Contemporary Popular Music - Essay Example

Our Contemporary Popular Music: Art of Kitsch Introduction "Music has charms to sooth a savage beast, To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak." William Congreve, The Mourning Bride The term "contemporary popular music" is overused and the music industry overpopulated by those who refer themselves as contemporary popular musicians. It can refer to probably anything that is released these days, from the danceable bubblegum pop, swooning ballads, synthesized funk, rhythmic reggae, pop-rock, etc. To enumerate them all would be very much mind numbing and troublesome. So what is contemporary popular music really To be analyzed word for word; contemporary means being related to the same time, or the current or being in style; popular means something that is generally accepted or well-liked; and music being melodious or harmonious sound. When combined together, contemporary popular music is music that is popular among the people of a certain time. Beethoven was very much contemporary popular music in the 17th century as the Black Eyed Peas of today when put into analogy. But this seemingly simple idea raises the complex question on how is it possible for a society in general and its ideology in particular to be mirrored in its contemporary popular music. So in this paper, contemporary popular music is music heard on the Top 40 of the radio stations. If to be denuded to its main point, the central idea upon which an ideological critique of contemporary popular music is the strategy of understanding a given society through an analysis of one of its practices. Body Let me start with what John Storey on his book An Introductory Guide to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture has defined culture. Popular culture is equated with 'the culture of the people and for the people', 'the culture that originates from the people', and 'the authentic culture of the people'. Very slogan-like, I would like to point out. As stated by Storey, popular culture is necessary in accordance to social order with its own systems of beliefs. It is how the society of the time acts and reacts to a media, the object of which this paper is written for being contemporary popular music. But before we get further into the discussion, let us understand first mass media, the one generally responsible and the dictator of this whole brouhaha of contemporary popular music. "Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state)." (Wikipedia, 2006). Mass media is usually used for be various purposes: advertising or public relations, education (as in the case of literature), entertainment, journalism and public service announcements. It could also take the form of broadcast communication (as in the case of television and radio), music recording (as in tapes or CDs), films, publishing (books, magazines, newspapers) and the Internet. Mass media is mainly responsible for the proliferation of what is "in" and what's not in our society, hence popular culture. It's inevitable that when we talk of culture, we come to fashion, language and music. If to be based on the Wikipedia (2006), it has stated that: The term "popular music" is used in broad and narrow senses. At its broadest, it refers to all music other than classical music Popular music contains a variety of genres are intended for mass consumption and propagated over the radio and similar media. Popular music is music belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. It stands in contrast to Classical Music, which historically was the music of elites or the upper strata of society, and traditional folk music which was shared non-commercially. It is sometimes abbreviated to pop music, although pop music is more often used for a narrower branch of popular music. Popular music dates at least as far back as the mid 19th century, and is commonly subdivided into genres that appeal to different age groups. Two antonymous examples would be classical music and contemporary popular music. The difference of classical music and popular music has been disputed upon by many for a long time. This difference is generally taken for granted and is looked upon as a difference of levels considered so well defined that most people regard the values within them as totally independent of one another (Adorno, 1991).Classical music enthusiasts claim that classical music is art and popular music is made only for light entertainment despite the fact that a number of popular works not only from the past but also in the present show a high level of musical innovation and class, as also a number of classical works have been found to be kitsch and mediocre by the public. The very distinction now "is blurred in the border regions, or instance minimalist music and light classics, and are disregarded as art music. In this respect music is like fiction, which likewise draws a distinction between classics and popular fiction that is not always easy to maintain." (Wikipedia, 2006). It has been said that, at least on the average, classical works is far more complicated than popular music. It can be distinguished by a greater music complexity, less repetition, and a wider use of musical phrases that is, four or eight bars long . This doesn't necessarily mean that contemporary popular music is less complicated than classical. Oftentimes, the music of today are based on the compostion of yesteryears. "Jazz, rap and many forms of technical metal, for instance, make use of rhythms more complex than would appear in the average common practice work, and popular music sometimes uses certain complex chords that would be quite unusual in a common practice piece[it] also