are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?

In a word, no.
Blackness and whiteness within popular music is neither here nor there. Looking back over the years we can see our fair share of both ‘genres’. In the 50s and 60s artists like Elvis Presley or The Beatles famously covered music that was considered ‘black’, listeners were often just unaware of this because the ‘white’ covers were more commonly played on radio. Russell Potter (1999) said with music genres crossing over it is harder to define than ever, which is very true and proves why blackness and whiteness are not useful concepts. While some styles of music may be more ‘black’ or more ‘white’, it is impossible to know whether or not that is the case. Musical style can be inspired from all sorts of cultures and races. Eminem is a good example of a mixture of both. While he is a white man, the sound  and style of his music could be considered ‘black’, so if we were to use the blackness and whiteness concepts - where would he fit?

Does the emergence of the digital download signal the end for the music industry?

There are a number of events and changes that occurred within the music industry that caused the availability of digital downloads. In the 90’s german research company Fraunhofer claimed that their compression format would reduce the bit rate of digital audio without a loss in quality, this reduction in file size means that the MP3 is born. Until the birth of the MP3 it wasn’t possible to distribute digital audio over the internet, so while this new technology is a step forward it also comes with a big negative - piracy.
Websites like Napster, where people worldwide can share and get music for free brings problems to the music industry. 

Lessig suggests file sharing can be broken down into four main groups; substitute for purchasing, sampling before buying, gaining access to copyrighted music no longer available or to access non-copyrighted material. This suggests peoples reasons for downloading music should be accounted for however only one from the four is damaging and illegal to the industry. This confirms that piracy is not a signal for the end of the music industry. 

Can popular music ever really achieve political change?

There are a number of songs that have political influences within the lyrics or the music itself but whether or not they ever achieve influencing those political views on the general public is another story.  

Take for example Billy Holidays infamous song ‘Strange Fruit’. This song, which is essentially about the lynching of black people, was at first denied to the general public and wasn’t released because of its content and strong political influences. This song had the groundwork to politically shake the world at the time but restrictions prevented this.

Another example is the 1988 ‘Acid Rave’ stories that tainted the music thousands of teens listened to and resulted in laws being passed to prevent raves or similar kinds of music being produced. This explains how big of an impact music with political influences can make however, Longhurst notes that “in approaching the politics of popular music we need to address not only the context of it lyrics but also the sound and reception in particular contexts”. Music can only ever really cause political awareness rather than change and the circumstances in which it is used effects how influential it is.

What is world music and why do we have such a genre?

World music involves the combining of the ‘local’ and the ‘global’. To define these terms; ‘local’ could be defined as music relevant to you (e.g. Pub bands). ‘Global’ is music that is known worldwide, although it is hard to draw a solid line between the two as advances in technology, like youtube/myspace etc allow these ‘local’ artists to become ‘global’ artists. The genre ‘world music’ is extremely ambiguous and could be seen as the genre that contains music that ‘doesn’t fit anywhere else’, there is no real definition to what is or what is not ‘world’ music and most obviously - surely all music is ‘world’ music? 

One of the most essential things to note between ‘World music’ and all other genres, is that they all adhere to a certain global criteria that ‘world music’ does not, that makes them saleable - they are sung in english.

‘World Music’ could mean they are songs created within cultures or it could mean adapted or ‘imported’ music, that is created in mainly North America and Britain, which supports Hesmondhlagh’s theory of the star system. 

Is the pop music industry a mass produced commodity or a genuine art form?

Marxist theorist Theodore Adorno (1931), states that the pop music industry is an ‘all consuming production line that churns out mass produced inferior commodities. To some degree I agree with this statement. With shows like the X factor we are seeing a rise in mass produced artists covering songs written by rather more ‘genuine’ artists. There are hundreds of examples. but to use a recent one the X factor 2010 winner Matt Cardle sang a cover of ‘Many of Horror’ - originally sung by Biffy Clyro it was released in January 2010 but it only ever reached number 8 in the charts after Matt Cardle’s version, which made it to christmas number 1. There are more examples that go way back which are often songs originally sung/written by black artists and re released by white artists (eg. Elvis). Mass produced artists are taking over the industry. 

Having said all this though, there are still a number of genuine talented artists who use the industry to express themselves artistically so I can’t yet judge whether or not the pop music industry is a wholly mass produced commodity or a genuine art form.

How useful is a production of culture perspective in understanding the birth of Rock and Roll?

There are two main myths surrounding the emergence of rock n roll in 1955. The ‘supply’ myth, which claimed that a rise in the number of talented ‘rock’ artists (like Elvis Presley) was what made rock n roll and also the ‘demand’ myth that claims there was a high demand for this certain type of music among young people. Evidence however proves both of these myths incorrect and Richard A Peterson uses a production of culture perspective to discuss what he think caused the emergence of rock n roll. Peterson’s perspective looks at 6 of the main factors that allowed for the emergence of rock n roll in 1955. These 6 factors look at the distribution of music although they give no explanation for the production of music or in fact the music itself. It also doesn’t give any explanation as to why this particular genre of music emerged in 1955. This makes Peterson’s perspective useful as a framework that could be applied to any genre but not as useful in specifying why it was rock n roll that emerged in 1955. 

Is it reasonable to consider that rock music is gendered male?

Think of your favourite rock band…. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Guns ‘n’ Roses, AC/DC, KISS, Aerosmith? Now think how many of those bands include female artists. None. Why? Because rock music is most definitely gendered male.
Mavis Bayton notes that women performers are more prominent within commercial pop and folk music – but even then their place has been predominantly that of vocalists, rather than instrumentalists. This is definitely the case within rock music, as it can be argued the electric guitar is a masculine instrument and is one of the main reasons why it is seen as ‘unsexy’ for a woman to play. In order to be successful, women in the music industry must have sex appeal; the electric guitar favours this factor to men only as rock guitarists typically hold their instruments low down in front of their genitals for no practical reason other than to give off a phallocentic message.
So remember, next time you listen to your favourite rock band – its men only.

Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

In 1827 Charles Wheatstone created the very first 'microphone'. Not yet called a microphone, the device was used to strengthen soft sounds and eventually became one of the main factors to change music. Until the 1920‘s music continued to thrive without the use of the microphone however since then, the benefits of using microphones led to new and exciting changes within the industry. One of the main things to evolve from this was ‘crooning’ - which was the sound that made singer Bing Crosby’s career. 

In 1904 the first amplifier was created - initially used to boost telephone signals but also used to amplify musical instruments and sounds. This was a giant leap for the industry - not only changing the sound of music but also how it could be recorded, delivered and composed. Without the use of technology I don’t think music would survive, effecting nearly every genre of music and eliminating a number of them completely, the music industry would be a very different thing to what it is today.

What is popular music?

Popular music aka ‘pop’ music is the term to describe a well known, very accessible genre of music. 

If I were to ask you to name a pop song - you’d probably say a song currently in the charts, but does this necessarily make it ‘popular’?

Over the years, the term ‘popular’ has changed its meaning and we can no longer trust if said ‘pop’ song - is actually even popular. The mass creation of pop records and artists has grown hugely over the years thanks to shows like X-factor. This quick, easy way of finding and creating a pop artist leaves less room for the genuinely talented ones.

This shift in music means that perhaps a narrower niche of music is judged as less popular when technically - that might not be the case, but while the general public crave for this mainstream profiting culture of pop music, the industry will not change.