Week 8~ Are Subcultures A Sign Of Revolt Or An Expression Of Style?

To divide people up into certain subcultures based on what they like and what they do can be seen as stereotyping and unfair on the people that are judged. While certain people dress in a style that they idealise, others do it to fit into a social network. Subcultures are constantly changing their values, a good example of this are skinheads; originally skinheads were associated with black ska music which then moved on to white ska music such as Madness. Modern day skinheads however have changed entirely and now represent a bleak racist world of football violence, of course these are all stereotypes but it is interesting to see how much one subculture can change so dramatically. Subcultures can be defined as an expression of style though many people who choose these cultures do so as a revolt from their usual existence; Camden punks are a great example of this, people who believe they are different but instead congregate together in one fixed area, so of these people may truly believe in their style but others will be acting in defiance to a social norm.

Week 7~ Can Popular Music Be A Genuine Force For Political Change?

Although popular music can be used as an influence on a political stance it doesn’t mean that the music itself will cause any long term political change. A good example of this is Live Aid; the concert was created to highlight the plight of Third World countries through famous artists and bands’ collaborating together, while this was successful in raising money for the cause there has been no real long-term solution to the problem through the concert. Other popular artists that have tried to influence politics include the band “Red Wedge” which were formed to promote the Labour Party in the 1989 Elections, ironically their attempts to sway the public vote failed and Labour lost, soon after they disbanded which goes to show that popular music isn’t always a force for political change but instead it can be a short-term solution until another factor is used in the change successfully.

Week 6~ Is Digital Rights Management (DRM) The Best Way To Save The Music Industry?

While there are advantages to using DRM on music in a bid to reduce the amount of music downloaded illegally from internet sources, there are always going to be programmers who find another source to download from which raises the question of whether music will ever be free from illegal downloads? Another issue with DRM is that while it benefits artists whose music is already popular and people are willing to already pay for it, bands or artists that are less popular or just starting out will find it harder for people to access their music and help them gain popularity. One of the best ways of combating the idea of DRM was Radiohead when they chose to leave their album online available for everyone to download for as much as they wanted, they could pay full price or they could pay nothing, at the same time this helped their popularity with the consumer so everyone benefited but whether other bands would benefit in the same way is another matter. In my personal opinion DRM is not the best way to save the music industry.