Is The Audience For Popular Music Created By The Music Industry?

The music industry has a huge influence over what music the produced and heard by the public, therefore the audience for popular music is at the very least affected by the music industry. This is due to the fact that record companies want to maximize sales, therefore follow music trends, and discourage creativity as this may harm their profits. In doing this it can be argued that the popular music audience itself is essentially being created by the music industry. With the major record labels such as EMI, Universal and Warner holding a monopoly in the market some suggest that due to the music trends ‘recordings generally sound the same, with some variation’ Ibid , meaning that more experimental music is harder to come by as small labels have a lot less money to produce with meaning that they cannot afford records to fail unlike the big labels who claim ‘for every hit song..there are 10 recordings that make no significant commercial impact’

...Mojo...

Priced at a hefty £4.20 Mojo is for the more discerning reader. Yet you do not feel short changed when you finally turn over the last page. Mojo is packed full of impressive interviews with some of the worlds greats such as Led Zeppelin, The Doors and The Band. However Mojo incorporate more modern music for the readers to become accustomed to with the likes of The Arctic Monkeys gracing the pages. The magazine seems to aim itself at middle-aged men, who grew up with the likes of The Doors and are trying to get into more modern music to impress or shock their children with, and Mojo offers the perfect balance. Every issue presents numerous music reviews of new and old cds to help bulk up you’re collection or to find new bands. Adverts vary from promotions from Abbot Ale to The Samaritans, incase you fancy a drink while helping out others. Mojo has been a top selling music publication since its release in 1993 and sales are strong, proving the £4.20 price tag doesn’t put people off if the content is worth it. It seems as though it is.