Shianna Moses
Due 01/14/2018
Assignment 1, Industry Shifts
Music Business 101
Industry Shifts; Compare and Contrast
As society changes, our favorite music changes too, and variations in musical memes are passed down through the years. There has been a variety of drastic change throughout music history. Many styles of music have evolved into more aggressive lyrics and/or very explicit and vulgar wording to fit some American cultures.
In contrast to the mid 1900s to present day is music is more energetic. Pop music has gradually grown more energetic since the beginning of rock and roll music. Music today is less organic. Music today is more "mechanized" than in the past. It's not that music is literally made in a factory now, but more that musicians have increasingly had access to metronomes, clicktracks, drum machines, arpeggiators, electronic keyboards, sequencers, sophisticated and newer software, and other things that tend to produce less than "organic" sound. The beat of music today is more accurate due to newer technology. It’s beat has grown increasingly consistent, due to drum machines, click tracks and similar tools. Back in the 1900s the drummer’s tempo used to drift a bit more within songs. Today, we have some songs where every note is exactly the beat and locked onto the tempo, although much of what we listen to these days consists of a combination of organic and mechanistic sounds. Music today has also grown less acoustic. Some artists have come to favor the electric guitar which ultimately boosted this period that some instruments couldn't exist without electricity, others without electronics. The overall result is that music has grown less acoustic sounding. Lastly, music is a lot louder and music faster than it was in the mid 1900s. Cars are faster now. Information is faster. And also is our favorite music. So, although youth these days like music with a little more profanity than in the past, we’re experiencing a historic change and collaboration between musicians of different races. This reflects society’s increased appreciation of diversity, but also show how things change over time. Trends throughout time have contributed to the increase in sound, speed of music, the energy music today holds, and how technology contributed to the drastic change over the years.
In comparison, one of the very little unchanged aspects of music is the pace of love songs. Love songs have two kinds of pace: fast and slow. An example of a fast paced song in the 50's is the song by The Platters, "The Magic Touch". This song combined the thrill of love and a fast catchy pace. This ingenious aspect is also apparent in the song by Vanessa Carlton, "A Thousand Miles". The way music makes people feel has not changed, Everyone enjoys music because he or she can be in a good mood while listening to music. Eventually the music trends are just going to go in a circular effect where they’re repeating history or popular trends depending on the time. Music...
