Popular music relies heavily on electronic technology. If music was truly unplugged, there would be no electric guitar, no amps, no recording, certainly no radio, music video's or DJs. Music could be played live, to a small group of people in a small space, however would this still be called popular music? It wouldn't be able to reach large groups of people, and therefore would fall out of the 'popular music' category. Popular music needs to be accessible to large numbers of people, and without recording equipment, this would prove to be extremely difficult. In the case of MTV Unplugged, we may believe that we are hearing truly unplugged music, however it is shown on the television, and must be connected to amps which means that electronic technology has not truly been omitted in this case. Overall, I believe that popular music could never be truly unplugged.
Sunday, 31 January 2010
Sunday, 24 January 2010
What is Popular Music? Week One
The word popular has had many different meanings throughout history, ranging from vulgar and common, to widely favoured. Therefore it's difficult to determine what 'Popular Music' means. Some say that it means that the music is good, but how does this account for singles by artists such as Mr Blobby, reaching number one? Others may argue that popular music is accessible to the public, but in the example of 'Strange Orchestra – T Rex' we can see that it's not always accessible music that tops the charts. Robert Burnett, in his book Global Jukebox says 'when we speak of popular music, we speak of music that is commercially oriented' however, one may argue that when a musician first picks up their instrument, they aren't learning because they think it will make them rich. Overall, I believe that popular music means music that sells well at some point since it's release.