Music

In Context

In this article I will be discussing
music in different contexts, how it
has been affected and changed
through time and specific details
which contribute to certain genres.
The 1970s were a key period of time
for music as this was when the disco
genre began. Disco is dance music
and was derived from the elements

in funk, soul, pop and salsa. It also

came about due to the gay culture in
New York at the time, being the main
audience to disco music in clubs, as
well as also being a reaction against
both rock music and dance music
which was involved in the hippie
counterculture movement.

Famous artists from the disco genre
are Donna Summer (I Feel Love, Hot
Stuff, Love to Love You Baby), The
Bee Gees (Stayin Alive, How Deep Is
Your Love, Night Fever), KC and the
Sunshine Band (Thats the Way I
Like It, Give It Up, Shake Your Booty)
and Chic (Le Freak, Everybody
Dance, Good Times).
Disco was a powerful genre of music,
in my opinion, as it has made a big
influence on todays music. As well
as it not only having an influence to
the popular music of its time but it
also had an influence on fashion,
with platform shoes, flares, hot
pants, sequins and a lot of bright
colours. Disco also had an influence
on film, examples being; Saturday

Night Fever, Thank God Its Friday

and Skatetown U.S.A.
Coming to the end of the 1970s to
the early 1980s, contemporary r&b
came about in America, made up of
elements of rhythm and blues,
dance, pop, soul, funk and hip hop.
Michael Jackson was one of the first
to make the crossover from the disco
era into the beginning of
contemporary r&b (Rhythm &
Blues), which in the beginning was
heavily influenced by pop music
because of Michael Jackson and
other artists such as; Janet Jackson,
Whitney Houston, etc.
Janet Jacksons album Control,
released in 1986, was actually a very
big influence to r&b as
it was the first time
anyone had heard
disco, funk, rap, synths
and electronic drums
mixed together.

Moving into the 90s
were artists such as
Boyz II Men (Ill Make
Love To You, End of
the Road, On Bended Knee), R. Kelly
(Ignition, Bump n Grind, The
Worlds Greatest) and Whitney
Houston (I Wanna Dance With
Somebody, I Have Nothing, My Love
is Your Love). Continuing into the
2000s and music
today
more
examples of r&b
artists are; Beyonc
(Crazy in Love,
Irreplaceable, Sweet Dreams), Alicia
Keys (No One, Fallin, You Dont
Know My Name) and John Legend
(Ordinary People, So High, Green
Light).
Contemporary r&b has had a big
influence in music, so much so that

its still progressing throughout

music today influencing pop, such as
music from Rihanna, Bruno Mars,
Frank Ocean, Pharell Williams etc. I
think it will continue to thrive and
evolve throughout many more future
generations.

Disco history
Disco started off the very wide genre
of dance music, as it was heavily
played in clubs in the 70s, which
meant disco is what everyone would
dance to.
There are many events and factors
which lead to the birth of disco
starting in 1933 which was when
nightclubs became popular in
America, where people would dance
to swing music. Moving on to 1939 a
German group, enthusiastic about
jazz and swing music, called The
Swing Kids would all come together
to show the colourful and elaborate
jazz fashions and dance moves. The
creation of The Swing Kids was in
reaction to the Nazi movement at the
time, as to them jazz was seen as a
bad influence. There were many
specific laws restricting music and

what could be played, as seen below;

Also, in France at the time jazz was
banned so resistance groups would
meet in underground clubs, which
were called discotheques.
A few years later in 1942 a basement
nightclub in Paris was opened called
La
Discotheque,
the
word
discotheque in Europe meant a club
that did not play any live music.
After that in 1947 was when one of
the first known nightclubs opened,
named Whiskey A-Go-Go, which in
1953 hosted a night where the DJ (DJ
Regine), used two turntables, had no
breaks in the music playing and
there were coloured lights and a
dance floor.
Coming to the end of the 1950s in
London, Soho coffee bars became the
place to be for younger people who
wanted to dance in the afternoon.
Although for the rock and roll
hipsters at this time they preferred
bars and taverns, nightclubs werent
popular.
In 1962 a discotheque called the
Peppermint Lounge in New York
was the place to be seen, the twist
was very popular at this time and
people would dance with or
without a partner. The
Peppermint Lounge was also
known as the birthplace of go-
go dancing because of women
dancing the twist on tables. At
this time in the UK, Manchester
at The Twisted Earle, Roger
Earle created the root of
northern soul music, which had
a big influence on disco music.


The mid sixties was
when more clubs
started opening in
New York including;
Regines, Cheetah, Le
Club and Arthur's
Figure 1 - owner of Arthur
Nightclub dancing inside
the club

which was the place known to be

where DJ Terry Noel first mixed
records. Meanwhile, in Europe the
euro disco scene was beginning as
the songs Hold Me Closer and Baby
Come Back by The Equals became
hits.

