week 5: Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

When listening to music, if the technology used such as an electronic guitar, or piano was taken away from the song, it comes to mind whether it would still be effective to listen to. As different instruments used create different effects, as well as creating an atmosphere for us. For example when listening to an electronic violin it’s louder than a normal violin. Technology allows us to listen to musical sounds, for instance when going to a concert if there were no micro phones without the amplifier we wouldn’t be able to hear depending on the venue, e.g. if an artist performed out side with no microphone they would not be heard at all. To produce a track it wouldn’t be exactly how you would want it to be without multi track, which shows technology is used a lot, it also enables artists to tune their voice. As I know T Pain an r n b artist who uses a computerised voice, but is it fair? We discussed this in our seminar I only agree its alright to a certain extent. . Popular music wouldn’t survive without electronic technology, as without it music would not be heard or produced

week 4: What is world music and why does it exist?

Fusing together traditional music and modern music forms world music. For example African music fused with English language. I feel in a sense that it is a good thing to fuse music together as it allows people to listen to different types of culture music such as reggae, soca, and African music. World music attracts different nationalities, in order to do so it makes me think would the song necessarily have to be in English for people to like it. In our seminar class we listened to some well-known songs, but they were sang in a different language. When hearing the song it didn’t matter to me that it was in a different language I still enjoyed the song, but it would mean more to the people who understand that particular language, which would be local music. World music exist as our country is becoming more of a multicultural society, is trying to cater for everyone, whether your black, white or Asian. Which enables other people from other counties to listen to different culture music to give everyone a sense of belonging.

week 3: Is popular music a mass produced commodity or genuine art form?

When disusing this topic in class, we looked at what the definition of art is first. We came up with expression and creation. Adorno disagrees with Theodor that popular music is an art form, as it is simplified. As when listening to popular songs most of the time they’re cut out from an original song to make a new song, when we hear the song from an audience perspective it sounds familiar to us. I personally agree slightly with Adorno that popular music is not art form, if it’s been cut from an original piece and reused. As its not being creative, where as music that is created from scratch is more the creator thoughts and expression, which I would class as more of an art from. At the same time it depends on whether the artist uses the original parts of the song creatively than just putting it in. I don’t agree with Adorno when he says that classical music is an art form, because other genres of music can be classed as an art form as well for example Michael Jackson song ‘Thriller’ is art.