Are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in the study of popular music?

Barry Shank stated that ‘there should be no argument that the transformation in popular music that we associate with the rise and development of rock were the result of white fascination with black music’. But can this be true of today’s popular music with such genres of popular music such as bhangra, which is even played in clubs alongside r’n’b and hip-hop, who originated from India. Hebdige states that ‘since the 1950s there had always been some young white people living in the ghettoes alongside the immigrants who were interested in West Indian music’. This suggesting that blackness and whiteness are not useful concepts in the study of popular music as you cannot fix the start of popular music to one race and you cannot fix the trend of the present day to a particular race either as it is ever changing and it is becoming more multicultural with the influence of every culture in our society today.

Can popular music achieve genuine political change?

With Shuker’s suggestions that popular music can be ‘a means of raising both consciousness about and funds for, political causes’ it can be implied that popular music can have a hand in the awareness of politics to help a certain case but not enough of an affect to make a change by itself. ‘Popular music is hardly the preserve of the political left and broadly progressive politics. It can, and has been, used to support a broad range of political positions’, says Shuker. This again emphasizing that popular music can help a political party in its cause but cannot make the political change with just the use of the music. Or in the case of the Sex Pistols, with their song God Save the Queen, suggested anarchy and how they don’t agree with the way she handle’s the country, yet this popular song didn’t change the Queen being on the thrown.

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

The common assumption that new digital technology could destroy the recording industry is exemplified by the cover of Wired magazine (2/03). Playfully re-contextualizing Apple’s iTunes slogan, it shows a zeppelin going down in flames, and reads ‘Rip. Mix. Burn: The Fall of the Music Industry’ says Ian Condry. It is not a new situation that there is probably a decline in the music market since the emergence of digital download as the general moral in society seems to be “why pay for it when you can get it for free?” This notion can be seen attached to youngsters as the DRM are trying to teach them that downloading is stealing. Like Condry puts it: ‘the problem is cultural and the consequences are economic.” It seems that society today does not value the efforts made to create pieces of music, digital downloading is not necessarily the end for the music industry but it is definitely the reason for the downfall.