In 1969, Only the Strong Survive by
Jerry Butler was released, this song
had the philly sound which was
later a very big part of what made up
disco music.
Clubs in the late 1960s to early
1970s in New York would gain a
diverse crowd of people as they
entertained
hipsters,
Latinos,
African Americans, the gay and
lesbian scene and people of the
psychedelic culture. The disco scene
was also a reaction against the white
rock music, which was heavily
popular in America at the time.
For women the 1970s was a
historical time especially linked with
disco as the pill started being
prescribed to not only older women
with families who did not want any
more children but it was also being
prescribed in family planning clinics
to younger women, which was
controversial, but it started a big
step forward for women as it gave
them a certain amount of freedom.

Figure 2 - Group of women protesting in the 1970's

As well as this, feminism was being

talked about more and more in
casual conversation and with these
big events for women at the time
this meant that women had the

freedom to go out and dress up in

the new disco fashions, un-
chaperoned, and disco nightclubs is
where they would go.
Much of the Disco culture also came
from the hippy scene with things like
drugs, colourful fashion, psychedelia
and free love.
There are many songs, which have a
hint of disco sound in them before
the height of the disco era, a few are;
You Keep Me Hangin On by The
Supremes, Message To Love by Jimi
Hendrixs Band of Gypsys and Keep
On Truckin by Eddie Kendricks.

Disco reached TV in 1971, with the
TV dance show Soul Train and in 73
the first ever article written about
disco was published by Vince Aletti
for Rolling Stone. Also in 1973, a
woman called Karen Lustgarten
introduced disco dance lessons in
San Francisco
and
also
published
a
book;
The
Complete Guide
to
Disco
Dancing, which
was the first
book to ever
teach
the
popular disco moves. The book was
so popular that it became a best
seller and was translated into
several other languages. This was
also around the time when specific
dance moves were choreographed
for specific vocals and sounds of
disco music. Many different dances
became popular and associated with
disco in the 70s such as the Hustle,
Mambo and the Salsa.

The height of the disco era was
between 1974-1977 where disco
gained a rapid popularity and songs
from the genre were topping charts.

In 1977 the film

Saturday Night Fever
was released, which
was when disco fever
was at its peak. The
film was a huge
success
and
its
soundtrack,
mostly
from the Bee Gees,
became one of the best-selling
albums of all time.
By the late 1970s disco had become
the sound of mainstream pop, even
non-disco artists began to record
disco arrangements, like Perry Como
and Ethel Merman.

The disco fashion
came hand in
hand with the
music, it was a
very big part of
going out to
nightclubs
to
dance to disco
songs but also
dress up with
fashions such as,
hot pants, three
piece suits, platform shoes, flares,
wrap dresses, boob tubes and a lot of
colour and glitter.
It was in the very
late 1970s that the
popularity of disco
decreased and the
music and fashion
was replaced with
punk rock.


R&b history
Moving back to r&b, it originated
towards the end of the 1940s but
its musical style has changed quite
dramatically from then until now.
When it started out r&b was a
popular African American style of
music, around this time was when

rocking jazz type music with a heavy

beat was gaining popularity. In the
1950s-70s typical rhythm and blues
bands would usually play with a
piano, guitar, bass, drums, a
saxophone
and
occasionally
background vocalists, the lyrics
would often describe pain and
freedom, influenced by early blues
music from black slaves in America.
Throughout time the term Rhythm
and Blues has not had a set
meaning, first off in the early 50s it
was used to describe blues records,
in the mid 50s it referred to music
that incorporated electric blues,
gospel and soul, in the 70s it was
used to refer to funk and soul and in
the 80s a new style of R&B became
popular, called contemporary r&b
which has elements of rhythm and
blues, soul, funk, hip hop, dance and
pop, which is more what r&b is
known as today.
As music was fading out of the swing
period and into when r&b was
becoming
popularized,
artists
performed in smaller groups and
emphasizing the heavy blues vocals
and structure of the song, a lot of the
same instruments were still being
used but the loudness of bass and
electric guitars really added to the
early sound of r&b.
When R&B was starting out in New
Orleans it took influence from Cuban
rhythms such as the Rhumboogie
by Bob Zurke, which had a tresillo
bass line, tresillo refers to a three-
note pattern that repeats itself.



The first time the
tresillo was used
in r&b was by
Dave
Bartholomew in
his song Country

Boy, which shows a small part of

Afro-Cuban music influenced r&b
music.
It was in 1949 that
Billboard replaced
the race music
category with the
Rhythm and Blues
term; the no.1 r&b
song for most of that year was The
Huckle-Buck by Paul Williams,
which was described as a raunchy
song. Paul Williams and his
Hucklebuckers concerts were often
quite riotous events, which had to be
shut down.

