Can Manufactured Bands Ever be Classified as 'Good' Art? The Effect of the Market on the Construction of Music
Introduction Manufactured bands now make up a major percentage of chart music today, not least of them Take That, Boyzone, Bad Boys inc., East 17 and other all-boy pop bands. In this essay I would like to discuss how the standard of art has been lowered by the capitalistic system of the music industry, using a specific example - "Upside Down", which is maybe the latest addition to this genre of music. By this genre of music, I mean the all-boy bands which have been specifically manufactured and targeted at the 'teenybopper' age class (and also the gay market?).
Personal Opinions To argue that this form of art is 'bad' art,
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In this case young girls aged roughly between 11 and 16 have been targeted.
Having decided this, the next part of the process is, based on what the managers think the consumers want (or what they think they can tell them they want), to tailor make a product to suit the market. In this situation, the question is,
"What do girls aged between 11 and 16 want to see when they go to a concert?"
The answer is, having experienced the reaction to Take That, Boyzone etc., that they want young boys, in nice clothes, very good looking, very sexy looking, who are going to look great on their bedroom walls when they get their posters out of Smash Hits. So this is exactly what the managers design and produce for them.
The four boys that were eventually chosen were picked from the applicannot s who had responded to this advertisement:
"Are you between 17 and 21 and good looking? (We're only looking for the best!)"
"Do you want to be in a teenage all-boy band sensation?"
"Do you want to follow performers like Take that, East 17, Bad Boys inc. and Boyzone into the covers of Just 17 and Smash Hits?"
"Do you want to be part of a band selling millions of records?
From the seven thousand applicannot s, a shortlist of 250 was drawn up from their photographs alone. These 250 were auditioned in one day, each audition lasting about
Pop Art emerged in Britain in the late 50’s and the United States in the early 60’s.(Mamiya 1992) Pop Art is generally known today as a representation of celebrating popular culture and consumerism, however it’s background and origins are far more broad and extensive. There are many factors and influences that lead to the creation of the Pop Art movement such as adjusting to life after World War II, new technological advances that lead to mass cooperate growth, the evolution of Abstract Expressionism and also social issues in the media such as feminism. (Smith 2001; Mamiya 1992) Many of these factors overlap and act as a catalyst in the creation of Neodadaism and eventually Pop Art. (Livingstone 1992) Pop Art does not have a soul distinct style nor just one major influence and this can be proven by looking at key artists of the movement such as Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and James Rosenquist as well as female Pop artists such as Martha Rosler. (Brauer, Edwards, Finch & Hopps 2001) Exploring these artists and the major influences of their work will break down Pop Art and establish the movement’s purpose as well as its evolution.
The first step in the process is to identify and define the problem at hand. During this step, all the information is gathered and looked over. This allows for the problem to be clearly identified and hopefully making the whole process easier. Step two of the process is to begin generating possible solutions. In this step, managers can begin formulating one or several potential solutions (Lombardi, Schermerhorn, & Kramer). Before going onto step three, some additional information may be required, because step three is when a plan of action is chosen. In the fourth step, the chosen plan is implemented. It is the responsibility of the manager to make sure this portion goes smoothly. Everyone on the team should know exactly what they should be doing. The final step in the process is to review the results. In reviewing the outcome of the action plan that has been chosen, you may find things that need to be altered and you may find things that are going perfectly. At this point the appropriate changes should be made.
Choose an artist from the period 1900-1970 and to examine their relationship to the cultural and social framework of their era with reference to an important or influential album.
Popular music is often one of the best lenses we have through which to view our own cultural orientation. Many of the artistic and experimental shifts in popular music have mirrored changes in our own society. For instance, the emergence of Elvis Presley as a public figure would signal the start of a sexual revolution and the growth in visibility of a rebellious youth culture. Similarly, the folk and psychedelic music of the 1960s was closely entangled with the Civil Rights, anti-war and social protest movements. In this regard, we can view popular music as an artifact through which to better understand the time and place in which it is produced. In light of this, the state of popular music today may suggest troubling things about our society.
When a consumer walks into a store they know what products they want to buy,
Putting the decision to work for the manager or the policymaker is step 5. Rundall states, “Actionability questions include whether
The decision making process can also be divided into seven steps, where the first step will basically involve defining the problem. These steps allow for the main issue to be identified, and therefore the manager should make sure that it has been done correctly. After the problem identification stage, we can move forward and identify the limiting factors, and in this the manager should make use of all resources available to do it the best way. Some of the resources include information, time, personnel, equipment and supplies. Using this, managers can be able to identify the factors that might hinder them from achieving their goals.
Identify what consumers might want in the future, thus making more informed choices to be one step ahead of their competitors.
Questioning the correlation of commercial success and true artistry began in the light of mainstream music. Mainstream music has been given a negative connotation due to the supposed lack of originality of the artists. Repetitive chord progressions and meaningless lyrics compose the majority of “mainstream music,” making each song sound like the next . Despite these patterns in music, artists still ventured outside of what was societally normal and created music that was unheard of. Despite the potential risks in being an individual in the music industry, several groups achieved high success and maintain the popularity in the present. Creativity and commercial success can definitely exist alongside one another, and this paper will prove that through the music of the Beatles, the performance styles of David Bowie, and the grunge movement in Seattle which was fueled by Nirvana.
Understanding consumer behaviour is essential to succeed in business. As Solomon et al. (2013) stresses, businesses exist to satisfy consumer’s needs. By identifying and understanding the factors that influences their customers, firms have the opportunity to develop a more efficient strategy, marketing message and advertising campaigns that is more in line with the needs and ways of thinking of their target consumers (Perreau, 2015).
Markets consist of buyers that differ in their needs, wants, resources, locations, buying attitudes and buying practices. To reach customer insight, it is important to understand the needs of different segments and to communicate pertinently to them (Brown L, Brown C, Gallagher SM, 2008).
Sometimes it’s not so important that your product fits the exact needs of the segment you target; rather, it’s vital that customers perceive that you do, even if it’s not true. In order to achieve this, the proper amount of advertising and sending the appropriate message are both vital.
Many young people seek to use music to help themselves be more accepted in the world, so that they can be easily categorisable in the mainstream. Many girls of ages 9 13 may have an interest in a popular boy band' of the time. This is an example of how, though a girl's identity could be partly influenced by such a band, ultimately, their music and appeal is limited in scope because after four or five years the band is likely to have split up. The media promotes such a band because it targets girls who are seeking to find an identity and because these years
The popular culture of music has changed dramatically over the course of sixty five years. Since this time, new genres of music have been introduced, existing genres have changed, and fixed stereotypes have been associated with certain genres of music. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and is portrayed almost everywhere in first world societies, including on television, radio, at shopping centers, sporting events and in every area of popular culture. Music has become a major part of popular culture, and continues to strive and develop into more and diverse areas of culture.
Consumerism is a description of society’s lifestyle in which many people embrace to achieve their goals by acquiring goods that they clearly do not need (Stearns, 7). The idea that the market is shaped by the choice of the consumers’ needs and wants can be defined as a consumer sovereignty (Goodwin, Nelson, Ackerman, Weisskopf, 2). This belief is based on the assumption that the consumer knows what it wants. Contrary to this logic, marketers convince us that the consumer does not know what they want. The consumer has to be told what they want or be persuaded by advertising items in a matter that demonstrates the reason a product makes their life easier or will improve their life instantly. As one of the most successful entrepreneurs,