A2 Media : Popular Music / AC DC

  

 

Highway To Hell ( Dir: Eric Dionysius & Eric Mistler 1979)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsDpznl8eIs&feature=related

The song and album's title supposedly came after a reporter asked band members if they could describe what life was like being constantly on tour. Angus replied that it was "a highway to hell". He stated in the magazine Guitar World that when you are out on the road on a bus sleeping with a guy's smelly sock in your face, it's like you're on the highway to hell. However, rumours circulated that the band members were Satanists and the cover of the album named after the song, depicting Angus with devil horns and tail, added fuel to the fire. The band has denied having anything to do with Satanism, with Malcolm Young commenting: "my mum would kill me for that!"

The single spent 45 weeks on the German Singles Chart, even though it peaked at only No. 30, in its 19th week on that chart.

Scott was found dead, in the back of a friend's car, just over six months after the song was released.

The album named after it became the first million-selling album for AC/DC, reaching No. 17 on the charts.The success of the song and album cemented the career of AC/DC, which — with new lead singer Brian Johnson — recorded a tribute to Bon Scott, the album Back In Black, a year later.

Johnson has speculated at least twice about the origins of the lyrics. In October 2009, Johnson told British newspaper Metro: "it was written about being on the bus on Mt. Hood Highway in Oregon, USA. When the Sun's setting in the west and you're driving across it, it is like a fire ball. There is nothing to do, exMorning Herald]] on the day of AC/DC's first Black Ice concert in Sydney, Johnson stated that the lyrics were about the 2,000 miles drive from cities like Sydney and Melbourne to Scott's home town of Perth.

According to legend from Bon Scott however, the meaning is similar, yet slightly different from these other theories. Scott used to frequent a bar called the Raffles Hotel in Perth, a very 'Rock n Roll' pub. He frequently would race down the Canning Highway, a road with many twists and turns that was notorious for numerous road deaths. Scott saw himself as 'living easy, living free' when he was at Raffles.

You Shook Me All Night Long ( Dir:David Mallett 1980)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bomv-6CJSfM&feature=related

There are two versions to the music video. The first version, directed by Eric Dionysius and Eric Mistler, is similar to the other Back in Black videos ("Back in Black", "Hells Bells", "What Do You Do For Money Honey", "Rock and Roll Ain't Noise Pollution", and "Let Me Put My Love Into You") and is available on the special Back in Black, The Videos which could be obtained by purchasing a recent Back in Black album. It is also available in the Backtracks box set.

In the second version, directed by David Mallet and released six years after the song's original release, Angus and Malcolm Youngfollow Brian around the town of Huddersfield, with Angus in his signature schoolboy outfit. This version of the video for "You Shook Me All Night Long" is perhaps one of the most controversial film clips AC/DC ever released. The video clip casts the English glamour modelCorinne Russell, a former Hill's Angel and Page 3 Girl, along with other leather clad women with zippers at the groin region of their suits who are pedaling bicycle like machines in the background; however, a softer, censored alternative version exists without these shots.

It was revealed on the VH1 series Pop-Up Video that during the shot with the mechanical bull, the woman playing Brian's lover accidentally jabbed herself with her spur twice. The roadie who came to her aid married her a year later; Angus gave them a mechanical bull for a wedding present as a joke. Also according to Pop-Up Video, when asked about the meaning of the video, the band said that its goal was to "be as politically incorrect as possible." It should be noted that the original 1980 video features drummer Phil Rudd while the 1986 video features drummer Simon Wright who replaced Rudd in 1983. Rudd, however, would return to AC/DC in 1994.

"You Shook Me All Night Long" was also the second song to be played by AC/DC on Saturday Night Live in 2000, following their performance of "Stiff Upper Lip."

The song is played during the closing credits for the movie "Knight's Tale" starring Heath Ledger.

