Can popular music be a genuine force for political change?

I argue that popular music can be a genuine force for political change.

To clarify, I feel that music has a limited power in directly causing political change, but I think that political change over the past century or so, and perhaps even longer, has gone hand-in-hand with music.

It is always evident, at protests and rallies, the presence of music and songs. Music and lyric have long been interconnected with the notion of free speech. Songs are use as a means of conveying the message of the protests, becoming perhaps a part of a protests identity.

An example of popular music arguably causing political change, is the Live 8 concerts. These global events, indeed highlighted important issues, but caused no real noticable change.

Politics and music have a way of combining. Music is perhaps a route through which political issues and topics are brought to the fore, highlighting them, but never really effecting change. The question of whether highlighting the issues, is contributing towards political change is very relevant. Music indirectly causes some political change, making it a genuine force.

Is DRM the best way to save the music Industry?

I feel that DRM is the best way to save the music Industry.

Music has made the progression over the years from vinyl to cassette to disc to digital format. The digital format seems the least secure in the sense that one file, can theoretically, be accessed and used by an unlimited number of people. Since before proliferation of MP3 players, there has been some websites providing either illegal music files, or the means of obtaining these files (Napster). These websites were not subject to DRM, and hence were widely used, by millions of people globally. 

Now, most music websites are subject to digital rights management. This is good for the artists, whom otherwise would be losing out on revenue because of illegal downloading. But the fact still remains. If someone can get music for free on one site, they'll most like opt to get it there, rather than pay for it. 

DRM needs to be absolute. All music websites would have to be under the control of DRM. This would inevitably mean the demise of many of these websites, which in turn would benefit the music industry even more, because there would be less sites to regulate. 

The purchase or obtaining of music, I feel, will eventually progress to being mostly bought on digital format, as opposed to on discs. Without the intervention of DRM, the music industry will undoubtedly suffer, and who knows what else... 

Week Two - Relevance of the 'Production of Culture Perspective'

The lecture in Week 2, largely dealt with the writings of Richard A. Peterson, and his theory on the birth of Rock’n’Roll. Within his writings, he discusses why he thinks rock’n’roll began in the 50’s, whether it did indeed begin in the 50’s, and the factors which facilitated this birth. More specifically, he said that there were 6 such factors. They were;
· Law
· Technology
· Industry Structure
· Organisation Structure
· Occupational Career
· and Market
It would be wrong to say that Petersons work is irrelevant. The fact that we are drawing upon his work in our lecture/seminar, shows that it isn’t. Personally, I think that his ‘Production of culture perspective’ explains the birth and influence of Rock’n’Roll, up to a certain point, but also leaves a lot to be explained. He fails to explore the actual music which makes up the genre of Rock’n’Roll. It would be like discussing a painting, by describing the way the room in which it was painted, was built.

Sorry Peterson, you did well, but not well enough.

Week One - What is popular music?

Our first/introductory lecture asked the question; What is Popular Music?

-A tough question really, and one which produced a variety of answers and viewpoints.

From our disussion, both in the lecture and the seminar, I feel that the term Popular Music is given by the individual listener, to that piece of music. In the same way that someone can define the work of, say, Katherine Jenkins as a sub-division of Opera, a listener can define a personally liked piece of music as popular music, as a sub-division of the spectrum of 'Popular Music' as a whole. All music is included in the term 'Popular Music', yet only a certain section of that, is popular music to an individual. For example, my definition of popular music is Drum and Bass, or House. This, to me, is popular music, and also would be included under the larger heading of Popular Music.

Jesus, does that make sense?! probably not, but it does to me....