In 1951, Johnny Otis managed to get
ten songs in the top ten including
number ones, Cupids Boogie,
Double Crossing Blues and
Mistrustin Blues. In July of the
same year a DJ called Alan Freed
began to broadcast a late night radio
show, called The Moondog Rock Roll
House Party, which played rhythm
and blues music but Alan Freed soon
started to refer to it as rock and roll
music. In the same year of 1951,
Richard Penniman (Little Richard)
began recording music in the jump
blues style, influenced by Roy Brown
and Billy White, but after he made a
demo in 1954 and Specialty
Records record company heard a
demo, they took him on to produce a
new kind of funky, upbeat R&B style
of music with tracks like Long Tall
Sally and Tutti Frutti. These songs
would later on inspire the likes of
Elvis Presley and James Brown.
1954 was also the year that saw the
first R&B hit crossover into the top
ten with Sh-Boom by The Chords,
and another song later in the year
that also crossed into the top twenty
was Hearts of Stone by The Charms.
Artists like Ruth Brown, Ray Charles,
The Drifters and The Coasters

dominated 50s r&b. Around this

time was when r&b turned into soul
music that was more funky and
relaxed compared to the solid beat
in classic r&b. Soul became the term
to describe a wide range of r&b
styles.

Into the 60s the r&b style of music
was still very prominent within soul
music, but the diversity of it grew
even more as it reached different
parts of America producing different
sounds and eventually different
styles of soul. In New York, Chicago
and Philadelphia the style of r&b
focused heavily on vocal call and
response and a smooth feel to the
music. In Detroit however, music
was much more influenced by the
pop genre as well as being
influenced by r&b, gospel and rock n
roll. Whereas in the South of the US
music became much tougher and
more raw sounding, using more
uncommon rhythms, prominent
sounding horns and very raw vocals.
All these different styles of music
were described as Soul, which ruled
the charts in the 60s even crossing
over into the pop
charts.
In the same period
of time, Motown
`records had its
first single which
sold one million
copies, which was The Miracles
Shop Around.

Across the 60s and 70s Soul music
began to stream off into more
individual genres with artists such
as Sly Stone and James Brown (I Got
You (I Feel Good)) developing funk
and
other
artists
like
Leon Huff (Get
Down with the

Philly Sound), Kenny Gamble (The

Jokes on You) and the OJays (Love
Train) creating music called Philly
Soul. Later on dance r&b became
another style of very popular music
branching off of soul music.
At the same time as all this Soul
music happening in America in the
70s, in Britain, rock music in pubs
was also influenced by r&b, as was
the mod revival, which started in the
late 70s.
Coming into the 80s and 90s, hip-
hop music was popularizing
amongst mainly the youth of
America and the term r&b was
starting to be associated with groups
of
very
high
profile
artists/producers who would create
big R&B hits. By this time it had
become harder to sell and hear r&b
music because of the rise of hip-hop,
but some r&b artists adopted the
hip-hop image to keep popularity
and would also even feature rappers
on their tracks in the style of hip-
hop.
The 90s was where
the contemporary
r&b started from
with new artists
around such as;
Usher (You Make Me
Wanna), Mary J Blige (Family Affair),
R Kelly (Bump n Grind), Boyz II Men
(End of the Road) and TLC (No
Scrubs). This type of music is what
we associate the term r&b with now.

In Britain many bands took influence
from r&b music but it ended up
forming a very different sound as to
what was heard in America, there
were generally more guitars and
often more energy. The bands took
the influence with them when
moving on from the genre eventually
then influencing the sound of rock
and psychedeilia.

Different influences on musical
genres
Now I will be talking about how
there are a lot of different factors,
which can explain sudden urges in
specific genres of music at certain
times. For example, rave music. The
first rave ever took place in Chicago
but later most raves took place in the
UK, starting in Manchester. Raves
started out as an underground
movement where a huge amount of
like minded people would get
together and dance to different types
of electronic music, influenced by
the acid house genre, usually also on
some type of drug. Raves were more
than just people dancing to music;
there was also a fashion, laser lights
and an open mindedness that came
along with the rave culture.

Figure 3 - Underground rave in the 1980's

By the time the 90s came around

house music, acid music, old school
jungle, electronica and techno music
ere all being played at raves. Lots of

big events would gather thousands

of people, anywhere up to 25,000.
Rave parties have been described to
be similar to football matches, as
they provided a setting where
people were unified. British
politicians at the time did not
respond well to the emerging rave
scene and began to fine people
holding rave events. Because of the
new law enforcement, rave parties
started to move more to the
countryside. There was a new law in
1994 stating that a gathering on
land in the open air of 20 or more
persons (whether or not
trespassers) at which amplified
music is played during the night
(with or without intermissions)
and is such as, by reason of its
loudness and duration and the
time at which it is played, is likely
to cause serious distress to the
inhabitants of the locality.(1)
Here is some footage of new years
day 1993 after a countryside rave.

