Monday, January 27, 2020

Roles and Functions of the Music Industry

Roles and Functions of the Music Industry The music industry is one of the largest creative industries in the world, combing different elements of the business to produce and sell music to its audience. The development of the industry has evolved on a very large scale since the 19th century, when it was the printed sheet music being the leading product. Moving forward with societys technological progression, in the 20th century, the way we were listening to music was changing with it becoming ubiquitous. popular music was an early global commodity, with record companies establishing branches around the world for both marketing and the recruitment of talent at the beginning of the twentieth century, (Gronow and Saunio, 1998). When these record labels began to emerge, they were producing and selling more recorded music, CDs, cassettes and live performances and introducing more musical genres to the world. All of these aspects have brought us to todays technologically advanced society, making the music business a very powerful industry consumed by the masses. In this essay I shall discuss the role and functions of the music industry, drawing upon particular theorists opinions including Theodor Adorno. I will also touch upon the study of popular music and the many factors contributing to the current crises of the music industry itself. In an age where music has become one of the more dominant and influential forms of entertainment in our society, the factors driving its production should be explored. Firstly, I shall look at the concept of music ownership. Record companies have an enormous amount of control over what music gets produced and what doesnt as it is the main goal for them to sell and make profit. They will not sign an artist unless they truly believe that they will make them money. The major companies in the business today are, Sony BMG, Universal Music, EMI and Warner Music, which are collectively known as The Big Four who then own smaller labels as well. After managing the production and distribution of the music, it is their responsibility to handle the marketing for musical artists, organising promotions, music videos, endorsements and so on, giving the artist well-known status among the mass audience. In the early days of this music industry, being signed to a label was essential for an artist to b e successful. However, in todays digitally advanced world, it is much easier for an artist to have their music shared with an audience using information technology like the internet, which paved the way for independent labels becoming more popular as well. In the documentary Money for Nothing, they go behind the business of pop music and look at how it has changed in this society of digitally experienced consumers. We are shown insights from music journalists and artists about corporate control and the restraints given to contemporary music. With major labels only looking at the artists who they believe are the most profitable, the independent labels take on artists that they can help develop and take risks with different talent. Although, with the current economic climate and the decline in revenue from various aspects of the industry, even the independent labels are having trouble staying out of the corporate system. REFERENCE. Recording companies becoming this hyper commercialized system is a largely stated opinion among musical talents and media theorists. Major record labels are owned by the huge media conglomerates that are the core reason why creativity in music has become so limited. The conglomerates of the industry use the re cord companies to sign acts that can get them the quick sell as the only aim for them as a business is to make a profit. Cross media marketing or synergy, is something these conglomerates use to make this profit and to develop other media industries. They buy into other companies in entertainment, which they can then use to advertise and sell across different markets. The music industry on the other hand is completely dependent on the media as a promoter, user and distributer of its products. Most professional musical artists communicate with their audience primarily via some kind of electronic medium and only a fraction of the audience is able to experience the artists live performance. For instance, Warner Music Group, one of the largest media conglomerates, owns various entertainment companies including television, film and publishing along with music labels. The record labels use these companies to advertise and promote artists across markets such as radio, television and retail which are then consumed by the mass audience. A successful example in the current music charts is Ellie Goulding and her new song which is a cover of Elton Johns Your Song. It was not that popular to start with as Goulding is not an extremely well known artist compared to other artists currently in the charts. However, when the music label gave permission for the retail chain, John Lewis, to use the song in their new Christmas advertisement, the song rocketed up the charts and is now a favourite for Christmas number one. Goulding has begun to appear on radio and television promoting the song and she has become a household name in a matter of weeks, all thanks to the instant fame John Lewis have given her. This shows how popular music is so commercially driven and how the absence of real talent, experimentation and creativity in music has begun to disappear. Most of todays new acts are manufactured because this is