Are Blackness and Whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?

In the early 20th century, black and white music had more relevance than it does today. Labels such as Okeh created music especially for black people branded 'Race Records'. Although this music was marketed towards black people it is likely that many white people purchased this music.

Some music has been more widely associated to a particular race, for example Gospel. This is often due to culture, religion or class rather than race.

John Tagg said the idea that black and white music exists is ideological, not only does the implied dictiology pre-ordain certain sets of feeling and behavior for one race and deny then to the other, it also turns overriding question of class into a matter of race (1989).

Overall, I don't believe that blackness and whiteness are useful in the study of popular music.

Can Popular Music Achieve Genuine Political Change?

Music is often used to try and send out important messages, such as anti racism and anti capitalism etc. It can also we used in the opposite way by extreme political groups, for example Resistance Records have produced records that praise Hitler's ideas.

Frith, Straw and Street (2001) said 'pop becomes the expression of its political and social context'.

Music has also been used to raise awareness and money for issues such as poverty, in the example of Live Aid and Band Aid. Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas sold around 10 million copies and raised 8 million pounds to help people living in poverty. This example makes me believe that political change is possible through music, perhaps not on a large scale to stop poverty or any other issue all together, but to help towards the change of these issues.

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

The advance in technology over the past few decades has caused a major change in the music industry and the way that we consume music. With the rise of iPods and iTunes, came the decrease in the need for CDs, as it became easier and cheaper to download music from the internet. It also became easy for people to download music for free with file sharing sites such as Limewire.

These days, record companies are losing out on millions of sales due to people illegally downloading their tracks, sometimes before their release date due to leakages. I do not believe that this signals the end of the music industry, it just means that there will have to be major changes in order for it to stay alive. itune's success proves that there are still people buying music, and as long as this continues the music industry will survive.

(the link I took down didn't work! I must have written it down wrong is there any chance you can write it in the reply, as I can't get into uni until Wednesday and would like to take a look. Thanks and sorry!!)

What is World Music?

World music is different from both international music and local music. I believe that international music is music or artists that are popular in the majority of countries around the world. Local music is music that has not yet broken through into the rest of the world, such as bands that play in their local pubs and clubs. World music is different all together, it is music that is traditional to a country or culture. This may include Indian raga music and Japanese koto music etc. In music shops there is often a seperate section for World music similar to the World cinema section for films. World music has influenced many popular artists, and is often included in popular tracks we hear in the charts today. Some artists styles combine popular genres with world music such as the band Skindred which is a reggae-rock band.