Are youth subcultures genuine sign of revolt or simply the manifestation of style?

Hebdige defines youth as ‘community of undifferentiated teenage consumers’ I think subcultures from the past were the genuine subcultures example like the ‘rock around the clock’ sensation were people wanted to ban the song this was a time when music created a subculture of youths who revolted. Now we have subcultures but there are more based around the manifestation of style. People feel that they need to be a part of a subculture to feel accepted. An example is current pop stars having clothing lines and merchandising to generate money. This makes it seem that subcultures may be created by the industry so it takes away from the revolting side and push it toward the manifestation of style and proves that the industry has found a way to make money from creating subcultures and making youth feel that its necessary to be a part of the subculture.

Blog 5: Does The Emergence Of Digital Download Signal The End of The Music Industry

2 million tracks downloaded by 2008 tell one story and that is that digital download is not the end of the music industry. Digital download is a new avenue that the music industry must explore. Music devices like I pod are digital you can’t play CD’s of them. Digital downloads make it more convenient for the consumer to purchase music and get it on their MP3 players. With I tune’s convincing record labels to get rid of DRM this makes it more appealing for consumers because they are able to download a track and not have the restrictions that they once had. I tunes are providing and better alternative to illegal downloads so now more and more consumers are choosing to pay for the tracks they download. This all means that digital download is helping the dying music industry fight back and move along with technology which is all revolving around the internet.

Blog 4: Can Popular Music Ever Be Unplugged?

Due to the technological advances that we have seen with inventions such as microphones and amplifiers it’s hard to ever find real unplugged music. Even though the music itself may be unplugged using acoustic instruments but technology like amplifiers and microphones are still used to get the music out to the masses. It’s impossible to now do a sell out show at the O2 Arena without the uses of technology. The closest form of unplugged music is when the instruments played are unplugged acoustic but he amplifications of the music to the audience is still done using technology. Most music genres use instruments like Stratocaster’s and beat makers are built on music generated from technological advances in music, in these cases you can never get that type of music to be unplugged because these genres would not exist without technology.

Blog 3: World Music

World music has become a very powerful genre especially because people around the world are listening to the same sort of music. We see music brake language barriers and especially with cultures around the world becoming more intertwined. Language no longer matters if a song is popular ‘pop’ then its likely to appeal to people around the world. Pop music is a perfect example because there are pop stars like Britney Spears who sells as many or more records outside USA. Its argued that music that comes from America tends to then go into the world music genre because American music is the powerhouse of producing pop music that reaches millions around the world. World music as a genre is the most a platform for artists around the world to get recognition on a worldwide platform an example of this is artists like James Blunt a British artist that has gained worldwide success.

Blog 2: Is Pop Music a Art Form or Commodity

Pop is short for popular and the reason why its popular is because there are a lot of people who demand and consume pop music. Music from all different genres can be pop music. All the artist need to do is make a song that is current and meets all the generic conventions of the genre that it originally comes from. An example of this is artist like Chris Brown, he comes from the R n B genre but he makes songs that are popular which gets his record into the charts, this makes it a pop song. Artists do this to generate revenue so this may be why it’s called a commodity instead of an art form. Just because an a genre generate revenue and popularity it doesn’t take away from the fact that it started as an art form that was made popular.