Rock 'n' Roll Train ( Dir: David Mallett 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrOQNJNzD1g

Originally composed with the title "Runaway Train", the song was first heard by fans on 15 August 2008, at the shooting of the music video in London. The song was notable for being the first song from a major artist to be leaked online legally when one Scottish fan at the video shoot memorized the riff and sung it on YouTube on 17 August. Angus Young initially conceived the song, and his brother Malcolm Young created the backing vocal harmony of the chorus ("Running right off the track").

On 27 August 2008, close to midnight, the single was uploaded to AC/DC's official website and AC/DC's MySpace. It made its worldwide radio debut on 28 August at 17:00 New Zealand time on The Rock radio station. Many Australian stations played the song straight after their 4:00 pm news services. The song later made its way onto classic rock radio stations Planet Rock, Virgin Radio Classic Rock,Radio Caroline, radio2XS and Rock Radio in the UK. The song made its North American debut on 28 August on CKQB-FM in Ottawa,Ontario, Canada. "Rock 'n' Roll Train" debuted at number one on the Canadian rock chart for the week ending 5 September.

On 30 August 2008, the first Saturday of the U.S. college football season, the song was played extensively on ESPN and ABC college football broadcasts as intro and bumper music, along with other AC/DC songs "Thunderstruck" and "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)". It was also played on a promo for CBS's Criminal Minds. It peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In November 2008 the song became AC/DC's first song to enter the U.S. dance chart.

Throughout the month of November, the World Wrestling Entertainment website featured the music video for "Rock 'N' Roll Train", as well as the song "Spoilin' for a Fight", which was the theme to the Survivor Series 2008.

The song was used to open shows on the Black Ice tour. A cartoon was played on the giant video screen above the stage; at the end of this cartoon a life-sized train came crashing out onto the stage. It is at this point that the band came out on stage and proceeded to play the song.

The song "Rock 'N' Roll Train" was also used in an episode of Knight Rider titled "Knight to King's Pawn".

   

A2 Media : Popular Music and Sexuality

Goin' to the chapel and we're gonna get married
Gee, I really love you and we're gonna get married
Goin' to the chapel of love
—Dixie Cups, Chapel of Love (1964)

Cause I may be bad but I'm perfectly good at it,
Sex in the air, I don't care, I love the smell of it.
Sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me.
—Rihanna, S&M (2010)

It is impossible to analyse popular music without considering sexuality – the driving force behind much music – and how it shapes both the music and fans' reading of that music. Music, (and reaction to music ie dancing) is the one way in which humans can communicate their sexuality without actually taking their clothes off, that's why Salome pissed off John The Baptist so royally. Teenagers the world over get their first erotic charges from pop music and it can provide a learning channel for both boys and girls to articulate their emotions. Music is both a physical and emotional form of expression; it affects us in our feelings and in our feet. Music is universal, it knows no boundaries of language or culture; what gets them going in Glasgow is probably going to do the same in Goa. Therefore, popular music, which is accessible to all, which is easily possessed as a commodity and understood/ingested as a medium, becomes a channel for communicating human sexuality.

Sexuality - A Quick Working Definition

Human sexuality has five main elements:

1. Cognitive/Intellectual - the need to share the thought aspects of one's life, to communicate with the other
2. Emotional - the need to give, and receive love & affection
3. Physical - the physical need for skin contact and sexual release
4. Moral - sexuality comes with a large bundle of codes and values
5. Social - sexuality makes us wanted, gives us identity and value in the eyes of others, defines us in social terms

Sexuality is a vitally important currency in our modern media world. Gender is, of course, what you are stuck with at birth.

Popular music, as an audio-visual medium with both a rhythmic and verbal content, allows us to explore many aspects of sexuality - from a safe distance from a sexual partner. It can be about communicating with "the other" - allowing the audience to take on the mantle of that other, and consider that the singer is communicating just with them. Lyrically, a lot of pop music is about giving and receiving love and affection, as well as the physical aspects of sex: it also involves dancing, both from performer and audience, and dance is a commonly used metaphor for the sexual act. Again lyrically, and through the exposure of the troubled lives of our favourite performers in the press, pop music provides us with a discourse on morality. And above all, popular music bestows a sexual identity on fans, defining them through costume in social terms as goth, punk, raver whatever and hopefully steers them towards sexual attractiveness to those of a similar predilection.