cheaper and easier for labels to produce rather than finding new talented artists. With television shows such as The X Factor, a concept of combining reality television with the music industry, created by music mogul Simon Cowell, we are brought together as this unthinking homogenous mass with the music acting as a social cement. We are being brainwashed through these simple ideologies of music, rendering us as a passive and unthinking mass audience. Adorno argues that the whole structure of popular music is standardized, even where the attempt is made to circumvent standardization. In his work he characterizes popular and serious music of which he then uses to underline his theory of popular music being standardized. This theory highlights that pop music is just a product of mass culture, and how the formula of producing a song is just endlessly replicated with a fixed structure and yet creates the illusion of creativity, what Adorno refers to in his theory of pseudo-individualisation. The song structure is replicated so much so, that the consumers do not actually realise they have heard it before, what Adorno refers to as pre-digested. So the listening of a song is not spontaneous and no intellect is required as it has done the thinking for them and the listeners consume what is already familiar. However, I do believe that with the current crisis of the music industry, there is a certain layer of pop music that is standardized but there is still an element of creative autonomy. Although saying that, the industry will always be driven by money and not creativity as that is the prerogative of a capitalist society we live in today. Compared to popular music, serious music is not standardized as it is produced with the whole aesthetics of a song in mind and every detail derives its musical sense from the concrete totality of the piece. With serious music being genres such as folk, pre-industrial music, classical, or art music, it is focusing on the experimentation and meaning of a piece rather than the repetitive, fixed structure of a popular song. Independent music labels have a slightly different outlook on producing music compared with the major labels. They take a less economic approach and more a social approach to music and without a corporate conglomerate steering them they can decide what to produce. However without corporate finances indie labels still have trouble getting the music out there to be heard. Not wanting to be a part of the commercial music industry, the American punk band Fugazi stayed with their independent record label Dischord Records which was also co-founded by the bands guitarist Ian MacKaye, refusing offers to become part of major label. Their main focus was their music and they did not want to rip off their listeners, which a major label would make them do. Michael Azerrad mentions in Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991, In response not only to a corrupt music industry but to an entire economic and political system they felt was fraught with greed for money and powerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Fugazi staked out the indie scene as the moral high ground of the music industry; from then on, indie wasnt just do-it-yourself, it was Do the Right Thing. This is one example where the music is more important than the sell and the artist keeping control over their music. Even when managing to not sell out to the commercial music industry, Fugazi gained loyal fans through their honest and passionate attitudes towards their music and do not charge extortionate amounts of money for tickets to their performances or CDs escaping the capitali st business. However, for the major record labels, charging large amounts of money for concert tickets seem to be the only way for an artist to make money these days. With the music industry in a crisis, losing money through illegal downloading and file sharing over the internet, artists are losing money through CD sales so have to charge more money for ticket prices to make up for this loss. Going back to the use of synergy in the music business, we have come to find that the status of Radio itself has also changed. With radio stations being owned by the bigger conglomerates, they are not spontaneous anymore, when playing different types of music. It used to be that, Radio DJs would play the music that they believed was good music and having their particular music personality broadcasted to their listeners. Today, the conglomerates that own the stations have a strong say in what gets played. For instance, there would be a particular song they have to play a number of times in so many hours, so technically they have no control over whats played. Adornos belief on how culture gets polluted when it meets commerce plays a quiet role here. The media conglomerates controlling the radio stations are selling the listeners an illusion. They are hiring celebrities as DJs who know little or sometimes nothing about music other than their own personal interests to host shows, who the n become these big media personalities become with the public from media marketing and promotion. For example, Vernon Kay, BBC Radio 1 DJ, was a TV presenter before his big break in to radio in 2004. His television status made him a well known name, and so naturally he was then hired to be the DJ for a prime spot on a mainstream station. So, overall, they are selling him more than the station, to acquire a larger proportion of listeners. It was radio play of music that constituted its popularity, but with many radio stations sounding the