What Is World Music?

In basic terms world music could be defined as music that is none Anglo-American, sung in a foreign language, using local and indigenous sounds to compose music associated with that country. However local music cannot simply be associated with national cultural identities. Due to the monopoly that Anglo-American music has over the world it is impossible that these do not influence local music. World music now seems to overlap local or traditional music with global music. It could also be argued that the term ‘world music’ was used by music shops to categorize music that doesn’t fit the norm, making it easier to sell. Many ‘global’ bands incorporate world music into their songs in the form of African drums for example, yet this is not classified as world music due to the fact that it is sung in English or composed in an Anglo-American way. 

Is Popular Music A Mass Produced Commodity Or A Genuine Art Form?

It can be said that popular music is both a mass produced commodity and a genuine art form, as it can be argued that art is a mass-produced commodity as well as an art form. Chart music is commonly seen as a mass-produced commodity, with artists and producers churning out similar bands with similar songs. The bands are not only selling their songs and albums, they are selling merchandise, clothes, concert tickets and posters making them a brand and a commodity. Art can also be classified in this way when looking at the vast amount of prints, calendars, magnets and postcards selling one image or an artist’s work. However, they both contain genuine art forms as well. The art in music is the composing and performing of the music itself, and the capturing of an image or idea through painting or sculpting or other forms is art, causing the line between what is art and mass produce to become obscure.

How Useful Is Peterson’s Production Of Culture Perspective In Understanding The Birth Of Rock and Roll?

According to Peterson, the six factors that shaped the emergence of rock and roll music in the 1950s range from the copyright law passed in 1909, the invention of vinyl records in the late 1940s through to the transistor radio and its effects on the American Youth.

Peterson explains how the transistor gave the American Youth the chance to listen to their own music away from their parents for the first time. He also explains how radio presenters began to transform into DJs trying to sell the station by making their own unique personalities. However Peterson fails to mention Rock music itself. How simple guitar rifts made it easy for budding musicians to play, unlike R&B and Jazz. He also fails to mention how the instruments had changed so dramatically in a short space of time, giving Rock its own unique sound, constituting the reader to question other factors in the birth of Rock and Roll.   

What Is Popular Music?

The term 'popular' has changed its meaning throughout the centuries. In the 16th Century it was used as a term meaning, 'low or base, vulgar, of the common people.' During the 18th Century it became a meaning for 'widely favoured', and theorist Anahid Kassabian classes 'popular' as 'the art and culture of the people.' 

With these terms in mind it becomes hard to classify what popular music is. It doesn't have to mean one genre of music, such as Pop music or a certain type of band for example, girl and boy bands. Popular music in my opinion signifies the music that is liked by a group of people, how ever large that group may be. As Ray Shuker suggests, 'all popular music consists of a hybrid of musical traditions, styles and influences, and is also an economic product which is invested with ideological significance by many of its consumers.'