uses certain features of rhythm and pitch inflection not analyzable by the traditional methods applied to common practice music."" (Wikipedia, 2006). There are certain classical music compositions that achieve a sudden, unexplainable popularity, a posthumous recognition to the composer years (or even centuries) after their death. This now becomes popular music. Moreover, many popular songs over the years have made use of themes and melodies from well-known classical pieces (Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, etc). Elvis Presley and the Beatles still produce current top-selling albums and singles from remixes and remastering of their previous hits. If there's anything to say about good classical music, take Tchaikovsky for example. The Russian maestro had many contemporaries whose compositions were second-rate are now almost completely forgotten, existing most probably on libraries and museums. This goes to show that classical music is considered par excellence by listeners despite time and age. It could be said that there are genres of popular music that have existed for a long time might also produce works that show staying power. According to Frans Birrer (1985, p. 104), there are four definitions of pop music namely: normative definitions, popular music is an inferior type; negative definitions, popular music is music that is not something else (usually 'folk' or 'art' music); sociological definitions, popular music is associated with (produced for or by) a particular social group; and technologico-economic definitions, popular music is disseminated by mass media and/or in a mass market. These are actually "interest-bound; none is satisfactory" (Middleton, 1990). According to Hall (1978, p.6-7), "The assumption...that you might know before you looked at cultural traditions in general what, at any particular time, was a part of the elite culture or of popular culture is untenable." Thus popular music must be comprehended in relation to the broader musical field (Middleton 1990, p.11). Bennett (1980, p.153-218) distinguishes between 'primary' and 'secondary' popular culture, the first being mass product and the second being local re-production, discussed further below. "While repetition is a feature of all music, of any sort, a high level of repetition may be a specific mark of 'the popular', enabling an inclusive rather than exclusive audience." (Middleton 1990, p.139) In order to understand why contemporary music is popular and easily accepted by the public, one must identify the features of this type of music. Contemporary popular music need not to be thought about and simply presents itself as it is. It neither needs focus nor attention. It presents something that is uncomplicated and fun. To quote Adorno (1991) on the theory on the listener: The notion of distraction can be properly understood only within its social setting and not in self-subsistent terms of individual psychology. Distraction is bound to the present mode of production, to the rationalized and mechanized process of labor to which, directly or indirectly, masses are subject. This mode of production, which engenders fears and anxiety about unemployment, loss of income, war, has its "nonproductive" correlate in entertainment; that is, relaxation which does not involve the effort of concentration at all. People want to have fun. A fully concentrated and conscious experience of art is possible only to those whose lives do not put such a strain on them that in their spare time they want relief from both boredom and effort simultaneously. The whole sphere of cheap commercial entertainment reflects this dual desire. It induces relaxation because it is patterned and pre-digested. Its being patterned and pre-digested serves within the psychological household of the masses to spare them the effort of that participation (even in listening or observation) without which there can be no receptivity to art. On the other hand, the stimuli they provide permit an escape from the boredom of mechanized labor. Those who market this kind of commercialization vindicate themselves by saying that they are only giving in to the demand, that they are merely giving the masses what they want. This is the ideology marketing and commercialization adheres to: "the less the mass discriminates, the greater the possibility of selling cultural commodities indiscriminately" (Adorno, 1991). It has proved how people discriminate on what they want. The mass consciousness is herded to want something but doesn't really know what that something is. In our society today the masses themselves are unable to discern what they want in the first place. Promoters take advantage of this confusion and form an illusion that what they sell would give the people their own identity and means of escape from their boring and tedious lives. Since people are on the lookout for something new, this is where contemporary popular music comes in. It satisfies for a while but when the novelty wears out by numerous repetitions of the same thing (blonde teenage singers, boybands, pseudo-rockers), it becomes more like trash than serious music that the proponents of contemporary popular music want it to be. "Culture industries are reflections of the enduring social malaise of commodity fetishism and false consciousness. Monopoly capitalism shapes the tastes, values, ideas, and lifestyle practices of the masses." (Vannini, 2002). Basing on this perspective, the media and the multinational corporations in this field are the ones who actually dictate on what the people "want" and in some way, embeds the "need" or desire of people for what is popular. The people, the public, are largely