same nowadays, only playing the popular chart music, it is much harder for unknown bands and artists to get air time on the more popular stations. Looking back at the documentary Money For Nothing again, we can see that there are the four main companies that reach consumers in the selling of music. From the production at the record companies, the music then gets played over the radio, the music videos will be shown on television and then touring will promote the music. For manufactured new artists, the record companies will pay other radio stations to play this music so its heard by the masses, and then this will also give the opportunity to promote other areas of the industry that they own. So in the end, the variety of music heard on the radio has now decreased on a large scale. Coming into todays digitally advanced world, the music industry has fallen into a crisis. In a generation where virtually everything is digitally recoverable, the sales of records are on continuing decline, not only from legal downloads from sites such as iTunes, but illegal file sharing over the internet has also become major factor. In an interview with Simon Frith for the online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever, Simon Frith says that, With digital CDs, records can now live forever and there is far more back catalogue available and less incentive to buy records that just came out. iTunes is one of these catalogues where music files from virtually any artist are readily available to purchase. It was established in 2001 by the global corporation Apple and has since been one of the main outlets of digital media. Napster, was a peer to peer file sharing service online created by a university student, Shawn Fanning. It began in 1999, allowing people to share their music libraries across this system. This service became very popular with its easier way of obtaining music files that could be expensive to purchase or just hard to come by. However with this technology its popularity grew to over 20 million users and music artists and bands became more aware of the seriousness of the copyright infringements of the company. Metallica and Dr Dre were one of the first bands to sue Napster for copyright violations of their music with a successful outcome. Rapper Dr Dre stated that I work hard making music thats how I earn a living. This is a shared opinion of all musical artists as they are losing money through file sharing technology, and this is ultimately damaging the future of the industry. In the end Napster had to stop the service, but not completely shut it down. They turned it into a subscript ion service to abide by the copyright laws; however this still did not get them out of the financial struggle they were in, paying legal settlements to the music industry. They finally went bankrupt and had to liquidate their business. Even though the illegal file-sharing was stopped through Napsters service, the core idea and technology has gone on to a larger problem with many more illegal downloading services such as Limewire, Ares or torrent software. These newer services have built upon Napsters original technology and have made a larger dent in the music industrys revenue today. Even Fanning saw the greater potential for peer to peer technology stating, peer-to-peer technology or distributed computing also has tremendous opportunity for sharing resources or computing power, lowering information and transaction costsPeer-to-peer also has the potential to change todays understanding of the relationship between source and site. He saw how this could make searching for files easie r, explaining that it is less complicated and less time consuming to just let a program find the file source to rather than connecting to a central server. Looking at the music industry as a whole, the main aspects of technology, music and commerce Conclusion: Internet has made music ubiquitous. Using our emotions and vulnerability to sell us music catharsis adorno synergy, which Ben H. Bagdikian, in his book Media Monopoly,

Sunday, January 19, 2020

macbeth :: essays research papers

Jurgens 1 The famous play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, has greatly influenced past societies and continues to be an influence in todayà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s society. There is not only one great influence either, as there are many smaller ones that have affected society. Of these influences, Macbeth has had its greatest impact on the movie and literature industries. In literature, the play is kept alive in more than one way. There are many full-length books that just discuss and explain the play of Macbeth. Other ways the play is kept alive is through other authors rewriting it, but making slight changes or even using some of his lines or themes in their own plays or other pieces of literature. The movie industry was also greatly affected by Macbeth. Since the invention of movies, there have been many different versions of this play that have been adapted to the movie screen. Macbeth is a play that can last forever as it has everything that still interests and has always interested people such as murder, deceit, and a trip into the human psyche. This play has lived on in many facets of and had many important influences on society, but two of those greatest influences are on the movie and literature industries. Macbeth actually started its "afterlife" while William Shakespeare was still alive. Simon Formanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Book of Plays is an example of the influence