Look How Far We’ve Come!

BY LIZZY MULDERRIG

Music’s future is a difficult one to predict.

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If the music industry wants to grow and expand, new artists and sounds should not be the only concern. Keeping up with changing technologies is another huge factor in music’s success. In an article written in 2000 by Steve Jones called, “Music and the Internet,” Jones highlights the concern of “keeping up with the machine,” (Jones, 217). He mentions the reality that people had the ability to record high-quality digital audio and press CDs at home. Another article, “Trends in Media Use,” examines a 2003 study about personal media trends. 80 percent of 8-18-year-olds said they owned a radio and their own CD or tape player. In 2004, 61 percent had their own portable CD or tape player. Now, in 2017, people consider CD’s outdated and rarely even purchase/use them!

As technology advances, media convergence occurs. Over time, technology has combined functions of several different media tools into one device. Music can be played on radios, television channels, internet radio, iPods, smartphones, and more. No longer is music a separate entity when it comes to media. It is engrained in all different forms, and the music industry has to keep up in order to survive.

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With the advancement of technology comes the strategy of demassification. Demassification is the process of media narrowing focus to audience niches (Vivian, 82). For example, musicians are narrowing genres to target more specified audiences (think: pop-country and electronic genres). In doing this, musical artists are filtering out the massive audience of music listeners to find a more centralized fan base. Music media platforms are also doing the same thing.

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Take Pandora, for example. Users specify their music tastes even more specific than genre – they select a specific artist to base their radio station off of. Pandora plays songs that are similar to the artist chosen, introducing new songs but focusing on a very specific sound for a smaller audience. It also has a feature to like and dislike a song, so the radio station is even further catered to your musical interests.

 

So, what could possibly become of music’s future? I’m not so sure, but in the words of Michael Lipsey, “The next chapter of my life is always more interesting than the last one.”

Sources:

Jones, Steve. “Music and the Internet.” Popular Music, vol. 19, no. 2, 2000, pp. 217–230. JSTOR, JSTOR,

Roberts, Donald F., and Ulla G. Foehr. “Trends in Media Use.” The Future of Children, vol. 18, no. 1, 2008, pp. 11–37. JSTOR, JSTOR

Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communication. 12th ed., Pearson, 2017

The Transformative Effect of Music

By Lizzy Mulderrig

Man Dancing (Source: Unsplash)

If you’re anything like me, you have an internal playlist that fits the ideal soundtrack to the mood you’re experiencing. If you’re bored – maybe some classic elevator music will come on, or possibly the jeopardy theme song. If you’re nervous, suddenly an eerie tune with a bunch of flat and sharp notes will fill your head, or the jaws theme song.And there’s no denying that everyone has that one pump up, I-can’t-possibly-be-upset-listening-to-this, song that pops into your brain when you’re really feelin’ yourself.

My point is that, without even realizing it sometimes, music is associated with different moods. Steven Davies’ explains music, in his article On Defining Music, as “sounds temporally organized by a person for the purpose of enriching or intensifying experience through active engagement.”  This may be the reason why music has flawlessly integrated with other forms of media.

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This integration with other media is called the transformative effect. Music has been associated with dance and theater for thousands of years, from tribal dance ritual to Ancient Grecian plays.

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It is easy to recognize that music enhances such experiences, but it wasn’t until silent films that music began to incorporate into new technologies and media.After silent films came “talkies,” in which “a piano player seated near the theater’s orchestra accompanied the films to provide dramatic, comic, or special effects,” (Vivian, 124). 

Now, music is so tightly integrated into our media. Every movie and show has background music.

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Television, radio, and online commercials have jingles that significantly help establish many brand names. The jingles for Kars for Kids and Nationwide are no production of a lyrical genius, but they are affective when trying to make a memorable advertisement. Music enhances the commercial, movie, or show, which makes a better product for its audience.

Likewise, if lyricists’ and musicians’ music is featured in one of these media, they can “derive significant income,” (Vivian, 124). It’s really a win-win

kind of situation.

Sources: 

Davies, Stephen. “On Defining Music.” The Monist, vol. 95, no. 4, 2012, pp. 535–555. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42751232.

Vivian, John. The Media of Mass Communication. 12th ed., Pearson, 2017

History Of Music

Lizzy Mulderrig

Music – it is omnipresence is easy to overlook. New technology allows for this constant presence in our lives – whether its changing the mood at a party or contributing to the overall ambiance in a department store. Music was not always like this, however. This idea is described as “the impact of the machine,” (132). The evolution of technology has allowed for the growth of the music industry, and the way we listen to music, change immensely.

Let’s take it back to when Thomas Edison discovered you could record the human voice. This was a crucial moment in music history. It was in 1877 when he successfully recorded “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Because of the phonograph, people could reproduce and distribute the same sound. From this moment, live performances were not the only means of producing music. As author D. L. LeMahieu put in his journal, Technology and Culture, “No longer was the concert the sole means of communication between a musician and his public. The phonograph relieved the isolation of the home; the listener could choose when and where to listen to his favorite music,” (372). In 1896, Edison’s improved phonograph was up for sale and by 1900, it was a common household product (Thompsan, 138). Edison Incorporated soon

Even more progress was made for music producers and distributors when the “Diamond Disc” phonograph by Edison Incorporated hit the market. Several experiments were conducted to produce the disk with the perfect sized grooves and material for needles. This then led to more inventions from the record player, to the jukebox, to FM radio. Today, music is so readily available – from online distributors and radios, like iTunes and Spotify. It is amazing to think of the evolution music has made, all starting with a simple model of tin foil, a needle, and a spinning cylinder producing the song “Mary Had A Little Lamb.”