Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

Unplugged music means music that doesn’t use technology.

In today’s society it is very difficult to do many things without the aid of some technology. In music terms this includes things like recording equipment, sound technology and electronic instruments.

In order to make music ‘popular’ it has to be distributed and this is extremely hard without the aid of technology. It would be much more difficult for the artist to record the songs and hard for it to reach a wide audience in order to make it popular. Some genres of music also heavily rely on technology to give them their desired sounds that make them unique. Although some argue ‘popular’ music can be unplugged demonstrated by live bands and acoustic artists, there is often still some technology involved. In a liver performance a singer would need a microphone in order for the audience to hear over the other instruments that in most cases also use technology such as an amplifier. There are some exceptions however such as freestyle music and some rap but this is often aimed at a smaller audience but if recorded would still use technology if it was put onto CDs.

What is world music and why does it exist?

World music is often very difficult to define and it relates to the argument about what is local or global music. These categories over link and it is very difficult to define whether a band or artist is either local or global. Jocelyne Guilbault argues that World music was once thought of as any thing that came from outside the

“Anglo-American sources, and mainly from tropical countries”

(Guilbault, world music, pg 176) she later states that this has now expanded to some of Europe. She later states that

“….world music is usually described the as blending of modern and traditional
musics”

(Guilbault, world music, pg 177) Despite this it has been argued that countries such as America and England have become damaging to world music as they are increasingly selling it, in many music shops World music has its own section. This is because these other countries now have the technology to develop and sell music which then finds its way to places like America. Some argue this is taking it away from its local routes, however others argue that this is a positive thing as more people will get to experience it, and it will always have its local routes.

Is popular music a mass produced commodity or a genuine art form?

To first determine whether music is an art form we first have to define what is meant by art. This is very complicated as many people have a different opinion. For this I believe art is anything that is an expression, maybe somebody’s feelings, that can be interpreted in a million different ways by many different people. This is the same for music in some people’s opinions as music has an effect on many people and like art lyrics are usually written at that moment and have specific meanings to the writer. These meanings may be interpreted differently however by others. On the other hand Adorno argues that music is simply as mass produced commodity that just feeds the capitalist people only to keep them satisfied and to stop them from “questioning social life” Although his critique was based on Jazz it can be applied to today’s ‘popular’ music. However art can also be mass produced for example that Andy Warhol pieces. Music will still continue to influence people all over the world.