Postmodern & Music

The postmodern sensibility that anything can be considered cool in an ironic ‘I know it’s bad, but it’s so bad it’s good’ way.

 Jedward became a nations disaster when they sailed through the stages of X factor, at the start everybody hated them, however by the end of the show, people liked them because they were so bad and they knew people hated them it actually made people think twice about hating them.

Work that is created based (entirely or in part) on older material. This incorporates sampling and will take you from the realms of hip hop culture transporting you finally in today’s modern fragmented musical landscape. You will have to listen to some of the artists to fully appreciate them and their work.

Audiences that are both niche and mainstream. E.g.: Radio 1, 1xtra, BBC6, XFM.

Radio 1's audience is wider than say BBC6 however they both become similar when Radio 1's shows become a niche show where they focus on one type of music, usually shows in the evening for Radio 1, because during the day the shows are mainsteam shows and attract all audiences due to the range of music played.

The ways in which people engage and listen to music e.g.: iPod, DAB, mobile phones etc.

The way people engage in music today has not just improved the way music is listened to but also how the music is created. A Few years ago music would be produced so that you hear elements of the song in one headphone and another element in the other headphone, whereas today most music is focused on the centred headphones so the music meets in the middle.

With devices being made like iPods, Mp3's and phones being able to play music, it has made listening to music anytime and anywhere even more easier. I believe there is not a day where someone in the world does not hear some sort of music. Music doesn't have to be sold and viral, it can be anything from birds chirping to a baby crying, as Timbaland (famous producer) uses in some of his songs, the natural sound to create music.

The legal issues surrounding sampling. (Led Zeppelin ‘borrowed’ heavily from old bluesmen and it took years for the songwriters to be credited and paid royalties. The same group took a hard-line stance initially to be sampled by hip hop groups.)

With music devices being created, music today is mostly purchased online and are file copy's instead of hard copied discs and vinyls, this has made purchasing and getting hold of music a lot easier, however has also allowed illegal downloading and sharing of music across the globe. With music being illegally downloaded, the record label and the artist(s) are missing out on profits, and their are many campaigns to go hard on illegal downloading, however it's such a mainstream thing to do these days it is hard to get everyone.

Today you can get held of music before it has even been released and this is due to illegal downloading, Albums are pushed forward of the release date because record labels want to get an income, and if the album is already available online and is free, nobody is going to wait the extra 2 months for the album to be released just to get it in a case and then import onto the computer which then goes onto your music device when you can download the album as a file and it can be on your music device in minutes.

The state of the music industry incorporating any recent developments that change how we access/ interact with music e.g.: Spotify, X Factor, iTunes, illegal downloading, free cds with newspapers etc.

The music industry i believe is collapsing and being the strongest ever at the same time. I believe the industry is collapsing on producing physical copy's of albums etc. but with music being able to post online it is then available to a global audience.

Tv shows such as X Factor has a huge influence on music today, a big example of this is for the passed 9 or so years, 8 of the X Factor winners have had christmas number ones, the only year was when a major onlnie campaign started for Raise Against The Machine's heavy rock song to be number one instead of the X Factor winner, people may have hated the song but they hated how X Factor was taking over the charts and influencing what people listen to more.

Theres a saying my friend made which was something along the lines of "i never listen to radio 1 or any chart shows, i hate them. They are all the same crap, all dubstep, similar lyrics, all copies.." at the time i argued against his point, however it is true, songs are so majorly influenced by other songs its incredible.