Many people attended raves because
of different reasons explaining the
surge of popularity. One reason is
because there was a decrease in
employment at the time, the lowest
rate of employment in nearly a
decade. Also, because at this time
Margaret Thatcher was in power,
her government weakened the
power of unions in the 80s making it
hard to strike legally, so I think that
raves were a way of rebelling against
authority at the time. So politics and
the social culture of what was going
on at this time can explain why there
would be a sudden surge of
popularity in rave music and the
rave scene.
Another factor that can actually
influence the popularity of music
genres is religion. For example,
Rastafarianism has been a massive

credit to the popularity of reggae

music. Bob Marley (One Love, Three
Little Birds, No Woman No Cry) is
the first artist that comes to mind
when Rastafarianism is mentioned,
because he is responsible for
spreading the religion and genre
worldwide. The Rastafarian religion
has rules set in place such as; youre
required to grow your hair or
dreadlock and no combing or
shaving, youre not to eat meat or
flesh and you must be positive and
loving. The fruits of the land is their
main diet and marijuana (known as
ganja) is the herb hey use for healing
and also to improve their
meditation. Its also a rule that if
anyone should be involved the
reggae music industry they must
abide by all the rules and live up to
the standards set by legends before
them, meaning they are to only
perform positive and uplifting music.
Marcus Gavey, who was a black
Jamaican that taught in the 1920s,
founded Rastafarianism.
So its very clear that the religion of
Rastafarianism is heavily involved in
reggae music, especially as Bob
Marley was a massive influence to
many people which lead to many
people following the religion he
believed in as well as his music, this
is why there was a massive
popularity for reggae music at this
time.

Figure 4 - Bob Marley quote about cannabis.


There have been many, many more
factors, which have influenced
different genres of music such as
religion with gospel music and even
the simplest thing like location with
Californian surf music.


Influential artists
Ill now be talking about just three of
the most influential artists on music,
Over the years there have been
many various artists who have made
a huge impact on music and the way
music has been shaped to this day.
A big name everyone knows is Elvis
Presley. Maybe Elvis didnt create
Rock n Roll but he certainly changed
its style and shaped artists and
music of his future.

music he was helping to breakdown

problem of racism.
Elvis was also the one to bring heavy
use of guitars into rock n roll music,
which soon became a very big trend
influencing the likes of; The Beatles,
Franz Ferdinad, Led Zepplin, Simon
Garfunkel, The Clash, Artic Monkeys,
Paul Simon, Cliff Richard, Marty
Wilde and many more. Elvis has
influenced so much in terms of
music and influenced so many other
big artists; even today there are still
many impersonators around.

Another massively influential artist
was Whitney Houston.

Before Elvis was around, white men

in music would commonly perform
songs in front of a band in a polite
way, but as soon as Elvis came along
that all changed with his, raw vocals,
striking outfits and the freedom of
his dance moves, rock n roll was
changed, he sang in the style of black
artists and black music at the time as
he had a love for that style of music
as well as blues. It was often said
that Elvis stole the style of black
music but it didnt stop him, also
because he copied the black style of

Figure 5 - Just a small group of Elvis impersonators

from around the world.

Narada Michael Walden, the author

of Whitney Houston; The Voice, the
Music, the Inspiration described
Whitney as a singer who had a
magic about her in the studio that
gave him chills. Billboard senior Gail
Mitchell described her as a singers
singer because of the emotion she
had in her voice, which could give
any song a feeling that anyone could

relate to. Whitney wasnt just an

influence
in
relation
to
music; she also
tackled
the
fashion world,
modeling and
the
film
industry.
One of the
reasons
Whitney was
such
an
inspiration is because when she first
started her music career at 18/19 in
1985, she was probably one of the
first African-American women to be
so popular in the R&B and pop
charts. Also because of the way her
voice connected with people through
her songs, she influenced many
artists around today such as;
Beyonc, Jennifer Hudson, Mariah
Carey, Alicia Keys, Celine Dion,
Ashanti, Brandy, Christina Aguilera
and even Lady Gaga.
Whitney changed music by being so
popular; her music videos were
constantly shown on channels like
MTV, which for an African-American
female at the time was not seen a lot
until Whitney came along which
provided inspiration and influence
for other artists to follow her lead.
She was the first female to get their
debut album to number 1, selling 14
million copies. She was, and still is,
the only artist ever to chart seven
consecutive singles at number one.
She was again the first female to

produce a best selling single and has

been the most awarded female
artists of all time, so you can tell she
had so much success during her
career so you can see why she was
so influential at the time and even
now still.


Moving on from talking about solo
artists, one of the most influential
groups is Kraftwerk.
Kraftwerk are a German synth-pop
group who has influenced music and
many artists in a big way. Starting
out in 1970 they brought a whole
new sound to music, using all
electronic instruments, mainly
synthesizers but also vocoders,
electronic drum kits, sequencers
amongst other things.

Kraftwerk were the first group to
popularize
using
electronic
instruments in music and are even
described as pioneers. They were big
on experimenting with different
sounds and equipment as they often
used self-built instruments.
The lyrics of their songs were about
post war life and technology at the
time, lyrics were usually quite
minimal but had a significant
meaning of celebrating but also
warning people of the modern
world. Kraftwerk have inspired
many big names in music including
the likes of David Bowie, Joy
Division, New Order, Bjork, Depeche
Mode, Gary Numan, Soft Cell, Human
League, Visage and many more.
Every single electronic artist after
Kraftwerk has been influenced by
their work. Also, because they were

seen as pioneers of the electronic

music genre, they are part of the
reason that house music, drum n
bass and hip hop all exist. They
changed music massively by using
technology as a massive part of
music and therefore bring about all
forms of electronic music about
today.

