Goldfish have longer attention spans than Americans. Yes, you read that correctly. As you may already know, the attention span is the amount of time an individual is able to concentrate on one particular action. However, you most likely did not know that “the average attention span of a human being has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2013.” (Brenner) The average attention span of goldfish is 9 seconds and due to the effects of various sources of media, this is now one second greater than the average human. Over the years of exposure to social media and live updates, American culture has progressively shortened the attention spans of our citizens, and this is prevalent in the work of famous musicians and their album sales.
Although there are many different forms of media that have been impacted in this attention span shift, I would like to emphasize the shift in music sales. The steady decrease in attention span correlates directly with album sales over the last 35 years. I have selected 3 albums, released in 1980, 1990, and 2000, to show the steady decline in album sales. I chose ACDC’s “Back in Black” for its iconic history, Madonna’s “The Immaculate Collection” for its unique impact, and Eminem’s “The Marshal Mathers LP” for its distinct recognition. The sales of these albums show the decline in album sales over time. Each of these massively popular artists had less and less success selling albums, compared to individual songs in the music industry
Unit 1 ties into the theme of tolerance and the acceptance of others, as Barbara Jordan said it, “We, as human beings, must be willing to accept people who are different from ourselves”. Whether it was the short story What of This Goldfish, Would You Wish? Or the newspaper editorial The American Flag Stands For Tolerance, the pieces dive into and explore the issues of acceptance among others.
In addition to cost, another factor that computers introduced was a faster pace of life. Faster forms of media birthed the creation of T. V. networks such as MTV and VH1 to carry popular music at an incredible rate to viewers. A majority of pop music artists in the last decade have one thing in common: their fame rose and declined faster than high school relationships. Faster life means a demand to have better quality music, with low cost, with people who were not focusing on music as an art, but as a way to get thousands of teen females screaming their name. Musicians have to export larger quantities of music which is current and within the boundaries of trends.
The period between 1995 and 2005 is very memorable in America’s history. There are several incidences and occurrences that unfolded which helped in shaping and framing the current United States of America. The bombing of Oklahoma City is a major epic event that still lingers in the minds of most Americans. However, there is much to contemplate and deduce based on the incidence of 19th April 1995. The music industry also experienced drastic changes between this time frame and analyzing these changes is pivotal in understanding the history of America and may assist in predicting the changes to be expected within the next one decade. Evolution and advancement in technology are also a crucial part of the discussion of American history and the emergence of the digital era. It is, therefore, worth appreciating and acknowledging the past since it forms part of our identity.
| Today people hear so much music that they tend not to listen carefully to it.
From bell bottoms to Barbies, every generation has its own distinct trends. While various fads have cropped up in each era, music has always been a key element of culture. Starting in the 1950’s, music became integrated within the American culture as the favored form of expression. The popular types of music found on the Top 100 lists today however, have changed dramatically since then. What has promoted this obvious change in music choice? While rock ‘n’ roll still holds its own in the music billboards of 2010, the general public now prefers the mechanical sounds of hip hop and
According to researchers Christenson and Roberts, “American adolescents spend…between four and five hours a day listening to music…[which is] at least as much time as they spend watching standard television fare and more than they spend with their friends outside of school” (8). Music media influences the lives of adolescents in a number of ways. It “…alters and intensifies their moods, furnishes much of their slang [and] provides models for how they act…” (Christenson and Roberts 8). Music plays an important role in the lives of adolescents. They spend as much time, if not more, listening to music as they spend watching television, and therefore, music deserves additional scholarly attention.
As America headed into the 1980s, two decades of social and political upheaval have left the nation rattled and the economy weakened. The Iran hostage crisis shook America's confidence and many looked for a new kind of leader to steer the country into the new decade. Ronald Reagan led America into a new era of prosperity leaving the soul-searching of the 60s and 70s behind. The nation was ready to enjoy itself and with plenty of new toys to play like VCRs and video games, Americans spent more time at home and soon something called cable TV would make it even harder to leave the living room. With the new innovation of the TV, one of the ideas for a channel was a marriage between music and television. This new idea for a channel devoted to something called music videos would end up revolutionizing and often scandalizing an industry that had no choice but to embrace the fact that music in the 1980s had to have a face with videos. By having these music videos, they would change the way we look at music and the way we look at the world. This cutting- edge idea was a new medium perfectly suited to a new generation and that idea was called, MTV. This leads to the question: How did MTV influence pop culture of the 1980’s? This topic is worthy of investigation because the coming of MTV has had a significant impact on the way people see pop culture. Before researching the topic, the writer had limited knowledge on MTV and only knew about the music itself. In the paper, the writer was
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.
This worksheet is for analyzing primary sources, which for the purpose of this project are popular culture media: texts created for a mass audience with some commercial component, either through sales, subscription, or advertising revenue: advertisements, videos, television shows, news articles or programs, popular music, etc.
3-4). While these statistics provide a look into the numerical growth of the streaming industry, it is also important to discuss the power that these streaming services have generated—over both the music industry and over established/aspiring artists. Subscriptions are on the rise, having increased significantly over the past ten years, but as is the amount of users streaming music on a free-trial or ad-supported basis—ultimately undercutting the music industry and artists alike. Blewett and Gollogly (2017) elaborate on this point, stating that, by the end of 2016, paid music streaming subscriptions drove a revenue growth of 60.4%—this growth more than offsetting a “20.5% decline in downloads” and a “7.6% decline in physical revenue” (Blewett & Gollogly, 2017, para. 4). Moreover, Borja and Dieringer (2016) explore the concept of streaming even further in their academic article, positing that the decline in paid digital downloads may be a direct result of streaming—as, music streaming can be perceived as a “complement” for music piracy, in which listeners can freely sample music to pirate later on (Borja & Dieringer, 2016, p. 1). The authors also suggest that streaming can provide a “venue for discovering and listening to new releases”; and after completing their 1052 surveys, conclude that streaming increased the likelihood of piracy by
Music has played a vital role in human culture and evidence based on archaeological sites can date it back to prehistoric times. It can be traced through almost all civilizations in one form or another. As time has progressed so has the music and the influences it has on people. Music is an important part of popular culture throughout the world, but it is especially popular in the United States. The music industry here is, and has been, a multi-million dollar business that continues to play an important role in American popular culture. This is also a art form and business that is forever changing as the times and more importantly, technology changes. Technology has changed the way music is made as well as how it is produced,
In this article, Peterson and Berger show how the organization of the popular music industry affects the music that America hears.
Let's take rap. Some kids who like rap talk like rappers, dress like rappers, eat like rappers, and treat women like rappers treat women. Is it because they're influenced by what they see on TV or hear on their favourite rap artist's album?” Glen Chiacchieri makes it clear that there are many aspects of culture that are dependent on Music, and that music has been, and that the way people lived there lives are affected by music and popular culture.
The music industry has been around for over two centuries (PBS). Its volatility can be measured by its ability to shift and change according to its time period, the technologies that arise through the ages and the public’s shift in musical taste. The music industry is comprised of many different components, organizations and individuals that operate within it. Some of these components include the artists who compose the music themselves, the producers that engineer the sounds created by the artists, the companies that handle distribution and promotion of the recorded music, the broadcasters of the music such as radio
“While attendance at concerts and festivals for other music genres declined by 8.3% in the past three years, EDM has only prospered” (Lashbaugh, 2013).