One of the key features of society’s life is a culture that represents the knowledge that is acquired and passed from generation to generation. Thus, as a part of the culture, music is directly connected with society’s life and values. Music, especially the popular music genres, reflects the important historical event through the prism of the songwriter’s perspective. Moreover, owing to the wide audience coverage of popular music, it can influence society to a large extent. Thus, the future of popular music is closely connected with the future of modern society.
Firstly, from the ancient period through the course of history, music as a product of human thought and creativity symbiotically reflected important activities, concerns, and issues in society. However, the article by Pelić (2022) explores how music mirrored society from the age of the ancient world to the 21st century through the perspective of social structure. The author suggests that music carries an additional meaning about historical tendencies and political governance in terms of structure and instrument choices. For example, the music in Ancient Greek society and Early Chinese dynasties was founded on mathematical and philosophical principles, reflecting the governmental structures. Furthermore, in Middle Ages, the change in the city scales and the rise of new social classes required the addition of different voices and resulted in the development of polyphonic music. Lastly, the 20th and 21st centuries marked important changes in society’s structure in which the division of nations by the Iron Curtain also applied to music. Therefore, music was influenced by society’s structure and political regimens besides directly conveying important ideas to the population.
Next, considering the influence of music on society, one could say that historically music was one of the main tools of social change. According to Rabinowitch (2020), music represents one of the forms of emotional communication, which explains its impact on people’s perceptions. The author defines that the primary mechanism of music in bringing together different people lies in the synchronization effect, which influences human behavior. The article explains how synchronized movements to music formed the basis of friendly interactions and further cooperation between 4-year-old children. Thus, new forms of music-making can enhance the positive effects of social interactions. The article defines that music can be “engineered” to fulfill specific goals of influencing human behavior in the future (Rabinowitch, 2020, p.4). Therefore, the article provides valuable insight into the potential development of music in the future.
One of the most prominent tendencies of modern society that can significantly influence humankind’s further development is globalization. In the globalization age, more popular cultures can suppress less popular local cultures resulting in the prevalence of one culture among others. Highly acknowledged for its values and freedom of expression, the American culture already plays a significant role in influencing global politics (Crothers, 2021). In my opinion, globalization’s influence on popular music will result in fewer artists and musicians with unique styles that do not subject to the audience’s preferences.
Therefore, to appeal to a broader audience, famous artists will need to create music that is more likely to please people. On the contrary, it will increase commercial involvement in the music industry and promote a business approach to music. One of the articles defined that music will be engineered to allow the manipulation of human behavior in the future. Therefore, I think that in the future, there will be significantly more people who will make popular music to earn money, which will decrease the overall music’s contribution to culture.
References
Crothers, L. (2021). Globalization and American popular culture. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Pelić, B. (2022). Is music the barometer of society? Exploring how music mirrored society from the Ancient World, China, to Central Europe in the 21st Century. Comparative Civilizations Review, 86, 6-22.
Rabinowitch, T. C. (2020). The potential of music to effect social change. Music & Science, 3, 1-6.