Many artists such as Madonna, Jay Z,

Coldplay, Missy Elliot and Fergie
have sampled their music.

Musical
genres
and
their
characteristics
All genres of music have different
characteristics in terms of the typical
instrumentation, tempo and rhythm
used and its this that defines them.
Moving back to the rhythm and
Blues genre (in the 1950s-1970s), it
typically uses different instruments
that make it recognizable to
everyone. For example typical
instruments used in R&B were a
piano, drums, guitar/s, saxophone
and bass.
The vocals were performed in an
emotional way but also very relaxed

and in control as though it had been

rehearsed to effortlessness, the
lyrics were typically very meaningful
and also written in an AAB
structure so the first sentence was
often repeated. Most lyrics of R&B
would often tell a story which would
be resolved at the end of the song.
The songs had a strong backbeat,
from its gospel influence, but there
was never one instrument that was
more emphasised, each simple but
repetitive part from each instrument
meshed well together to create the
mellow rhythm of R&B. The songs
were often in 4/4 timing and also
used what we now call the 12 bar
blues progression, if there were
lyrics in the song they usually
stopped in the last few bars at least
before the 11th bar before they
started again when the next 12 bars
started.

On the other end of the spectrum to
the classic, laid-back rhythm and
blues music there is Screamo music
which is a subgenre of hardcore rock
music. The characteristics of this
genre are very different in
comparison to rhythm and blues.
Screamo started out in the 1990s
and is described as an inharmonious
form of emo music, the instruments
used are typically the same as rock
music so, drums, electric guitar, bass
guitar and vocals (or screaming).
A lot of screamo music has a
dynamic of soft to loud vocals, where

Figure 6 - Rhythm and blues band with instruments

typical to the genre.
Figure 7 - Screamo band, compared to an R&B b and it's a
very harsh look and sound.

there will be soft emotional singing

but then the contrast of aggressive
or even distraught screaming. The
use of electric guitars is often very
heavy and powerful.
Even though the general sound of
screamo is loud and aggressive, the
lyrics of songs are often about things
such as romantic interest, emotional
pain, politics and human rights. The
tempo in screamo songs often shifts,
as does the dynamic.

Music and Location
Location can have a big affect on
music, in terms of how its made,
lyrically and even where its
performed, an example is Californian
surf music that I mentioned before.
A lot of people nowadays do change
instrumentation or style of how they
perform a song live, in comparison
to the studio version, to excite and
surprise the audience; they may
perform certain songs acoustically
so either with an acoustic guitar and
vocals or a piano and vocals. For
example recently Taylor Swift
performed one of her older songs
Love Story in the style as if shed
written it on her most recent album
so added more electronic sounds
and different backing vocals and
harmonies.
A lot of modern artists change things
around in live performances
nowadays, this could be seen as an
advertisement
technique
to
persuade people to buy tickets to see
them live and see the different
versions.
Different artists and genres of music
are performed in different locations,
for example a jazz artist would
usually be found in a jazz club or bar,
classical music is often performed at
venues like the Royal Albert Hall
whereas modern pop artists often
perform at stadiums and arenas

where jazz or classical music might

seem out of place.


Musical genres and its followers
A lot of different genres gain a
different type of following in terms
of audience. A good example of
describing this is BBC Radio 1, they
have various different presenters
doing different types of shows,
usually specified to a certain genre
or group of certain genres of music.
For instance, Nick Grimshaw
presents the breakfast show which
plays mostly pop and mainstream
music, Pete Tongs show plays dance
music, Daniel P Carter hosts the rock
show, Charlie Sloth is in charge of
the rap show and there are many
other examples. All of these different
shows will gain a different audience
based on the music genre. Radio 1s
current demographic is an age range
of 15-29 year olds but each show
will gain more of a certain age range.

Another example of different
audience types in the more extreme

differences between the mods and

rockers. The mods and rockers were
two different British youth groups in
the 1960s. The rockers were
centered
mainly
around
motorcycling, which also showed in
their appearance as the typical
rocker would wear things like
leather jackets, motorcycle boots,
sometimes creeper shoes and they
would wear their hair in a certain
pompadour type style. Rockers were
heavily into rock n roll music, as
their title would suggest. The mods
were centered more on fashion and
music, and would ride scooters.
Contrasting the rockers, mods would
wear more clean cut suits and other
smarter outfits and listened to
1960s soul and rhythm and blues
type music of the time.
There were
many
small
physical
conflicts
between the
mods
and
rockers where
many people
were jailed or
assaulted, but
it was at one
main
event
when the biggest conflicts took place

weekend. On
the 18th and
19th of May in
64 thousands
of
mods
travelled to
Brighton,
Figure 18 - Beatles fans Broadstairs and
Margate beaches
for the bank holiday but to find that
the rockers did the same. It didnt
take long until the fight broke out
between the mods and rockers; the
worst fight was in Brighton where
the fighting carried on for two days
and even moved down the coast to
Hastings and back. So you can see
how different audiences of music
genres can really produce a certain
type of following, even if it is
unintentional.