of the play. 1611, Simon Forman wrote a book in which he described the performance of four plays at the Globe Theater. Book of Plays is one of the only reports of how Shakespeareà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s plays were actually performed on stage. However, many parts of the play were omitted in Formanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s summary. For example, he did not include the entire second appearance of the witches. Jurgens 2 Forman also included details that could not have possibly occurred on the stage of the Globe Theater. One example of this is when Forman reports that he sees Macbeth and Banquo riding through the woods. The Globe Theaterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s set would not have allowed this to happen, so historians believe that Forman pulled this image from a version that he had read previously and not what actually had happened on stage. On the other hand, Forman gives an elaborate description of some of the staging of the play. For example, he states that in the banquet scene, the ghost of Banquo sits behind Macbeth.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Napoleon’s policies as First Consul Essay

â€Å"In all that he did, his main aim was to secure himself in power.† How far do you agree with this judgement on Napoleon’s policies as First Consul? After the Coup of Brumaire in 1799, Napoleon emerged as the new leader of France and devised a system of government that gave him effective control over all aspects of life in France. He controlled religion, education, law-making, policing, legal reforms and the economic situation by putting in place a series of policies, designed both to comply with some principles of the Revolution whilst also giving Napoleon control and security in power. This essay looks to investigate how far each of these policies suggest that Napoleon’s main aim was always to secure himself in power. Napoleons policy of police and propaganda is the most obviously repressive of all the policies. Many aspects of his heavy policing conform with dictatorial regimes, as does his policy of censorship and (often false or manipulated) propaganda. France became effectively a Police State, with Napoleon at the core. The Minister of Police, Joseph Fouchà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½, who controlled National Security, established a network of informers who monitored public opinion and reported on any suspicious political activity. They also monitored everyday life in France: the education system; prisons; food supplies; conscription and public works. All findings were written in a daily report, submitted directly to Napoleon. These jobs were carried out by prefects (effectively spies) who were appointed directly by Napoleon. By organising such a well-organised surveillance system, the regime encountered little opposition from the Jacobins, Royalists or Liberals. Due to the rigorous nature of the police, no uprising or rebellion was possible, thereby ensuring Napoleon was safe in power. Due to the dictatorial style of this policy, it is obvious Napoleon was trying to ensure security in power and establish himself as leader without immediate opposition or objection from minority groups and the general public by repressing anyone opposed to the regime. Under the Police State, arbitrary imprisonments and executions were frequent. As a result people were AFRAID to oppose the regime. Napoleon also recognised the importance of censorship in securing his position in power as this quote shows: â€Å"If the press is not controlled, I shall not remain three days in power† In January 1800, Napoleon reduced the number of newspaper in Paris from 73 to 13 and forbade the production of any new ones. On top of this, newspapers were forbidden to discuss controversial subjects and were kept short of reliable news. Editors were forced to rely on military bulletins or articles published in the Official Government Journal. An example of a manipulated story within the press is the report of the Battle of Marengo. Although this battle was unsuccessful, it was presented as a triumph and Napoleon told people it was a well-devised plan. Prefects also kept a check on papers to ensure that they only published what Napoleon wanted. Not only were the bad aspects of the regime censored, but also the good aspects were highlighted (or sometimes invented). This was intended to rouse moral and encourage support for the regime. Napoleon’s increased popularity through propaganda meant increased security in power. Napoleon did not only control the medium of text. Many theatres were forced to close, to avoid defamatory shows about the regime from being performed, and those that remained open were only allowed to show sanctioned plays. Napoleon also employed fashionable painters to depict him as a romantic hero (such as the famous picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps, by Jacques Louis David). In many of his portraits he is shown as having a positive impact on France, encouraging the public to believe this was true. Napoleon aimed to create loyal followers, or at least people who accepted and tolerated the regime. His harsh measures of policing prove a desperation to remain in power and secure a popular public opinion. If the public were not convinced to support Napoleon through the extensive propaganda, then any opposed were repressed by force. In Napoleons government policies and his self-induced role of First Consul under the Constitution of the Year VIII, it is clear he desired supreme