Popular Music in America - Essay Example

Popular Music in America Introduction The impact of technology has been invariably felt across most segments of human life ranging from education, entertainment, medicine just to mention a few; nevertheless, there are few areas where technology has had as significant effect as in the music industry. In the course of the last 5 decades, virtually every aspect of music has undergone a paradigm shift riding on the wave of technological developments and making the two inseparable in a myriad ways. Retrospectively, musicians would play music on their instruments and record it in any one of the few exclusive studios which would then edit the music before recording it in audio or video tapes and distributing it to the fan base. Granted that the process involved technology since even the now archaic sounding process was technologically advanced at the time, today’s technological advances have revolutionized the scene completely. A musician has the choice of using instruments or using electronically produced music or beats, in addition, instead of a studio, there is a variety of software they could use to record their music even from their home pc.1 The marketing of the music is also not done exclusively on hardware and indeed most of today’s music produces sell their music via the internet on sites such as iTunes and are paid online as well. This essay will provide a detailed discussion of some of the major changes that technology has occasioned in the music industry both in the creation distribution and marketing of music as well as the impact to the industry and society in general. The electric guitar is perhaps the most important popular “landmark” in the advent of modern technology into the music industry, using a pickup system of electric sounds, the guitar senses vibrations from the strings and transmits them as electric signal the final product is a wave equal to that of the string. This was and still is used to enhance the quality of music my combining the electronic techno with traditional tools.2 Over the years, music instruments have gradually become more technology oriented and digital music production has gained prominence, today there are several genres of music such as rap (partly), techno and house music where the beats are exclusively generated by computers. The rapidly growing power or sound producing devices coupled with their increasing affordability has facilitated the separation of instruments in to categories such as controller and synthesizers. The implication herein is that today one does not need to have a wide array of instruments such a pianos, guitars harmonicas and others so as to produce music. With a simple personal computer installed with the latest music generating software many of which are available for cheaply if not freely online, one can actually create musical beats with much less the same dynamism that could be achieved by using the convectional tools. The Android app store also allows users to download a variety of virtual instruments such as keyboards and guitars, while the concept is still new and not very well developed, several musicians have actually produced whole songs though their smartphones using this downloadable instruments. Before the 70’s music had to be recorded either on low quality tape recorders or very big an expensive reel to reel machines, the latter were however exclusively for the use of professional studio or rich musicians owing to their prohibitive costs. Gradually, technology allowed the studio to be simplified in the late 70s with a portastudio with multitrack tape recorders, which became widely available, and affordable, later digital recorders supplanted the analogue audio devices.3 The digital audio workstations have with time morphed and been condensed eliminating all the extra hardware and today for non-professional recording, one only needs a personal computer with a high quality sound card, hardware audio interface and editing software such as Adour and pro tools. Despite the fact that professional studios still use a variety of complex hardware and software applications to record music, it is worth noting that a large part of their job involves digitally editing and manipulating music. Through technological tools, it is possible for music producers to control the music and make virtually unlimited changes by cutting out adding and fusing and experimenting with different beats and chords ultimately producing much better quality music that was possible in retrospect. Music and the internet The internet is without doubt on of the most dominant technological forces and the connectivity it offers across geopolitical boarders has helped globalize music invariably increasing the latitude of musicians and their influence on a global scale. Before the internet’s advert, only the best and most popular musicians were known outside their zones of operations and even then their music was limited by geographical factors. Today, teens in Asia Africa and Europe comprise the fan base of many of Americas musicians such as Bon Jovi and R-Kelly despite the fact that many of them have never attended their concerts or seen them perform anywhere in person. Yet they have access to their latest songs and albums which they buy and download online with just as much currency as the American fan base does. Many artists and music produces have realized the importance of the internet as a marketing and publicity tool and they have therefore made their music available online. CDs and DVDs which were the music storage devices of the 21st century are quickly losing ground to internet based storage based on cloud computing and online music stored. There is every possibility that in the next few years, although this depends on how fast internet connectivity and access grows, the mainstream media for storing music will be the internet. The exposure to a diverse range of musical genres has facilitated fusing and borrowing of which has enriched the music produced at the end of the day since artist are influenced and inspired by a numerous of sounds. Today for instance, African musicians such as Nigeria’s D, Banj fuse their afro techniques with elements of jazz and RnB owing to the permeation of the western sounds into the continent. In the past, producing and publishing music could only take place in complicated and expensive studios and many aspiring musicians were locked out owing to the prohibitive cost and the unavailability of studio time. Today, as aforementioned all one needs is a personal computer with sizable storage, a microphone and studio softwares some which are freely available on the internet and they can produce their own music. Some of the most popular music genres today are developed