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Popular music today is quite different to what people listened to a decade ago or many eons back in the history of time. Even though it has often been argued out that the more things change the more they remain the same, music has by no means remained the same ever since it was first discovered in a very simple and primitive form. Music originated from the sounds of half-human progenitors during the courtship season. The most fascinating aspect about the exponential evolution of music is that although it grew differently in many parts of the world and mostly along distinct ethnic lines, it has in the end merged up to give few categories of music that cater for the diverse tastes and preferences of the human race. Originality of music is born when profiteers rack their brains to come up with what the people want to listen to. This is the beginning of the birth of different types of music. They are these marginalized types of music that this text will consider as popular music of the modern world with respect to the various tastes among different people which are caused most likely by age and the caliber of an individual in society.
The state of popular music today depends on the perspective of an individual. Most people will agree with me that the state of popular music today is out rightly bad, but again an equal number will tend to hail the opposite side of this. If we try to reason with the two groups and come up with a general conclusion, it would be satisfying enough to say that the state of popular music today is between good and bad. I would say that popular music is currently both bad and good but slightly more bad than good. Why do I say so? Apart from the major reason of entertaining, music has another crucial task of emancipating the masses. It is quite ironical that a shockingly large percentage of artistes in the music industry have discarded this significant duty. On the contrary, they have indulged in careless singing with less regard to the content of their songs.. Talking of being modern, there is a vast difference between being modern and singing modernized music. On the other hand, there are still those artistes who haven’t forgotten the significance of the content of their music to the outside world. What’s more, the rich variety of modern music has availed a wide choice of music for the listeners to choose from. With this regard, we can then infer that the more diverse the types of music, the more there is for a listener to choose from (Manuel 2).
As the situation is right now, I can’t say that there is a dominant style of music. There are countless music styles in the whole universe. Some of them are common because they are international while some of them are less known because they are local or regional. Although the hip hop style of music has come to be known as the most common, it faces stiff competition from other styles such as rock, jazz, acappella, ballads, and metalcore among many others. There is another upcoming habit where different styles of music have been merged to come up with another separate style that encompasses some of the properties of the two fused styles. Good examples of these are Afro-Beat, Afro-Pop and Blues-Rock. Most artistes that turn to this alternative do that for the sake of fame because a new style will be quite appealing to the masses who would want to break the monotony of listening to one style all through (Hamm 3).
As the situation is right now, I can’t say that there is a dominant style of music. There are countless music styles in the whole universe. Some of them are common because they are international while some of them are less known because they are local or regional. Although the hip hop style of music has come to be known as the most common, it faces stiff competition from other styles such as rock, jazz, acappella, ballads, and metalcore among many others. There is another upcoming habit where different styles of music have been merged to come up with another separate style that encompasses some of the properties of the two fused styles. Good examples of these are Afro-Beat, Afro-Pop and Blues-Rock. Most artistes that turn to this alternative do that for the sake of fame because a new style will be quite appealing to the masses who would want to break the monotony of listening to one style all through (Hamm 3).
Among a group of people in any category, there will always be some who are ranked higher than others basing on how they perform. The same applies to artistes. There are those whose music is deemed to be far better than that of their counterparts. An artiste’s longetivity is determined by the popularity of his songs among the people. The media may also help in making the singer famous but they are the people who carry the fate of all the musicians. Sites such as You tube have gone a long way in availing all the music at everybody’s convenience. Among the artistes that I have had a chance to listen to, there are some who may stay for a very long time in the music industry before the history of their songs are phased out. These are the artistes who have found great favor among the listeners and whose songs have topped Music charts worldwide. It is not only the popularity that matters but also the message contained in their songs (Everett 33).
Those artistes who sing about contemporary issues that affect the society are most likely to last longer than those whose are mainly centered on petty and unimportant themes. Various artistes such as Little Richard and Beethoven have lived to be remembered to this day although they died many years ago because of the impact of their songs on their fans. According to my own critical observation and analysis, only a few of the current artistes and bands will be able to be remembered for a lengthy period of time. Among these few are the likes of Westlife, who are a certain group of Blues musicians from Britain, and Stevie Wonder, who sings the same style and is from the United States of America. I have sampled out the two because the messages contained in their songs not only appeals to the people but is also relevant to the current issues that are facing the world. Another factor that is likely to erase the fame of an artiste almost as soon as he hits the top of music rankings is the high level of competition in the music industry. In other words, an artiste and his music may be forgotten if another artiste who sings much better using the same style gets into the industry. This has turned the music industry into a battlefield where various artistes fight to remain in good shape and secure their place on the stage (Tagg 37).
The type of music that one listens to is dictated by certain factors such as fashion and peer pressure. Due to this logic, I can’t say that I will be listening to what I am listening to now in a few years’ time. Each year, many different styles of music are being invented worldwide. I may find that the new style is an improvement of what I had been previously listening to. I will in this case have no good reason as to why I shouldn’t swiftly change over to the other style or better still, listen to both of them.
Crunk is a good example. This music style was introduced into the music industry in 1990s. It was a combination of hip hop and electro-funk. This is why most people who adore crunk love hip hop as well. It is therefore unpredictable but quite unlikely that you will find me dancing to the same tune I am dancing now twenty or so years from now. But since people can never be the same, let us look at a case where someone a die-hard fan of a particular style of music and is loyal to it in extraordinary manner. No matter how many better styles of music are invented, chances are that such a fellow will stick to the same style he or she has been listening to over the years. Such people fully agree that old is gold but new is platinum (Middleton 55).
There are quite a good number of sites that contain all types of music to the whole world. I get to know of music that is new to me from two sites. These are You Tube and KKBOX. I get updates on general new music from You Tube while KKBOX updates me on the mandarin beats. These are the sites that have helped me gain access to some of the newest songs in the market. I am a member of both the sites above. The privilege one has as a member is freedom to comment on the songs. I also occasionally look at my Itune rankings to see which songs are most popular. But most importantly is that am recommended to listen to songs by my friends. I can’t imagine how the present music industry would look like without these music sites and friends because all the fame and ubiquitous knowledge of music is attributed to them (Middleton 59).
In a nutshell, the world of popular music is full of much life and activity. It is by far the most promising sector in the modern world and this is the reason as to why the music industry is currently streaming with upcoming artistes from all walks of life. Furthermore, popular music keeps changing with fashion trends and time. It is also true that the state of popular music is unstable in that you never really know what to expect and from who. Gone are the days when all songs focused on one theme: Love. It is therefore up to an individual to find a place to fit in.
Works Cited
Everett, Walter. Swallowed by a Song: Paul Simon’s Crisis of Chromaticism, Understanding Rock: Essays in Musical Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Hamm, Charles. Yesterdays: Popular Song in America. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979.
Manuel, Peter. Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey. New York: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Middleton, Richard. Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1990/2002.
Tagg, Philips. “Analyzing Popular Music: Theory, Method and Practice.” In Middleton, R. & Horn, D. (eds.): Popular Music 2. Cambridge, 1982. 31- 67.
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