Popular music also allows a space for alternative sexualities. Those whose sexuality does not fit conventional modes (David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Boy George, Madonna, Lady Gaga, et al) are able to toy with it and express it through popular music, and the attendant sites of institutional support.

Music & Adolescent Sexuality

Popular music is an important part of the modern teenage experience. As is sex. Ever since Elvis's pelvis outraged parents in 1956 on the Jimmy & Tommy Dorsey Show the two have existed in a state of collision which threatens never to come undone. Hooray! Much has been written about the way in which popular music is part of adolescent discourse with the world: it provides a channel for learning about love, pain, identity and ideals. In a world where most other media seem to shore up hegemonic ideas, pop music offers rebellion and alternative expression. However, it is worth remembering that this alternative discourse is as much produced by an institution for commercial purposes as any other media form.

Gender is a key aspect to consider when analysing the relationship between music and audience, particularly a teenage audience. Boys, generally speaking, seek an alternative way of life through music, hence the attraction of gangsta rap for the white middle class male. Girls, on the other hand, seek validation of self, especially of their burgeoning sexual self. Therefore girls use the non-threatening, often asexual role models provided by boy bands who act as non-reciprocal sexual partners, mouthing approval through nondescript "I love you love me too" lyrics, and always presenting themselves as clean, accessible and nice to be with. Unlike real adolescent boys who are spotty, grow their hair, play guitar badly and want to play video games all day. Just like on a rock&roll tour bus.

A2 Media : Richard Dyer's Star Theory Applied To Pop Stars

David Bowie in his Ziggy Stardust star persona - still a recognizable icon 40 years later

The terms "pop performer" and "pop star" have become interchangeable — strictly speaking, in media terms they are not the same thing. The study of stars as media texts/components of media texts demands that the distinction be made between those who are simply known for performing pop music and those who are known for being pop stars, who have an identity or persona which is not restricted solely to their musicianship.

One of the reasons so many pop performers are described as pop stars is that they are quickly promoted to this status by their management. This is easily done courtesy of a few judiciously placed stories, a famous boyfriend/girlfriend, attendance at premieres/parties and a feature in HEAT magazine. It can be easy to forget about the music in the light of the outfits or love affairs. There are some who appear to leapfrog the performer stage entirely, but they do have to go through it.

HOWEVER, a true pop star does have a lasting significance, and has "brand awareness" amongst a wider market over a period of time. Many of the so-called pop stars populating the top forty currently have not made a sufficient sociological or cultural impact to be classified as true stars if we return to Richard Dyers’ definition. They will be forgotten by all but their most avid fans within a few years.

Stars as Constructions

Stars are constructed, artificial images, even if they are represented as being "real people", experiencing real emotions etc. It helps if their image contains a USP — they can be copied and/or parodied because of it. Their representation may be metonymic — Madonna's conical bra in the early 1990s, Bono's 'Fly' sunglasses, Britney's belly, Justin Bieber's bangs. Pop stars have the advantage over film stars in that their constructed image may be much more consistent over a period of time, and is not dependent on the creative input of others (e.g. screenwriters writing their lines).

Dyer proposes that:

A star is an image not a real person that is constructed (as any other aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines etc as well as films [music]).

Yet that construction process is neither automatic nor fully understood. Record companies think they know about it — but witness the number of failures on their books. TV programmes such as The X Factor show us the supposed construction process, how an ordinary person is groomed, styled and coached into fulfilling a set of record company and market expectations.This is not true stardom, which must happen through a combination of factors. None of them labelled 'X'.

Imagine showing us 15 years ago to Simon Cowell! That's the problem with Pop Idol. They're auditioning cabaret singers. It's not pop music. It's Batley Variety Club.”

