Does the emergence of the digital download siganl the end of the music indistry?

I don’t believe the emergence of the digital download signal the end of the music industry however it is something to be debated. With the emergence of new technologies business’ need to adapt and take measures to keep up with their market. If the industry and it’s artists loose profits due to the decline in record sales then other areas of the saleable market need to be utilised – concert sales, brand endorsements, fashion lines and such other business deals. Artists and record companies have started to realise this and artists such as Lady GaGa (who has just gone Diamond) supply the whole commercial package – larger than life shows and costumes that entice fans to buy albums just to see the artwork on the cover and the pictures inside. In conclusion I think this just spells a big change for the music industry In that they will have to be shrewder in their business approach – which also means that smaller bands with less financial backing and business support may fall behind leaving us with an industry full of commercial bigwigs.

How useful id the Production of Culture perspective for understanding the birth of Rock n Roll

Having studied Cultural Studies last year I feel that the production of culture model is a useful tool in analysing the emergence of any new youth / popular culture. Often when looking at new cultures, musical or not it is easy to overlook the actual social, economic and political circumstances of the time that conditioned the movement – it would not be a proper analysis of the emergence of Hip-Hop if the researcher did not take into consideration the troubles of Afro-Americans during the late 1970’s and 1980’s.
However one element that the model fails to understand is the actual style and sound of the music – individual artistic expression is not considered to be a deciding factor in the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll which is why, I believe the model cannot be the only tool used to understand the birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll but a useful nether the less - for any study of popular culture is incomplete without studying the culture in its wider, more determining context of general political economy – for whatever else pop culture may be, it is deeply embedded in capitalist, for-profit mass production.

Is it reasonable to consider Rock music as gendered male?

Rock is a musical genre that has always been dominated by males. From the sexual lyrics of Elvis Presley to the grungy, sometimes sadistic sounds of Nirvana it is undoubtedly a mystical world that females just cant seem to penetrate, unless of course they are willing to be stripped of all femininity and become ‘one of the boys’ – Mavis Bayton, ‘Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender’ (1997), (Chapter: Women and the Electric Guitar).
In my opinion asking if it is reasonable to consider Rock music is gendered male is like asking if it is reasonable to consider Action Man to be a boy’s toy – like most things Rock music has been socially constructed and assigned a gender – in this case male. We make sense of the world by categorising and putting things in boxes - making order. Rock is considered masculine as its sounds and lyrics are brash, loud and in your face – everything that women are traditionally seen not to be. When women enter the burley world of Rock music it shakes up and blurs the boundaries of traditional gender roles, so in conclusion I believe it is essential for most people to consider Rock as masculine to comply with their own view of the world and their role in it as a man or a woman.

What is Pop Music?

Originally I would have answered, without much thought, that pop music generally consists of commercially orientated and manufactured 'bands' and 'artists' such as Britney Spears and Hearsay. Realising that that is quite an ignorant definition I have toyed with many other ideas namely that pop music is mass produced and mass consumed and therefore must be the music and musical styles that are most accessible to the widest audience and not constricted to ant type of genre or style. It is completely flexible and depends on time, culture and social ambience - the free-spirited lyrics and rhythms of post war Rock 'n' Roll suited the feeling of celebration and victory - quite unlike the later more serious lyrics of John Lennon popular during the revolutions and anti war protests of the 1960s. Roy Shuker confirms this notion commenting '[pop music] is an economic product which is invested with ideological significance.' - Understanding Popular Music, (2001). p.7, Routledge.