exclusively on a technology platform, take for instance techno and house music, the beats are generated through computers. Despite skeptics claiming that the only good music was what was made through “real” instruments, the popularly of individuals like David Guetta and groups such as the Swedish House Mafia is evidence that digital music is just as powerful if not more than traditional music. Technology has invariably had numerous and far reaching effects on music in regard to performance production, marketing and audience access, furthermore, music is able to grow and develop even after the musicians have stopped singing or passed away. Last year, Tupac fans were able to watch him live in concert performing with snoop dog in a well synched and very realistic show despite the fact that the icon has been dead for several years. This was achieved through the use of digital technology to create a hologram of the artist in 3D, several others have been similarly resurrected and one can reasonably argue that in future, death needs not be an end to an artist’s career; figuratively speaking. Negative Impacts Nevertheless, despite the positive elements that technology has inculcated into the industry there are myriad downsides to the combination of the two concepts, the most overt being piracy which has seen the earnings of many musicians hit rock bottom owing to illegal reproduction of their music. Before the digital CDs, the only piracy that took place was when radio stations failed to compensate artist for playing their music since vinyl disks and cassette tapes were impossible and difficult to copy respectively. However digital disks such as hard disks and CDs are relatively easy to duplicate without compromising the quality of the music, online music can also be copied and redistributed to millions often at no cost thus severely undercutting the artist and producers. Online music downloading has become a trend but millions of the downloads are done on websites that do not charge the consumer nor compensate the artist; in-fact online piracy is probably the most commonly committed crime globally since every time one downloads music they are engaging on an illegal activity. While from in individual point of view it may not seem like a big deal, the collective results of millions of free downloads by fans is estimated by the institute of policy intonation to cost the US economy alone over $12.5 billion annually, 70,000 jobs and over $billion in lost wages annually.4 Ironically, the fans are killing the music industry since by accessing music without paying for it; they limit the growth of many musicians who often end up giving up on a musical career because they fail to get benefits commensurate to their productivity.5 A demonstration of the problem that faces artists and recording companies trying to make money from online music sales can be evidenced by examining the Lala business model cases study. The Pala Alto based firm which was launched in 2007 gives fans two options to access and pay for music, they can either pay 99 cents per song downloaded or 10 cents to listen to the song from a web host without downloading it to their PC.6 Besides, they can also stream songs in the catalogue without pay and maintain a collection of up to 50 songs in their virtual playlist. However, despite what would appear to be a generous and reasonable offer, fans have demonstrated a surprising reluctance to pay for music, statistics from the firm show that users stream over 1000 songs. Nevertheless, they only pay the 99 cents fee for only 72 of the songs, 108 are played for 10 cents and the remaining 820 free.7 While conceding that the global latitude that the internet allows for music access is vital in promoting global cultural diversity, some of the content in the music, more so videos by western musicians spreads negative and retrogressive culture. Many of the music videos especially by American artist portray extreme nudity and sexually explicit content as well as promoting violent behavior and offensive language. As a result one of the cultural products America exports to the rest of the world is a culture of immorality and hedonistic attitudes depicted on the videos. Many of the popular music videos target teens and young children who are impressionable and are more likely to attempt to copy what they see on the videos. Consequently, owing to cultural dictates on modesty in some countries around the world, some of the music by American pop stars is not allowed as it is seen to propagate immorality. This means that the music industry, instead of serving as a tool for promoting global unity and harmony has been turned into a tool for cultural subversion owing partly to the extreme content and virtually unlimited global access. Summary At the end of the day, it is undeniable that technology has had immeasurable impact on the music industry and will no doubt continue to play a significant role in posterity. Today, the creation, publishing and music supply chain are dependent on technology and the fan base has been substantially widened. Anyone can make produce and market their music from their own home although the level of professionalism will be likely lower; technology has opened up the music industry both for performers and consumers. Nevertheless, it is but a neutral tool which can be used for good or evil, as evinced above, technology has had numerous negative effects on the stakeholders in the music industry primarily the performers, producers and the fans. Piracy which is easily the most pressing problems in the industry is facilitated by the same technology which has developed the industry; therefore steps need to be taken to ensure that the gains that have been made in the industry so far are not negated by misuse of technology. Works Cited MacMillan, Douglas. The Music Industry's New Internet Problem. Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 2009 Web. 21 Nov. 2013. http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2009-03-06/the-music-industrys-new-internet-problembusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice Nathans, Stephen F. "Sony VAIO Digital Studio PCV-RX790." Emedia 16.1 (2003): 60.  Resnikoff, Paul. “Technology Didn’t Kill the Music Industry. The Fans Did”. Digital Music News. 2013. Web 21 Nov. 2013. http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/11/14/technologydidntfans Rex, Ed. "Technology Making Music." The Spectator. Feb 09 2013ProQuest. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. Siwek, Stephen. “The True Cost of Sound Recording Piracy to the U.S. Economy” Institute for policy innovation. 2013. Web. 21 Nov. 2013 http://www.ipi.org/ipi_issues/detail/the-true-cost-of-sound-recording-piracy-to-the-us-economy Read More