The music industry it could be said works in cycles. Different styles of music come in fashion, go out and come back again. A good example of this could be electro music. Electro music uses technology such as synthesizers and drum machines to create a completely different sound to any instrument that could be used. It was hugely popular in the 80’s and in recent months has enjoyed a resurgence in to the mainstream.. I went to Ibiza summer 2006, and the majority of the music in all the major clubs was electro, and it looks like its here to stay. Electro has also made it big in the mainstream hits include fedde le grand, put your hands up for Detroit, Bodyrox ft Luciana with yeah yeah, exceeder by mason and justice vs. simian- we are your friends.
Recently the music industry has been accused of no longer being original. There is rarely a music chart that does not contain some form of cover version. Often the cover versions totally change the original concept of the song for example making a dance version of what was originally a love or rock song. A good example is the pop group girls aloud performing the Kaiser chiefs I predict a riot. The song was intended to an indie crowd but now girls aloud have used this for their own meaning as it were. This could be said to be bricolage, in the sense that they have changed the context and made it their own. There has also been a trend for mixing two songs together to create a new song. too many DJs are well known for remixing songs together and regularly sell out gigs. They often use contrasting songs but somehow work when mixed together.
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In terms of technology and the music industry probably the biggest impact has been the rise of downloading music as oppose to the traditional buying cds. Today computers are fitted as standard with the technology that allows people to copy data from cds. The notion of copying music and exchanging data via the internet hit the pockets of the big wogs of the music industry hard. There was the famous lawsuit against napster that made downloading music without paying illegal. Though you now have to pay to download music it is still much cheaper than what CD’s cost and the music industry is still losing considerable amounts of money, and it is proving popular. In 2006 there was the first number 1 purely off downloads alone gnarls Barkley. Adding to the demise of cds was the introduction of portable mp3 players and ipods, they have completely revolutionised how and when people listen to music. Walking down any high street in the U.K you cannot fail to see someone listening to some form of music playing device.
I would also like to just have a think about the myspace phenomenon and how it is allowing unsigned bands to get their music out there free of charge. This again is denting the monopoly the music industry once had upon artists. People can now directly access to artists pages listen to their music, sometimes add it you your personal myspace page or download it in to your music files. Artist that again a large following are then able to go to record companies and show them the number of friends/fans they have and this increases their chances of being signed greatly. Artists such as Lily Allen initially got a huge fan base from being active on myspace. (http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic) Its rare now to find a new artist/band that has not embraced the myspace revolution.
Music is a fast changing industry and the digital revolution it could be said is the fuel for this change.