The Pet Shop Boys, quoted in Q, March 2002

“[Cowell is a] dreadful piece of crap who drags the music business down whenever he rears his ugly head... Pop stars today have no longevity. Rock 'n' roll is not about singing perfect notes or being a showbiz personality. It's about the anger and the angst. I hate what Pop Idol has done to the business.”

— Roger Daltrey [of The Who], ibid

As a record buying public, we prefer to believe in stars who are their own and our constructions rather than a transparent offering designed explicitly to appeal to our blander tastebuds served up by a record company interested only in our wallets.

Industry and Audience

Stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose — to make money out of audiences, who respond to various elements of a star persona by buying records and becoming fans. Stars are the cogs around which a plethora of record company gears find themselves turning. Record companies nurture and shape their stars — as the TV talent show processes have shown us. They tend to manufacture what they think audiences want, hence the 'photocopied' nature of many boy bands, teen bands etc.However, there are whole markets out there who are not convinced by the hype and don't want to spend their money on blandness.The record industry also has a duty to provide bands/artists who are perceived as 'real' (for 'real, maybe read 'ugly' or unpolished) for these audiences.Stars can also be created by this route. Pop stars, whatever their nature, are quite clearly the product of their record company — and they must be sold.

Dyer says:

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings.

The music industry is well aware of the range of audiences it caters to, the perky pre-school Tweenie fan to the ageing hippy, and it does its best to keep us all happy. Historically, the industry has provided us with a range of commodities all with different appeal. One way to achieve this is by producing new stars of different types playing constantly mutating genres of music - there's always something and someone fresh to choose from (important for the younger audience). Another way is to produce a star with long-lasting appeal, who, once their brand is established, can cater to a fan audience for decades (in the way U2 or the Rolling Stones have done).

Unfortunately, these methods are oppositional. The 'conveyor belt' approach to new stars means that talent isn't developed, and a star's value may be very short-lived. A star may only be significant or relevant for two years, or two albums. Too much focus on 'golden oldies' means that younger fans can't identify with stars, whom they see as belonging to their parents' generation. A healthy music industry develops both types of talent, and generates a diverse range of stars, who mean different things to different audience segments. Many pundits who say that the music industry is in the doldrums claim it is because this range of meanings is absent, or because the meaning of the modern star is superficial and transient.

Ideology & Culture

Stars represent shared cultural values and attitudes, and promote a certain ideology. Audience interest in these values enhances their 'star quality', and it is through conveying beliefs ideas and opinions outside music that performers help create their star persona. A star may initiate a fashion trend, with legions of fans copying their hairstyle and clothing. Stars initiate or benefit from cultural discourse (e.g. via their Twitter feed), and create an ongoing critical commentary. Now more than ever before, social networks give pop stars the opportunity to establish their own values outside their music. Lady Gaga tweets frequently about LGBT issues, and expects her Little Monsters to engage with that discourse just as much as she expects them to listen to her music.

Stardom, and star worship in general is a cultural value in itself. Ideologies drawn upon include materialism and sexuality. Whole sites of institutional support (eg radio & TV shows, magazines, websites) are devoted to star scrutiny, and it seems we can never get enough information.

Stars also provide us with a focal point for our own cultural thinking — particularly to do with Youth & Sexuality.

Character & Personality

A star begins as a "real" human, possessing gender & race characteristics, and existing against a socio-historic background. The star transformation process turns them into a construct, but the construct has a foundation in the real.We tend to read them as not-entirely-fictional, as being are very much of their time and culture, the product of a particular generation. Stars provide audiences with a focus for ideas of 'what people are supposed to be like' (eg for women, thin/beautiful) - they may support hegemony by conforming to it (thin/beautiful) or providing difference (fat/still lovable).

Much of the discussion of stars in celebrity magazines is about how stars compare to the current hegemonic ideal, and how we compare to the stars.