unconscious of this act of betrayal. The masses are duped into believing that what is popular is beneficial for them and to voraciously consume anything that is considered as popular. As Adorno (1991) has said on his book that: Thus, although the culture industry undeniably speculates on the conscious and unconscious state of the millions towards which it is directed, the masses are not primary but secondary, they are an object of calculation, an appendage of the machinery. The customer is not king, as the culture industry would have us believe, nor its subject but its object. Contemporary popular music is now a commodity; valuable only until profitable but no actual value in itself. It is a "cultural object a profitable commodity in a consumer-oriented culture appear to have an 'aura' of originality' to people", but in the harsh light of reality it "is a standard product carefully crafted, staged, and marketed for culture industries' profit" (Vannini, 2002). The alleged originality is farce; it is merely some sort of a standard commodity, a form by which our intelligence is being insulted by the capitalist as a ploy to our consciousness. The more dehumanized its methods of operation and content, the more diligently and successfully the culture industry propagates supposedly great personalities and operates with heart throbs (Adorno, 1991: 87). The original idea is now lost, what should be an innovation and means of escape for the public has become profitable for a chosen few and bastardizes what music is all about in the first place. Conclusion If worse comes to worst, the industry must then find a solution to this impenetrable problem. Reinvention and originality must be the model, even if risking this much is their death. If there's no hype about a song, for instance, it will not be sold. If it becomes too familiar, it cannot be sold either. There should always be something new, not merely an imitation of something that took off and should be done constantly to avoid the stagnation of the music industry. From what Kellner (1995) and Jameson (1991) states, Western capitalism and postmodernism have become inculcated in our consciousness without our knowledge. To concentrate on these matters would we be able to gain knowledge and understanding on our contemporary culture and social structure. To quote Kellner: The hegemony of capital continues to be the dominant force of social organization, perhaps even more so than before. Likewise, class differences are intensifying, media culture continues to be highly ideological and to legitimate existing inequalities of class, gender, and race, so that the earlier critical perspectives on these aspects of contemporary culture and society continue to be of importance. "Early critical theory's contribution to an informed transdisciplinary approach to cultural studies in the late-modern era is of crucial importance the study of texts ought to be accompanied by a multi-faceted analysis of discourse, of political-economic conditions of production/distribution/consumption as well as of the historical relations between texts and socio-cultural context" (Vannini, 2002). Critical theory, Cultural Studies, and new French theory provide students of cultural phenomena the tools to carry out such complex tasks (Kellner,1995). Even though Adorno's study of popular music in the 1930s was marred by its implicit opposition between high and low culture and real and false needs, by its anti-empirical stance, and by its failure to recognize the possibility of oppositional readings and differentiation in production, a re-evaluation of the validity of his project seems extremely useful (Vannini, 2002). It all boils down to ideology in the end. As John Storey argues, ideology is important, if not the most, factor in the definition of popular culture. Such that "the fact [of] ideology has been used to refer to the same conceptual terrain as culture and popular culture, makes it an important term in any understanding of the nature of popular culture" (Storey, 3). To put it simply, a person's ideas, thoughts and beliefs are the cornerstone in the construction of culture. It wouldn't hurt for us to dabble into contemporary popular music every once in a while. We should always be aware that what is popular may not be always the best for us. Being critical and analytical would be help. What use will our brain be if we let it stagnate References Adorno, TW. On Popular Music. (1991) Retrieved on 2006, July 17 from http://www2.hu-berlin.de/fpm/texte/adorno.htm Birrer, Frans A. J. (1985). "Definitions and research orientation: do we need a definition of popular music" in D. Horn, ed., Popular Music Perspectives, 2 (Gothenburge, Exeter, Ottawa and Reggio Emilia), p.99-106. Hall, S. (1978). "Popular culture, politics, and history", in Popular Culture Bulletin, 3, Open University duplicated paper. Jameson, Frederic (1991). Postmodernism, or the cultural logic of late capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press. Kellner, Douglas (1995). Media culture: Cultural studies, identity, and politics between the modern and the postmodern. London, New York: Routledge. Mass Media. (2006). Retrieved on 2006, July 17 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying popular music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. Popular Music. (2006). Retrieved on 2006, July 17 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_music Vannini, P. (2002). Adorno's Legacy: On critical theory, cultural studies, and the global political economy of britney spears inc. Retrieved on 2006, July 17 from http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/Illumina%20Folder/adornolegacy.htm Read More