Moving onto more recent times
artists like Justin Bieber and One
Direction have produced massive
worldwide followings, creating
whats known nowadays as fan
girls. This refers to a big following
or mainly teenage girls, a lot who are
fanatics and potentially obsessed
over the artist. The first example of
fanatics we saw was for the Beatles.
This fantic following starts as a small
following at first but usualy when
professionals in th music industry
know how to market to a certain
audience, usally teenage girls, the
following just keep getting bigger
and it becomes obsessive.

Figure 17 - 1964 Mod vs. Rockers Riots.

in Clacton on a weekend in 1964 and

then on the south coast of England,
where many people from London
would travel to for the bank holiday

Figure 20 - One Direction fans

Cultural demands on musicians

A
lot
of
musicians work
under pressure
from how well
new music will
go down with an
audience
amongst other
things. A good
example of this is
Rite of Spring
by
Igor
Stravinsky. This
particular piece of music has gone
down in history; the piece of music
contained a lot of new unheard
things such as different tonality,
rhythm and dissonance. No one had
heard anything like it before and the
first time it was publically
performed was in 1913 in a Paris
Theatre. On the opening night of the
ballet as Rite of Spring started it
was reported that trouble began in
its introduction and grew into an
uproar, where people were attacking
each other and then started
attacking the orchestra. The science
behind this audience reaction of riot
to the music is that because there
were so many elements to the music
that was unheard of before that
evening, their brains werent used
to these sounds and rhythms and
didnt know how to process them
which then lead to the rioting.
It was reported though that it was
performed again one year later and
was received very well by the
audience and that they loved it. This
shows, in a extreme way, that there
is a lot of pressure for artists
because of resistance from the
audience on new pieces of music but
in the end it can be a good thing as
Rite of Spring in the end was and is
a piece of musical history. It was

Figure 21 - Cover of the piano

music of 'Rite of Spring'

even performed at the BBC Proms in

2013, 100 year after its debut.
Social environment can affect
production of music for artists in
quite a big way. For example, Sting is
an activist and is very involved in
human rights and environmental
issues, and because of that a lot of
the music he produced would reflect
his passion of that in it.
Another
example
of
social
environment taking effect is if an
artist is trying to make it but is
struggling with employment or no
money they can be inclined to write
about the struggle which a lot of
artists have done, whereas an artist
who has already made it with
unlimited studio time maybe doesnt
have enough to write about and
could be producing very generic
music. It doesnt always happen like
that but sometimes it does so in this
way quality of music can be affected
by social environment.

Figure 22 - Struggling artists busking on the

streets for money.

Political legislation and music

Political legislation can affect music
in some ways. An example being
censorship, which has lead to some
artists even being banned from
making music like Thomas Mapfumo
who is a musician from Zimbabwe.
Because of the laws in Zimbabwe he
was banned from making music, he
later moved to the US to carry on

making his music but it had had an

affect on him. Even though the US
censors music to a standard some
developing countries are very strict
on their censorship laws because
they fear that people will take too
much influence from what they hear.
Another good example of how
politics have affected music is when
Paul Simon recorded his album
Graceland. In South Africa during the
apartheid, the rest of the world were
trying to boycott South Africa until
they topped segregating their
country and everyone were given
equal rights. Despite this, Paul Simon
visited South Africa anyway to
create his album Graceland. There
was a lot of controversy over Paul
Simon being in South Africa and his
making of the album because he was
accused of breaking the boycott.
Although he was being accused by
many people of this, he was also
praised by a few for introducing the
South African style of music to the
rest of the world and even giving
south African artists their own
worldwide audiences. Graceland
was heavily inspired by the events of
apartheid and the politics going on
at the time, so this is a great example
of how political legislation can have
a big effect on the production of
music.

How technology has affected music

Technology has also had a massive
effect on music over the years in a
lot of different ways. For example
simple things like, the microphone,
electric guitar and amps to things
more modern such as digital audio
workstations, multitrack recording
and loop stations. Every piece of
technology used within music has
progressed the production and
performance of music greatly.
Looking in more detail over the
years so much has changed to be
where we are with music at this
point in time.

In 1876 an
American
engineer,
Elisha Gray,
invented the
first electrical
synthesizer called the musical
telegraph. This synthesizer used
steel reeds with oscillations created
by electromagnets over a telegraphy
line, and it could play up to two
octaves. The synthesizer was an
accidental discovery but turned out
to be a part of music history. This
invention advanced music very
much as without this over the years
people would not have been able to
build and improve the design into
the many common synthesizers we
have today. They are widely used
throughout most music, especially in
the pop genre.

Back in 1877 was
when the first
recording of a voice
took place, when
Thomas
Edison
managed to record
Mary Had A Little
Lamb on the first
ever phonograph.
Figure 23 - Thomas Edison with his second
phonograph.

