Introduction
Music forms a significant part of entertainment in the modern world, and there are various ways people present their songs to their audiences. The compositions and contexts of different types of music determine their audiences, presentation, and suitability. Music has various components that enable it to play its roles to the public. This essay summarizes an article about popular music and an analysis of its effectiveness in the modern world.
Article Summary
The article investigates the stimuli produced by popular music and how it differs from other genres. The paper claims that modern studies examine the functions of popular music in modern societies because of its standard. Standardization of hits in popular music also makes it unique and appropriate in the modern world. This means that the beginning and of each note is harmonized to ensure the listener is put in a rough preliminary setting.
The author claims that serious music has a concrete totality to give every detail a musical sense. However, popular music is not affected when any detail is taken out of its context. There exists a major difference between a minor Minuetto and major trio. The appearance of the main theme as a classical Minuetto is compulsory, followed by a second part that leads to a distant tonal region.
The introduction of dynamics in the themes, musical form, and structure makes popular music different from serious genres. Bad music is rigid and mechanical, and this does not make it very different from popular genres. Popular music is standardized to ensure it produces similar reactions from listeners.
Individualism is alive and present in ideological categories that enable producers to have the freedom and choice of standardization. Pseudo-individualism endows cultural mass production that is not restricted by any standardization policy. This enables producers to supply pre-digested songs that audiences have no difficulties listening to them.
Improvisation of standard production policies enables listeners to think that they are on safe grounds. Also, it substitutes music and makes it not to be grasped as musical events but as embellishments. Therefore, popular music requires the audience to understand its commands to ensure they enjoy it.
The need for people to have fun will strengthen their attention to music that does not explain issues about unemployment, drought, diseases, or war.
The present generation escapes from work by pretending to listen to music during its leisure time, and this means that it is a product of musical entertainment mechanisms. It uses effortless sensations to understand music; therefore, this proves that distraction becomes a product of popular music.
Response
The paper presents major differences that make popular music to retain its uniqueness in the modern world. The efforts to commercialize the production of popular music have failed because this genre focuses on the importance of attracting the attention of audiences and not just to entertain them. American music has been commercialized because it focuses on creating short term concentration and entertainment to its audiences.
Opinion
Western cultures are polluting traditional beliefs, and this makes the future of popular music unpredictable. Europe and America are almost at the same level in terms of cultural advancements, and it is not clear whether popular music will be swallowed by the impacts of modernization.
Question for Further Discussion
The discussion provided in the article leads to the following question that may be important in this field. What should the audience expect if popular music is replaced by other genres? Will this music change to reflect modern trends or maintain or struggle to maintain its traditional standards?