace through their music. Reggae music would fight for rights and strength and freedom. And even though these political issues were strong, and a large amount of people believed in them and expressed them through music, the music only may have opened people’s eyes and ears, yet did not ineffectively make a political change. Music is a way of expression and cant really be ignored. We live in a society were music is all around us, from our stereos at home, car radios, television, films and even walking down the street or on the tube (that one person forcing you to listen to their music because its on full blast on their headphones). Music can not make a genuine political change. Yet it is a tool that is used to make people listen, which can be considered a step to political change. For example Bono and Sir Bob Geldof and live 8. This event was to create an awareness of poverty. Did it make a political change? No. yet it did open peoples eyes and start thinking, which is a start.

Youth Subcultures

Are subcultures influnced by music? Sarah Thronton believes subcultural capital to the social standing of young people while being 'in' with the in crowd has long been a part of the process of declaring our musical allegiances. This sugguesting that subculture is something that youth may follow so they can state their choice of music with others like themselves, yet still being a rebal and different to a majority. Subculture is a group of people with the same set of beliefs, behaviours and way of thinking, which differentiates them from other people and a larger culture of the area they live in. Subculture is often associated with the symbolism attached through clothing, music and other visible objects the members choice to represent their culture. Today, it is easy to identify subcultures because their style particularly clothing and choice of music may often be adopted by mass culture for commercial purposes, as businesses will often try to capitalize on the subcultures idea of cool. For example Grungers and 'Hoodies and Baggy jeans', Goths and 'Leather and anything black', Punks with their 'Hair Dye and colourful clothing'. Yet when businesses start to capitalise on products associated with a certain subculture it sometimes results in the subculture dying and as its members adopt new styles which its yet known to mainstream. Music based subcultures are particularly vulnerable to this process, so what may be considered a subculture at one stage such as jazz, goth, punk, hip hop and rave cultures begin to represent mainstream taste for a short amount of time until ther next 'craze'. Grungers with Rock music, Goths with Metal, Indies listening to Indie music, Chavs listening to House and RnB. And the lastest being Emos which are associated with depressive rock or chessy pop rock. The list could go on. I believe subcultures could exist without music, yet they wouldnt be as powerful. Music is a voice and way of expression. People in subcultures listen to a certain type of music because they feel it is something they all relate to. Without it, they maybe relate to one another in the same way, yet it doesnt mean they wouldnt find another form or relating to people who share the same nature.