Phonograph cylinders were the first

ever piece of equipment to record
and then reproduce sound. Their
greatest years of popularity were
between 1896 and 1915. They were
hollow cylinders that had an
engraving of an audio recording on
the outside, which then could be
reproduced by playing it on a
mechanical cylinder phonograph.
A little while after
the phonograph
was invented, in
1888
the
gramophone was
invented, which
used discs, instead
of cylinders, that Figure 24- A Gramophone.
could hold up to 2
minutes of recorded sound. They
were commonly referred to as
records.

In 1931 the first
electric guitar was
invented
by
George
Beauchamp, it was
called
the
Rickenbacker, or
more commonly
known as The
Frying Pan. It had
a flat circle body
and a neck. It was
invented mostly to
contribute to very popular Hawaiian
music but also because a lot of
classical guitar players needed a
louder sound from the instrument
when playing along with other
instruments.
This invention has had a lot of
impact on music as the electric
guitar has vastly advanced over the
years and nowadays is a very
common instrument for musicians,
some would say it is a necessity,

today you will hear an electric guitar

in most genres of music.

In the 1980s the jukebox started to
gain popularity, due partly to their
popularity at fairgrounds, which
kept the Columbia graphophone
company afloat in the failing
economy at the time and left it to be
the only graphophone leasing
company to make profit.

Figure 25 - A 1980's Jukebox.

Movin
g into the 1900s now, this was when
the record industry really took off
and started its peak; over 3 million
records were being sold per year by
1900.
Because of the popularity of disc
records the cylinder phonograph
lost its popularity because of its
bulkier size as it would not fit
suitably in a home,
but in 1906 a
slightly different
adaptation of the
phonograph was
made which was
designed
specifically to fit
into a home, in a
cabinet type set up
where the horn
was
concealed.
This
new Figure 26 - The 1906
adaptation was phonograph adaptation.
very
popular
during its time.

In the 1920s radios began to be

mass-produced in America, because
of the record sales fell but The
Western
Electric
Companys
response to that was to make disc
record recordings a better sound
quality in hopes to increase records
sales. So an electronically amplified
electromagnetic disc cutter was
developed, which got a very positive
response to it.
During the 1930s record companies
began to produce what we know as
vinyls, tapes also started to be
developed but were not very
popular at first. FM radio also
started around this time, which had
a much better quality then AM Radio
with less static. People of the RCA
were first against the idea of FM
radio, but in later years this changed.
Vinyl
later
becomes the item
chosen by most
to listen to music
in the early
1940s and in the
late
1940s
- A 1940's vinyl
there
was Figure 27 record.
competition of
vinyl speeds with the release of 12
inch and then later the 7 inch record.
Without the creation of the vinyl
record there would be no such thing
as scratching which is a common
DJing technique even nowadays
weve incorporated the vinyl
scratching feature into electronic
decks. There would also be no such
thing as hip-hop because it was born
out of DJing with vinyls on
turntables.
In 1964 we see a return of the
cassette tape as it starts to gain
popularity, as the first portable tape
recorders were invented and then
Phillips introduced a 30 minute tape
format for audio, also being a very
cheap buy.

The government were against tapes

for a while as people would use them
to tape albums and
radio broadcasts
but a tax was put
onto blank tapes to
make up for lost
money.
During the 70s
cassette
tapes
popu
larit
y peaked from the release of the
Sony Walkman in 1979, as it had a
good sound quality and was very
easily portable.
A while later in the 80s was when
CDs were first developed and
started being produced overtaking
the number of sales vinyl LPs. This
is when vinyls started to quickly
lose popularity to the rise of CDs.
Just after 3 years of the CDs first
arrival 1 million CD
players has been
sold.
In 1990 was the first
time mp3 players
came into play, and
just 5 years later Figure 29 - Napster logo.
Internet
audio
streaming began and despite the bad
audio quality it became very
popular.
A couple of years later in 1997 was
the first attempt of selling music on
the internet with the Duran Duran
album. In 1999 Napster debuted as
a file-sharing network, usually of
mp3 files, but later got shut down
because
of
copyright laws.
And then in 2003
was the first
release of iTunes.

From this brief Figure 30 - First iTunes logo.
timeline its easy
to see just how

Figure 28 - A 1979 Sony Walkman.

much technology has progressed

through time to get to the facilities
and equipment we have today, and
this is only the history of technology
for the medium of recording and
listening to music. Not to mention
things like electric guitars, amps,
microphone etc. and all the small
pieces of technology we dont even
think about like XLR cables and even
MIDI. One of the more recent
technological advances that has been
the most important has been Digital
Audio Workstations (DAWs) which
allow anybody to have a piece of
software which allows you to record
and edit music from anywhere to a
professional recording studio to
your bedroom (programmes like
Logic, Cubase, Pro Tools and many
others). Every single piece of
technology we use in music today is
so important and have each
contributed to the history of music
in itself.

Figure 8 - Logic logo.

The digital revolution has affected
the music industry in a big way,
because so much happens online
now in terms of releasing, streaming,
buying etc. At first there was a
problem with illegally downloading
music thats caused the industry to
suffer, YouTube has given people the
ability to watch and listen to
anyones music without having to
pay for an album or watching a
music channel on TV.

