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

I don't believe that in all cases a youth culture is a group of people revolting against society, youth sub-cultures are more like a trend, within the youths, and most of the time are people just trying to fit in with a crowd or style. A sub-culture can sometimes be a revolt, for example against your parents, but it is based on how you are brought up and your relationship with your parents that effects a reaction, like Cohen said, that youth sub-cultures are 'the need to create and express autonomy and difference from parents and need to maintain parental identifications.' This is true to some cases, as an extreme style could shock parents and bring them to the realisation that their child is outrageous, a rebellion. This is something i believe comes with teenage years, as most people do grow out of these sub-cultures, like 'Emo' or 'Grunge',people of my age now look back and laugh at the styles they used to follow. Fashion and music also affect the sub-cultures, many styles stem from idolisation of artists, such as the Emo look and 'My Chemical Romance' and the grunge look years ago from bands such as 'Linkin Park' and 'Lost Prophets'. Wearing a certain outfit and having a certain look i do not believe completely is a revolt, more of manifestation of style brought on by the industries that surround us.

Does the emergence of the digital download signal the end of the music industry?

I do not think the digital download is bringing the music industry to an end. Being able to download music online is only making the industry more accesible, and is giving listeners a chance to be more creative and open minded about what they listen to. In the past you would have to go into a record shop and try and persuade your record to be sold, or send demos to music companies only to sit on a pile and never get listened to (in many cases) whereas now you can be alot more proactive in getting your music heard as there are so many more avenues. Although there are websites where you can download music for free, many people still use legal sites lke itunes as a result of viruses and to ensure good quality. The charts are now also based on downloads, which means no one is losing out on the top spot due to online music purchases and is also being bought more often and in larger quantities because of the convinience of buying it in your own home. Not only are artists selling their current music online, but their backlogs of songs are also being sold with it as going online can open our eyes to more music we wouldnt think of buying in stores.

Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

If you are defining unplugged as music being played purely acousticly, then i don't think popular music can ever really be unplugged. Popular music relies purely on technology to be enhanced,polished, and most importantly recorded. Not only would no use of technology affect the sound, it would also affect the distribution of the music. Having no recording equipment would prohibit the music from being pre-recorded, and would have to always be played live. The problem with playing music live and acousticly, is the fact that the sound wouldn't be very audible, and without speakers and amps would prohibit live concerts with large audiences like we have in this day and age from ever happening, as only the people in the front row would hear it! Popular music is 'popular' purely because it is easily accesible and we hear it on the radio, on TV and can find out about new artists and songs/albums through marketing and technology. Although there are some artists who have recorded acousticly, the fact that it is recorded just proves everything needs to be plugged!

Words: 180

What is world music?

World music, when looking in high street stores such as HMV mainly consists of music from other countries, performed in the language and relevant to the culture or place itself. I think world music can be described differently to music that is just in another language other than english, it holds traditional values that global music doesn't hold. Popular music is reguarly sung in different languages, such as Shakira who sings in spanish and english. Her music is not world music as its a multinational product.World music can teach you about a countries culture, from its language to its social references. From listening to brazillian music such as 'Choro', a popular genre with a specific dance style attached to it, you can see how this kind of music can only be appreciated if you understand where it comes from and its meaning. This is not the case for popular music in westernised countries, as alot of the musics elements are borrowed from world instruments and styles, as we learnt in lecture. Overall i think world music is the same as 'local' music, in that its relevant and colloquial to a certain culture/society and indigenous in its production.

Is popular music a mass produced commodity or a genuine art form?

It is hard to define what is 'art' or 'popular music' but i feel that music has become a mass produced commodity, holding little credibility. Reading Adornos theory i agree with his interchangeability and pseudo individualisation theories that portray the sense of repetitiveness and copying in this day and age of music. I think for something to be an art form is to be unique and created by ones own knowledge and talent; a lot of popular music of today just follows the same formats and themes. It does accentuate similarity, and does churn out songs in order to gain money and not credibility for musical creativeness. I think that this is more related to the last 10-15 years of music, which could be due to the fact that everything has been done already, and there's nothing new to think of,forcing us to maybe unconsciously mimic music we already know. I think that money has tarnished the music industry of today as it is no longer about musical talent but more about image and selling.

Words: 175