Musi 103 Essay Popular music’s worth tend to be determined according to values of authenticity, truthfulness, and no concern for commercial success. Thus, artists who perform their own songs are critically acclaimed and recognized as better than performers whose material is written by others. However, there is a grey area of sampling and covering. Many artists who do a lot of sampling, in particular DJ Danger Mouse and Kaye West, are not only critically acclaimed, but also can be credited to changing musical history. Sampling greatly complicates the black and white rules of authenticity, and rightly so. Authenticity, which could be described with terms like “real”, “honest”, “truthful”, “with integrity”, “actual”, “genuine”, “essential and “sincere” 0, seems to be lacking with performers who do not write their own songs. The fans feel deceived as the artists perform the songs as if they were their own, and form an ostensible connection with the fans. Once the true writing credits escape from under the fame of the performer, the authenticity of the artist is greatly reduced. Fans feel a lack of truthfulness, which “interacts with the social and cultural context” and gain a feeling of betrayal that their favourite artist has gone for commercial gain. While the performer may be gifted, it is the composer that succeeds in “conveying the impression ‘that the listener’s experience of life is being validated, that music is “telling it like it is” for them’”. Sampling was made possible by the “emergence of digital sound technology in the 1960s and 1970s” and made it possible for artists to record new songs “by doing nothing more than combining elements of previous songs”. Yet the clear-cut ideologies of authenticity become watery ... ... middle of paper ... ... songs that are written by others are automatically considered unauthentic and less talented. Those who do write and perform their own songs are authentic, truthful, and in some cases may be regarded as striving forwards for the art, not for the commercial success. However when sampling is placed in songs, the level of authenticity becomes ambiguous. It takes great talent to successfully intertwine a sample into a song and make it a seamless piece of art that speaks to who the artist is. Yet, in some cases, it may be seen as not as authentic as those who write their own songs completely as there still exists a tumultuous struggle between sound rights and samples in up-and-coming music. Eventually, the authenticity of one starts to become linked with their level of commercial success, or rather how far they would go to achieve the supreme heights of stardom.
Composers effectively reflect and communicate how universal human experiences can explicitly modify an individual’s understanding and acceptance of one’s sense of identity and maturation. Goldsworthy’s novel Maestro, Don McLean’s song ‘Vincent’ and Baz Luhrmann’s film Australia all inter-relate within the deeper realisation of the impact the appreciation of art, and the development of understanding the concept of love acting as a compelling emotion can create towards one’s self-image.
Clear Channel Communications, owner of 1,200 stations across the United States, has been undermining the values of diversity, localism, and market completion within the music industry since the media policy wars in the early 2000s. Since then, the radio industry arguably has lost a significant amount of the authenticity it once had. The only exception is college radio: the last safe haven for musical integrity. The only facet of radio not owned and controlled by a major monopoly. Recently, however, Clear Channel has gone to bed with college radio stations across the country. Although the corporate monopoly has shut out authenticity and artistic integrity from the mainstream, they still want more in order to completely wipe out independent music.
Ferguson focuses on the importance of creativity and how much we can build off of each others ideas. Remixing is using tools already invented to build new products, it opens a door to an on going process of new inventions and ideas. Ferguson shows the importance and the huge effect remixing has on our music industry and even technology on today’s market. Remixing gives
Throughout her essay, Ryan presents many ways to stop plagiarists. She believes that plagiarism “denigrates grades, degrees, and even institutions.” Her stance is clear cut and to the point. Rojas, however, has a looser view of bootlegging. He believes that the world “should be embracing bootlegs” since “[they’re] part of the natural evolution of all things digital.” He claims that bootlegging has done no harm, but may actually be stimulating the music industry. This is vastly different from Ryan’s rigid point of view.