control and power in France. The limited influence of the system of election on government figures meant virtually all aspects of the legislature were controlled or heavily influenced by Napoleon himself. Under the Constitution of the Year X, the system of election was abolished completely. This ensured Napoleon could not be removed from power. By organising the government in this way, he was obviously intentionally ensuring security in power. However, not all of Napoleon’s government policies can be directly related to this aim. Although the overall nature of the legislature was very similar to the Ancià ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½n Regime (i.e. Napoleon had effective control of the entire government), some aspects were in keeping with revolutionary ideas that had no (obvious) effect on Napoleons security in power. For example, although Napoleon devised and instigated all new laws, they were in keeping with revolutionary ideas. Napoleon ensured a mixture of old and new laws under the Civil Code. This Napoleonic concept, somewhat in contrast with his policy of a police state, ensured equality in courts and also fairer trials and hearings. This cannot directly be interpreted as an intentionally devised plan to ensure Napoleon’s security in power. However, it is possible that by creating a legal system conforming to some revolutionary ideals, Napoleon hoped to gain the publics’ loyalty and support, thereby increasing his popularity, therefore securing himself in power. Napoleon also developed a new religious policy. The Concordat signed by Pope Pius VII and Napoleon in 1801, saw the ‘restoration’ of the Catholic Church in France and the revolutionary idea of the state payment of the church. Napoleon was raised a Catholic and was keen to encourage religion within France, as this quote shows: â€Å"No society can exist without equality of fortunes; and equality of fortunes can not exist without religion.† However, the Concordat was manipulated to Napoleons obvious advantage as well. In signing the Concordat, the Pope agreed to endorse the Revolution and regime, state control of the churches and church appointments and accept the loss of church lands during the Revolution. Also, in 1802, Napoleon attached the Organic Articles, without papal agreement, to the Concordat. These guaranteed the revolutionary principle of religious toleration and made the Protestant and Jewish churches similarly subject to state authority. It can be argued that one of Napoleon’s aims in forming the Concordat was to ensure a lack of interference from the church, meaning his position in France could not be affected by the Pope or any other religious order. However, whether or not this was his main motive in signing the Concordat is less certain. Although the church was a powerful tool in controlling and influencing the public and was often used as a vehicle of propaganda, Napoleon’s desire to influence and manipulate the public cannot justify other aspects of the Concordat such as the state responsibility for the payment of the clergy. On reflection, it appears that whilst in some aspects of his religious policy Napoleon may have been genuinely trying to improve life in France, it is clear that in other areas of the policy, such as his healing of rifts between the Church and the notables after the seizing of church lands in 1789, were designed to appease certain groups of people, such as the Bourgeoisie, therefore securing himself in power. He also aimed to disassociate the Catholic Church with the principle of counter-revolution and the restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy therefore avoiding a potential Jacobin uprising, which could be detrimental to his position in power. His further use of the church as a propaganda tool also justifies this theory, as in this way, the public were encouraged to see Napoleon as a positive figure. His desire to win the publics’ support of the regime and therefore of him, was rooted in his wish to remain in power, as is displayed in this policy. Napoleon also established a new economic policy designed to ‘tap the wealth of the country’ more effectively than during the Ancià ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½n Regime or the Revolution. His principle of taxation went against revolutionary ideas, with industrial and commercial profits being taxed only lightly. This may be seen as a further example of Napoleon attempting to appease and win support of the Bourgeoisie, thereby ensuring popularity and securing his position in power. Other aspects of this policy included the introduction of new discount banks designed to help the state pay off its national debt and pay its obligations to domestic creditors. This policy increased the efficiency of revenue and led to ‘the balancing of the budget’ by 1802. Citizens would have been pleased with France’s new economic stability, potentially leading to increased support for Napoleon and the regime. However, whether Napoleon put in place this policy for this reason of for the stabilisation and well-being pf Frances economy cannot be proven. Napoleon’s educational policy is perhaps his most revolutionary policy due to his introduction of secondary schools into France. He formed 39 lycà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½es in 1802, which were run by the state. â€Å"Public education should be the first object of government. Everything depends upon it, the past, the present and the future. Above all we must secure unity: we must be able to cast a whole generation in the same mould.