Dyer says

In these terms it can be argued that stars are representations of persons which reinforce, legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being in this society.There is a good deal at stake in such conceptions. On the one hand, our society stresses what makes them like others in the social group/class/gender to which they belong. This individualising stress involves a separation of the person's "self" from his/her social "roles", and hence poses the individual against society. On the other hand society suggests that certain norms of behaviour are appropriate to given groups of people, which many people in such groups would now wish to contest (eg the struggles over representation of blacks, women and gays in recent years).Stars are one of the ways in which conceptions of such persons are promulgated.

Richard Dyer — The Stars (BFI Education 1979)

Film stars are represented primarily through their roles — written by faceless screenwriters. The personality and characteristics making them similar/different are created for them by others, and their overall image is constructed from many fragmented parts, which may or may not contradict each other. They may indeed represent a perceived appropriate norm of behaviour but it takes several similar movies to create this effect.Film stars may survive individual flops — there are always other movies in the can — and embody several different values simultaneously. It's more difficult if you're in the music industry.

Pop stars, on the other hand, establish their character and personality through songs and performance and will strive for immediate star identity with a first album. They appear to have more control over their persona in that many of them write their own songs, and that their body of work develops, chronologically over time, along with society. Pop stars don't do aberrant costume dramas or science fiction movies which take them out of place in time and space and confuse their audience. They produce 45-74 minutes of music which gives a clear indication of their interests, moods, appetites and lifestyle at a particular point in time; audiences read music=person, and will base their understanding of the star's persona on the sentiments expressed by their songs. This understanding may be very personal and intimate, the star's music can infiltrate every corner of a fan's life. Albums are continually read and re-read as texts think of the 100+ times you might listen to a track, whereas films tend to be watched once or twice only.

Because a pop star's persona is constructed on the basis of a narrow text, continually re-read and reassessed, this may lead, in many cases, to second album syndrome, when an artist is unable to sustain their persona over a period of time (largely because they got rich off the back of the first album and bought all the houses cars etc they'd ever wanted) and they are unable to create a consistent account of their character and personality in their second major release.The rootspring of their persona then disappears, or becomes confused.

A pop star's persona, therefore, as depicted in terms of character and personality, is a fragile thing which needs constant nurturing, and is the product of constant discourse between the star and his or her audience.

A2 Media : Pop Music Genre

Pop Music Genr

Girls Aloud epitomize the shiny trash aesthetic of pop music

Genre, as you should well know by now, is the classification of a text according to its style and content, and possibly its form and manner of production. Of all the different media, pop music is the one most dependent on genre, and which includes the most wildly different genres of texts. Genres are continually being invented, crossed and revisited, and the process of categorisation is an important one for the producers and fans of the music alike. Some of these categorisations are just wordplay (see above) and others carry with them a complex set of definitions that are rigidly enforced by aficionados (the sub genres of house music being a good example - never ask a DJ).

Broadly speaking, most music falls into one of these categories:

• Pop (including global categories like Europop, Arabic pop, Cantopop, J-Pop and K-Pop)
• Dance
• R&B
• Hip-Hop/Rap
• Rock
• Punk
• Country & Western
• Folk
• Jazz
• Blues
• Latin
• Gospel
• Reggae
• New Age

Each of these categories contains a myriad of sub-genres, and there are plenty of hybrids and mash-ups. However, each of these genres has unique musical characteristics (rhythm, instruments used for melody, lyric and vocal style), and can be associated with other factors, such as clothing, hair and lifestyle. Each genre has specific sites of institutional support, including performance spaces (e.g. nightclubs), radio stations, specialist record shops, magazines and festivals.

Genre and Artist Image

Lady Sovereign 

Image is a key paradigm for music genre, with an artist's look categorising them before they start singing or playing. For an artist or band to truly fit a genre category, they must be represented as doing so visually, on record sleeves, publicity photos and in music videos.