...rgence, it was not recorded and recognized. The narrator and the authors from SSUS both express an emphasis on the importance of this music. The narrator felt so compelled by the music that he decided to bring the music to a different audience and environment. The authors in SSUS also voiced the importance of remembering and try to recreate the original African-American slave songs. Although both stories place a huge emphasis on these songs, the musicking experiences are quite different. The narrator provides a raw, detailed emotional response to the music. Meanwhile, the authors in SSUS choose to focus more on the music’s context and technicalities. Aside from their similarities and differences, these stories greatly show how music can help record a time in history, show different examples of musicking, and help show the importance of some of music’s original roots
The purpose of this study is determine why and how African American music that’s is so deeply rooted into the community is being culturally appropriated. This is a topic that has been the on the foreground of race for years. Activists and celebrities like Adrienne Keene, DeRay McKesson, Azealia Banks, and Jesse Williams helped bring the issue into the national attention. Most of the world or better yet the appropriators have very little knowledge of what the word actually means. In order to understand the problem we must first understand the word Culture and Appropriation. Culture being defined as the beliefs, ideas, traditions, speech, and material objects associated with a particular group of people. Appropriation the action of taking something
It’s likely happened to you before, you turn on your radio, or favorite music video network and begin listening to a song by some hot new pop starlet, hip-hop superstar, or aging rocker. The beat is catchy, inviting, and oddly familiar, almost too familiar in fact. You may think, “Didn’t David Bowie, or, hmm, wasn’t it that guy from Queen that played this riff in like ten years ago? Who is this Vanilla Ice guy and why is he rapping over it?” If you were old enough to remember Under Pressure and subsequently were listening Ice Ice Baby in 1990 (likely while cruising in your Mustang 5.0 convertible on your way to a Milli Vanilli concert), you would have experienced an example of modern day sampling. Whether it is literature, music, science, or art, there are few, if any, new and innovative ideas that are completely original through and through. Our predecessors inspire us to build upon their work, and develop new arts, technologies, and ideas that will advance our society as a whole. Sampling is the act of taking a portion of one sound recording, and then reusing that portion as an element, or instrument, in a new recording. (Wikipedia) Sampling is an excellent example of a modern way in which others ideas seed our own creativity. Improvements in the technologies that both mediate and constrict the ability to sample, from analog recording devices of the late 1970s, to the digital software suites of today, run parallel with rise in popularity of sample based music. The internet, and other forms of communication that have allowed creative people from around the world to cull inspiration from anywhere, has lead to an increase in remixes, collages, pastiches, a...
According to “The Changing Landscape of the Music Business,” Artists have to develop an image that appeals to the supporters in order to be unique. This can be achieved through the promotion of their music, but if the artist makes the wrong move, this can result in the artist struggling to sustain their career. There are many ways that licensing music can go wrong, with it either going into the wrong hands, or is abused with promotion so that the song isn’t enjoyed anymore, resulting in less sales or profit for the
Popular music places a premium on accessibility, represents various meanings to boost both instant appeal and memorability - distinctive tunes, novel instrumental flourishes, danceable rhythms, repeated riffs - but its signal feature is melodic emphasis and great vocal gatherings.
‘Analysing popular music: theory, method and practise’ (Tagg, 1982) is an article that illustrates brilliantly the issues and nuances of analysing and discussing popular music. It lays out a scientific method for achieving analytical goals, using some of Tagg’s previous work to help explain his methodology and process. In the first part of this essay, I will discuss the analysis of ‘Kojak Theme’ (Goldenberg, 1973) and ABBA’s ‘Fernando’ (ABBA, 1976) that Tagg writes about in his work.
Sampling, a modern descendant of musical borrowing or musical quotation, has allowed musicians to freely and easily experiment with new sounds – in theory, that is. Preceded by musical quotation and perhaps started by Ottorini Respighi, the process and technique of incorporating outside audio into a song or composition has undergone many evolutions to get to the streamlined digital sampling programs that can easily fit on a musician’s hard drive.
In the article, “In Defense of Cover Songs,” Cusic feels that artists who don’t write their own songs should be given a fair shot at a record deal because the world could be missing out on a good history lesson that cover songs present. Don Cusic is an innovator in the Music Business education. Cusic has taught courses in the music business since 1982. Cusic is a very well known scholar and writer. Cusic is also one of the foremost historians of country music. Since Cusic has begun writing he has published over 500 articles. Cusic was the editor for Record World and Cashbox. He was the columnist for Music City News and also an album reviewer and special correspondent for Billboard and book reviewer for Music Row Magazine. Cusic has
Music has always been a basic form of expression. From Antonin Dvorak, to Eminem, to even ancient, tribal music, it has been a medium through which individuals convey their thoughts and expressions. Today this medium is under attack. Everywhere we turn, everything we do and say is being scrutinized. We are being told what to say. We are being spoon-fed our emotions. No longer are we allowed to think freely, openly. All the censors out there are on the prowl for another piece to rip to shreds because it doesn't fit their description of what is decent and moral. What they fail to realize is that we don't make the music for them... We do it for release.
This essay will be discussing Theodor W. Adorno’s critiques of popular music and examine the extent of whether or not his criticisms are accurate to contemporary music. A range of issues will be discussed in the essay to explore the subject matter. Through research, there will be relevant quotes and theories to support the views of this particular topic.
The genre of pop rock has taken the music industry by storm, giving record companies enormous amounts of power and endless financial success along with a way to reproduce it. Owing its popularity to the “light” nature and simplistic, yet catchy melodies, pop music is one of the broadest genres. There’s no way of clearly defining parameters as to what distinguishes a pop music song from other genres. This is largely due to the genre's’ reliance on popularity. Pop music has taken many forms over the decades, keeping characteristics through each generation it passes through.