The making of streaming services

such as spotify, deezer and Pandora
make it able for anyone with and
Internet connection
to listen to any
music
from
anywhere. Because
of these streaming
services and how
popular they have become millions
of people all over the world use
them. For the industry this means
artists often have to work a lot
harder with touring ect to make
money. Big record labels are still
making the most money off this
though as they are licensing content
to the streaming sites, in a way they
may as well be part owners of
streaming sites.
Copyright is also a big problem
because it is virtually impossible to
enforce the copyright law as there
are so many different international
laws and international platforms for
music. As a result of this artists lose
money but in a away make up for the
loss by using the international
platforms through people sharing
content, as a free way to advertise in
hopes that people will want to but
merchandise, gig tickets or music
ect.
Mentioned before, DAWs and the
Internet provide anyone to be able
to record, produce, upload and even
promote their music without any
professional help of the industry;
this in itself causes the industry to
suffer. Some people even have the
ability to be able to make their own
music videos for their material and
post it on YouTube.
Thing like these are much easier
and affordable to do in todays age, as
well as even hiring out a recording

studio for a number of hours or days.

The impact of Internet on music has
been very big and ultimately people
like it a lot as it gives both the artist
and listener more control and
power, which is a huge advantage to
the artist ad listener but for the big
companies in the music industry it
has become a disadvantage.

Most of this sounds like a good thing
as by making music at home and
doing everything yourself entirely
gives you all the control but it can
have disadvantages, for example just
to start off with, money. If youre
making music yourself you are
limiting yourself with how much
money you have and can spend,
which is why peoples main goal is to
get signed to have funds behind
them to back what they want to do,
but if youre doing it yourself it can
be hard. Another thing to keep in
mind is that you may have made the
music but at the end of the day after
all the hard work, the people who
you want to notice it probably arent,
or it will take a long time as its
mainly down to chance of how well
you promote it and who will see it.
Whereas with being signed, people
in that industry will most definitely
have contacts and will attract
someones attention, so ultimately
its a quicker process and will
definitely have some form of results.
There are pros and cons of being
independent and working with a
record label but obviously its not
easy to get signed in todays
industry.

Vinyls have made a significant come
back in record sales, all starting
supposedly from Record Store Day
which first came about in 2008 there
were 10 releases on the day and it
was reported that there had never

been so much excitement around

vinyls in so long.

After that day there was a 90%

increase in vinyl sales for the year,
and the next Record Store Day saw
100 releases. This was when the real
resurge cam into play, record labels
saw the potential of vinyl sales and
started to produce a couple of
thousand copies of a vinyl with
confidence that they would sell. In
recent years there have been
millions of vinyl sales. With the vinyl
come back, it hasnt surpassed any
other medium of music, CDs are still
selling as well as digital copies, a lot
of music fans will buy multiple
copies of music in different formats.
There are a lot of people who do
prefer CDs and vinyl to digital
copies just for the nostalgia and also
because its a physical thing, actually
holding the music, as much as digital
copies and online purchasing is
more convenient and takes up less
physical space. People do just like
the feeling of holding the music and
the physical feeling of it.
The biggest percentage of people
buying vinyls nowadays is actually
younger people in the age range 18-
25 as to them it is mainly something
new, vintage and more interesting
that a CD on digital file, its almost
like vinyl has created a new
generation of music fans.

Globalization
Globalization is the interaction and
fusion of international people,
companies and governments, driven
by the need of growth and trade of
economies between nations.
Globalization has influenced music
massively, it has helped to create
more music because it has enabled
us to have access to music
worldwide meaning we can access
any style of music from pop charts
worldwide or South African styles of
music etc. This can help create music
by giving someone inspiration to use
various characteristics of different
styles of music in their own work
therefore integrating international
styles of music. An example of this
could be someone writing a song in
the UK and then going online to
browse different styles of music
coming across South African music
and taking influence from a drum
beat/tone and using it in their song.
This also means that people can
collaborate worldwide, as with
todays technology a file can be sent
across the globe very quickly so
someone could send a file from the
UK to Australia for someone to
collaborate in the recording or
mixing process then just send it
back.
This
eliminates
the
inconvenience it might cause if
someone had to travel to and from
Australia, instead it can be done with
both ends in the comfort of their
own home/workplace.
The act of globalization has enabled
us to do so much, with a lot of ease
that we dont even think about it
because it has become the norm.
Whereas years ago before we had
the internet and a means of
interacting with people worldwide
so easily, there may have been
restrictions or a close-minded
approach to the way music was

recorded, mixed and advertised

because no one could interact with
people worldwide to be influenced
by new ideas and techniques.
I think globalization has had a
massive positive impact on music for
enabling us so much access to the
world.
It
can
also
be
disadvantageous as explained before
because of sharing things worldwide
and so many different international
laws it can be hard to enforce
copyright laws and can be hard to
make money of music but I think the
good outweighs the bad as so much
music can be shared and advertised
internationally which I think also
leads to more artists touring in more
countries which wouldnt have
happened with the act of
globalization and social media.

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