RESEARCH: POPULAR THEORY

RESEARCH: POPULAR MUSIC THEORY

Intro:

It is important to know the different opinions about the music industry and the different perspectives of theorists who created research focusing on media and the creative industry.  Such theorists can help to develop one’s understanding of the different audiences and how the industry works and its development over years. In addition it is important to see whether these theories still apply to today’s music and culture so I will be able to draw upon them later on. The different theorists have based their research around popular culture and how it shaped the social divisions and groupings. However it does not leave out the importance of niche audiences, subcultures and independent perspectives which makes it much more credible and reliable.

Popular Culture

Society was always known to have certain divisions and groupings. One of these include classes and how people and their working background distinguishes them from one another; creating what’s now know ‘social classes’. Stereotypically, upper class people are sophisticated and well educated in contrast to lower/working class who’s less educated and subordinate. The popular culture originates from the standard media which manipulated the mainstream society into passive spectatorship and consumption, thus making the audience inert to what they are displayed to and unselective in their media choices. The mainstream culture/ society referred to the lower class workers who were known as ‘The Masses’ and allow media to feed them with their average products since they cannot afford ‘true art’. In contrast upper class, also referred to as the bourgeoisie, had more choice in the media they surrounded themselves with. Supposedly, they valued and respected ‘true art’ and looked down upon the masses. The bourgeoisie got to see sophisticated arts, read finest literature and listen to classical music whereas the masses were left with products that are considered ‘average’ including pop and similar kinds of music. Today, this concept can still be applied. The mainstream music like pop, hip hop or rap are still for the mass audiences whereas jazz or classical music is aimed at upper classes and older audiences.

Adorno

Theodor Adorno was a German sociologist who looked at the particular division between the masses and the bourgeoisie. He was fascinated with the structure of society and how people create divisions and begin to adapt different behaviours and thinking styles in order to fit in to the different groupings. Adorno created a simple diagram where he points out the distribution of the mass media and ‘true art’. It is evident that ‘true art’ is above the popular culture which shows that it is more superior. In addition it is clear that there is more of the popular culture than ‘true art’ due to the fact that only a limited number of people gets to be the bourgeoisie whereas the rest of the society  is considered as ‘mass’ and passive and they are at the ‘bottom of the chain’. ‘True art’ is left for the sophisticated upper classes who are educated enough to appreciate it and understand its value. The difference between the bourgeoisies is that these people are politically, culturally and socially aware and active in these developments. They are elites who get to decide what ‘true art’ is and what isn’t. In contrast masses are passive and blindly follow the mainstream. Therefore they may lack their own identity and become apathetic. Mass media can be described as pseudo individualistic due to its repetition in style. For example pop, rap and hip hop artists are generally similar and share common values and morals however there is a constant supply of these in order to feed the masses with these products and make easy money.

Contemporary subcultures are an example of people who are trying to get out of the masses through individualism and active rejection of the mainstream. – Somewhere in between bourgeoisie and the masses.

Hebdige

Dick Hebdige identified the importance of subcultures and their development. He looked at the influences these groups have on society and how different people are able to read the same media products and how some will accept or reject it. Subcultures are groups of people that stand out from the mainstream or challenge the dominant ideologies. There are many subcultures who characterise through different behaviours, psychographics and self-images. People of similar traits will be grouped together to create a subculture. Hebdige studies how some people are able to resist pressure and can actively stand out from the mainstream. He thought that subcultures helped and continue to develop media and the targeting of audiences. This is because today many people are more individualistic and less passive therefore certain products will target limited number of people. Subcultures are loyal fan bases and stable audiences therefore many musicians target their products at them. For example bands like Green Day, Nirvana or Metallica were very niche at the beginning but now became much more popular and respected by the masses due to the subcultures who helped to popularise these artists across audiences.

Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci came up with the idea of Hegemony, which refers to the predominance of one social class over others and the way in which those in power are able to maintain it.  Some people will have more power due to their income or knowledge and they are able to set rules and laws which help them to maintain their power. They can also set dominant ideas which help them to shape the society. Cultural Dominant Ideologies are Hegemonic ideas. This is because key values in society are often the fundamental structures of society and are meant to guide people which makes it hard for the individuals who actively reject them. An example of a dominant ideology would be the American Dream and its fundamental part of the US society and followed by the majority of American population. However, Hegemony can be also applied to the music industry. Mainstream artists promote common values and ideologies in order to influence audiences who sometimes are not even aware of the messages and they passively accept it. Gospel music often refers to Christian religion which is a dominant faith and common in the Western society, which is an example of Hegemony.  

Frankfurt School

The Frankfurt School was a collaboration of German and American theorists who specialised in sociology and philosophy. They looked particularly at the domination in the Western society and how it functions with references to media dictatorship and the development of Marx theory. Media dictatorship is the domination by the large media corporations, often oligopolies, and restriction of independent companies to breakthrough. This means that audiences only get ‘one point of view’ and are restricted of choices. Media can use this to their own benefit and display what they want in order to shape the public.  Horkheimer and Adorno focused on Hollywood and their money making techniques. They discovered the idea of pseudo individualism in Hollywood to make safe money and repetitively display something that will sell in order to gain profits.

The Frankfurt School also looked at the ‘Effects Model’. The model refers to society composed of individuals who were passive to media and believed everything they were displayed to. Therefore these people distributed their ‘knowledge’ to the masses who accepted the information due to the lack of other sources (unlike today there is internet etc.) and people became gullible to media. Today, people are able to find and explore different tastes in music or other media texts without depending on the masses and can stand out if they want to. people don’t have to rely on Top Charts  from the pop genre to listen to music but watch videos online and find own playlists from music that interest them, even if its indie or less common.

Birmingham School

The Birmingham School was a research centre for cultural studies. Stuart Hall was a cultural theorist and a famous sociologist who looked at the production and reception of media texts. He identified encoding and decoding:

• ·         Encoding – The way media texts are produced
• ·         Decoding – The different ways the audience consumes the text, depending on who you are as a person

Hall points out that audiences will decode a product differently due to various factors, including demographics, psychographics, class or sub-cultures. Bourgeoisie will react to a media text differently than the masses. They can look down on a pop song but the masses are likely to accept and appreciate it and vice versa, the masses may not understand classical music but the bourgeoisie will be delighted and value it.

Conclusion

Overall, I think that the following theorists took key parts in the complicated identification of audiences and the different relationships within the industry. They have looked at the key elements in the development of the mainstream music industry and in the interesting division between the bourgeoisie and the masses. Although there are still clear divisions between classes, I think today it is hard to define true art as people have become so diverse it is hard to label products I such a simple manner. Besides, different audiences will consider ‘true art’ as different things due to the varied tastes and values and people’s individuality. I found Hebdige theory especially fascinating because he considers how minority is able to influence the majority. I think that today subcultures are more prominent than ever because so many people decide not to conform to the mass ideologies and begin to breakthrough from the mainstream and reject the pressure to fit in. On top of that I find it interesting how subcultures are trying to demolish labels such as ‘bourgeoisie’ and the ‘masses’ through their active consumption of media and own innovative personalities. I think that I want to target subcultures because I support the idea of having many groups of people in society rather than a simple division of masses and bourgeoisies, which restricts self-expression and people’s choices simply because of their income and background, which shouldn’t be the case. In order to do that successfully I will research into artist that have effectively targeted subcultures beforehand, such as Nirvana or Lady Gaga and check what it takes to breakthrough.