Look can be as generic as sound: it is difficult to distinguish between many hip hop videos, all featuring baggily dressed homeboys sitting on steps or porches outside houses in a generic 'hood, swinging their arms and smiling at the booty passing by. Or perhaps driving slowly in big old open-topped cars round a generic 'hood, swinging their arms and waving at the booty they pass by. Similarly, all-girl or all-boy groups tend to go for videos shot in some warehouse, or other self-consciously urban setting, featuring them dancing in formation. If the look fits, wear it.

Adele, whose music draws from classic pop styles of the 1960s and 1970s, is often photographed (as left) wearing classic, retro clothing that associates her with her role models Aretha Franklin or Dusty Springfield and suggests she is a serious, soulful artiste in old school mode. Lady Sovereign, on the other hand, identifies with her genre of music through an outsize baseball cap, wacky sunglasses and neon colours (above).

Genre and Sales

As well as publishing overall sales figures, the Billboard chart (calculated from sales, streaming and radio play) is subdivided into no less than 43 different music genre categories.

Genre has always been a cornerstone of music retail because customers often restrict themselves to a certain style of music (eg hiphop, R'n'B) and are not interested in buying outside that genre. Go into your local HMV and look at how the whole store is organised along genre principles. Although many artists resent being pigeonholed into a particular genre niche in this way, there is little doubt that retailers and customers rely heavily on genre to make their buying choices. Music streaming services (like Pandora or Spotify) rely on your past genre choices in order to keep playing you new music that you may be interested in buying.

A2 Media : Alternative Music

Q: According to usual representations, pop music is all about youth, sexuality, rebellion, outrageous haircuts, drugs, staying out all night dancing and offending old people. So how come it appears to be administrated by huge corporations staffed by middle-aged accountants and lawyers who gatekeep every last single creative decision and totally control the music and musicians?

A:It does seem rather sad that such an essentially vibrant, spontaneous medium has become so much about big business and screwing both artist and consumer. However, there has always, since the beginnings of rock'n'roll, been a healthy set of alternatives to the corporate mainstream. For every Elvis who sold his soul to Sun, there was a Screamin' Jay Hawkins dancing on the fringes.

When we refer to "alternative" music, we are referring to music that alternates from the mainstream in any, all or some of the following ways:

Representation	Artists may choose to represent themselves in alternative ways - e.g. Insane Clown Posse's masks - that defy normal categorisation
Style/Genre	There are many styles of music that are considered alternative, perhaps too "difficult" for mainstream audiences to cope with eg thrash, punk, bizarre electronic stuff, anything considered "avante-garde". It is interesting to note that most forms fo music make it into the mainstream somehow, often in a diluted form (the Nu-Metal of Limp Bizkit, for instance): remember your Trickledown Theory?
Lyrical Content/Ideology	Particularly that which is overtly political and/or sexual. There are definitely mainstream ideologies to do with pop lyrics, and these ebb and flow with history. The cultural revolution of 1968 led to much more politicised American mainstream pop, whereas in Britain, in the 1980s, there was a brief flirtation with 'Agitpop' by the mainstream. Straight Edge began as an alternative to the mainstream and then sadly got subsumed by it. Bubbling under,however, you will always find hardcore vegan punk bands.
Form	Any pop music that cannot be neatly packaged onto a CD exists in an alternative form. Also, artists that refuse to release radio friendly singles or MTV friendly videos are often considered alternative. Some bands only play live. Some are now releasing DVDs which combine electronic music with video art
Production	The production of mainstream music is an expensive process - mainly down to the salaries and equipment of those whoa re hired to give it a gloss. However, bedroom recording equipment has been around since the days of the four-track, although it now revolves around computers, and much music is produced and distributed quickly and cheaply : alternatively
Distribution	The majors used to have it sewn up but now anyone who can upload files to a website like MySpace or SoundCloud can distribute their music. Whether or not they can make money doing it is another matter. Also, anyone who is prepared to lump a box of CDs round their local high school or record stores and plead with potential customers is taking advantage of alternative distribution processes.
Consumption	Alternative music may be designed for very limited, local consumption (no global markets here). There are alternative music venues alternative radio stations, alternative internet sites, all catering for a non-mainstream audience
Fans	Alt.music is an attitude and a choice. Those who describe themselves as being fans of alternative music often live an alternative lifestyle (- or claim to, as shown by their clothing & hairstyle). They see themselves as actively differentiated from mainstream music fans, perhaps as Innovators or Early Adopters. They may share the ideology of their chosen form of music. There tends not to be such a gap between the creators of alternative music and their fans - no time for manufactured stars.