† However, despite Napoleon saying that education should be based on ability, not birth, very few common people attended secondary school. They were taught up to the age of twelve by small, church-run schools. It was believed by Napoleon, that they needed no more than a simple ‘moral education’. No form of education was available to girls at any age or from any background. It was mostly the sons of notables who attended secondary school. In total there were 6,400 state scholarships available. One third of these (approximately 2,400) were chosen by the government from among the sons of soldiers of officials. The remaining 4,000 were supposedly chosen from the best pupils at leading primary schools. However, well-off families were favoured and only a very small percentage of common people attended secondary school. Many bourgeois parents preferred to send their children to privately run Church schools, favouring the increased freedom of thought and wider curriculum. However, Napoleon did not approve and tried to close them by placing high taxes on them. The education itself was ultitarian and based around a Spartan regime with a strong military ethos. At first only Latin and Mathematics were taught but as time went on, other subjects (deemed acceptable by the government) were introduced such as French, History, Science and Geography. Freethinking was discouraged and teaching methods followed a policy of indoctrination. Napoleon wanted education to encourage obedience to the regime and create loyal subjects from an early age. There is little in this policy that suggests Napoleon wishing to initially secure himself in power. However, as this new education system was largely beneficial to France, citizens may, unwittingly, increase their support of Napoleon and the regime. Whether, this was deliberately intended by Napoleon cannot be proven. On balance, I believe that all of Napoleon’s devised policies had a basis in ensuring his security in power, some more so than others. His police and propaganda policy is obviously based on initially securing himself in power without hindrances from rebellions or uprisings. Also, his religious policy was designed not only to appease the Pope and guarantee a lack of interference, but also to avoid a potential Jacobin uprising through an association between the Catholic Church and the Bourbon Monarchy. Others, such as his educational policy, are subtler, encouraging support for the regime through improved life within France. In all areas, he is seen as either directly influencing the public, either by force or by propaganda, or indirectly influencing the public by creating better conditions in France, therefore encouraging support of the regime. I believe that it was Napoleon’s main aim to secure himself in power. After all, if he fell out of favour quickly, all of his other aims, such as creating a better France, would fall with him. It was implicit that he secured himself in power as soon as possible, in order that he might put all his other aims into action. Ultimately, most of his actions aimed either to limit or prevent the impact any opposes to the regime may have on Napoleon’s security in power or to create a better France thereby increasing popularity of the regime. However that is not to say that other policies did not centre around a different aim, such as the economic policy, which aimed to create financial stability in France primarily, and possibly may have contributed to increased support and popularity of Napoleon and his regime.

Friday, January 3, 2020

My Personal Narrative Of My Life - 1261 Words

This will be a long personal narrative about my current stressful life. Before, I came down to the University of Georgia to work with the football team my life back in East Lansing, Michigan was quite peaceful. However, I will admit I was still overly stressed with the endless amount of coursework I had, but I still had time to relax or had time to be bored and question what I should do with my time. Now taking all of my credits online and working 12-15 hour days, then traveling to the games on Saturday has me begging for more time. Furthermore, the current stressor affecting my life is time management. After learning about epigenetics and how lifestyle choices and stress can alter your gene expression, this paper came at a perfect time to†¦show more content†¦I’ve been dealing with this for a long duration with no apparent time limit. Robert Spalosky (2004), talks about anticipatory stressors and how they can affect us physically and psychologically. Poor time manage ment proves to be detrimental to your well-being. Its unfortunate that I deal with this, because I’m a very future-oriented person and research has shown that future-oriented people are more like to be reliable to their commitments. Furthermore, my coping strategies will be constructive and involve multiple steps. Both of my coping strategies will involve exercise on a daily basis. There are numerous of studies that point to physical activity, being preventive and therapeutic for stressors. In fact, a study in our textbook found that people who took part in a two-month exercise program showed an increase in emotional control and a great decrease in emotional distress (Oaten Cheng, 2006). I can testify to that research, because when I exercise tend to lose sight of everything else going on and become relaxed. Typically, working out also promotes higher self-esteem. This is because you’re positively reinforced by society by receiving compliments. 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