Alternative music has its sites of institutional support - except they aren't quite so institutional. The preferred form used to be fanzines, photocopied (usually badly) and stapled screed which were available at gigs, independent record stores, and by sending an SAE and a few extra postage stamps. This was in the 1980s. Now, there's the Internet.

The Internet has also enabled some bands to maintain their alternative status by bypassing record companies altogether. Radiohead have given away albums free online and promoted their tours via their website. This means they have a more direct connection to fans, and may even earn more money from their endeavours because they aren't paying middle men out of their royalties. Not every band has a pre-existing fanbase that enables them to work like this, however.

A2 Media : Popular Music

Popular music can generally be defined as "commercially mass produced music for a mass market" (Roy Shuker: Understanding Popular Music 2001), and most modern pop music derives from musical styles that first became popular in the 1950s. However, this definition does not address the part that popular music plays in reflecting and expressing popular culture, nor its socio-economic role, nor the fact that much of popular music does not make a profit nor does it effectively reach a mass market. It cannot easily be defined in musical terms, as it encompasses such a wide range of rhythms, instruments, vocal and recording styles.

Pop Music = Pop Culture

Popular music is also about popular culture - it shapes the way people dress, talk, wear their hair, and, some say, other behaviour such as violence and drug use. It expresses the here and now, how artists feel about what is happening in the world around them, and as such can be used as a cultural thermometer to test the temperature of the times: the protest songs of the 1960s, the punk explosion of the late 1970s, hip hop today. When advertisers or moviemakers want to evoke nostalgia for a particular place or era, they immediately turn to a pop soundtrack. Popular music can be the direct expression of the zeitgeist, especially when it is written, played and sung by performers who have strong political feelings. It can be a force for the radicalisation and empowerment of youth — and can also be blamed for "the problem with young people". Pop music has caused many a moral panic over the past few decades.

Pop Music = Social Control

Pop music is also potentially a tool for social control, partly because of its association with hypnotic rhythms, repetitive lyrics and flashing lights. What better way to drum ideology into unresisting young minds, especially when music videos can reinforce messages visually as well as aurally? The reasoning goes, that if pop music can dictate the way people dress and style their hair, it can also influence their thinking on less superficial matters. As well as being 'rebel music', pop music is also a corporate product, and who has more interest in creating generations of model consumers than the multinational media conglomerates? Even governments are seen as getting in on the act, as state control of broadcast media in places like China runs to the censorship of song lyrics.

Is Pop Eating Itself?

Pop music is a very complex cultural and media form, not least because it is so interdependent on other media and the delivery technology for its continued existence. It is a global industry still worth some $26 billion (projected for 2011), but it is also an industry with big question marks over its future, as that figure has been sliding year on year (down from $40 billion a year a decade previously), thanks to the changes wrought by the shift to digital distribution, and developments such as streaming radio. Stars who are successful by today's standards generate a fraction of the income of the stars of yesteryear, especially when it comes to touring. In 2010, 80s rockers Bon Jovi outsold everyone else when it came to concert tickets, even big name contemporary acts like Lady Gaga. It remains to be seen whether or not the music industry can sustain its conventions of success, or whether it will have to downsize expectations dramatically over the next few years.

A2 Media : Shameless

An interesting article published in Housing Today in which the issue of social stereotyping is explored in some detail. Read it at :

http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/journals/insidehousing/legacydata/uploads/pdfs/IH.061027.018-020.pdf