Copyright© Struan Hellier 2003 - Feel free to use this essay as you wish, but please leave my name on it.
What is Popular Music?
Introduction
The advance of technology in the twentieth century has revolutionised the means of production and consumption of music, transforming it from an almost personal experience of transient being into a mass commodity, transglobal and all pervasive in nature. This new world in which we find ourselves is one in which boundaries have become blurred by marketing and exposure to new cultures which are assimilated into our own at the flick of a switch. To define popular music in such a setting is highly problematic to the extent that some writers refuse even to attempt such a definition, (Moore 1993 pg 1), believing that readers will bring with them common sense understandings of what popular music means to them personally. Various other writers have attempted to define popular music both in terms of text and context and it is the aim of this essay to examine how they have done this and to what extent they have overcome the many obstacles strewn in their path. In order to do this I propose to tease out from the available literature common themes then to discuss them in turn. These sub-headings will be used simply to reflect emphasis in content as the overlap between each is considerable.
Popular music as commodity
For writers such as Frith (1978 pg 11) the major difference between pop and other forms of music is that pop is conceived for the mass market and finds its purpose in this market whereas other forms of music find the mass market only incidentally to their existence. Although, "The Four Seasons," by Vivaldi may have sold millions of records it would remain, for Frith, outside the realm of popular music because it was not created for mass consumption. This, "technologico-economic," (Birrer, 1985, pg104) definition is a refined version of that of Birrer, (Ibid pg 104) who saw pop music partly as any music that reaches a mass audience through mass media, or in a mass market, or a combination of the two. This first version ignores the fact that some other forms of music have been disseminated into a mass market. Our example of, "The Four Seasons," constituting a valid demonstration of this, unless an argument is constructed that sees the primary text as non-defining and the context as all. In this scenario a performance of a Mozart string trio would be classical music until a camera was trained on the performers and the resulting footage posited on prime time television with advertisers paying for advertising space. At which point it would become popular music. Logically it should follow from this that if Take That were to play the Purcell room in London to a, "classical," audience the result would be classical music. This type of argument, as Middleton observed, (1990, pg 4), is unhelpful in formulating a working definition. Frith's refined definition becomes difficult when we consider, for example, music that is written by students in the popular style and played only at a college function with no intention to seek a wider audience, not to mention those bands such as Half Man Half Biscuit or The Mac Lads, whose music is obviously and deliberately never going to appeal to the masses. Again this definition places context as the only criteria. If someone were to record the student band and sell millions of copies of that recording the music would transform itself into popular music. This is a logical positivist approach whose major failing is in treating popular music only as commodity and therefore rejecting its wider role in culture as a political tool, an identity forming or maintaining medium or simply an entertainment. Middleton takes this further, (1990, pg 6) stating that this approach tells us nothing about the meaning of popular music since that meaning, " has been pushed outside the frame of reference." The frame of reference being the social context.
Having said this there is no doubt that money and popular music are inextricably linked. Mary Harron, (Harron 1988 pg 175) writes that, "The whole adult world saw it (pop) as a huge confidence trick foisted upon gullible teens," a money spinning hype in which image was all important, talent irrelevant and money the only truth. Popular music is about buying into a dream or an experience. (Ibid pg 180). The importance of money to popular music is hard to overstate and so, despite their problems these definitions are useful, if incomplete and overly exclusive, in drawing our attention to this.
Popular music and Popular Culture
Shuker, starts in his search for a definition of popular music with the premise that, "to study popular music is to study popular culture," (1994, pg 1). Without popular culture, popular music would not exist and so he attempts to define popular music by examining its position within that culture. In order to do this we need to understand what popular culture is and it is here that many difficulties arise. Lefevre defines popular culture as, " a region where goods confront needs more or less transformed into desires", (cit. Chambers 1985 pg 2) by which he implies that it is a conspiracy aimed at relieving the masses of their money by persuading people that they need things that in reality they do not. This is an area of imposition upon the masses which seeks to distinguish, "authentic," culture in which music is created by the people for the people and popular culture in which music is foisted upon the people by the financial and political elite. Middleton treads the middle ground defining popular music as the space between these two extremes, (1990, pg 7) a position he concedes has contradictions built into it. These however are real contradictions reflected in the music industry with bands such as The Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones walking the thin line between anti-establishment, anti-capitalist authenticity and affluent lives funded by huge cheques from the record industry. The phrase, "he has sold out," is a common one amongst all popular music fans and refers to the perception that this fine line has been crossed.
Other writers such as Fiske, (1989, pg 23-25) argue that culture develops from the inside by individuals as active agents creating their own art and entertainment with the record industry merely providing the customer with what he wants, passively reflecting society rather than defining it. In this model, power relations are an intrinsic part of the popular and popular music is seen as a positive political reaction of the oppressed but undefeated majority.
All this has led many to draw a distinction between pop and rock music (Harron 1988, pg 180, Frith 1983, chpt 1, Hill, 1986, pg 8) on the grounds that, for rock, feeling and intelligent direction is more important than the instant less profound gratification of pop. Whether we accept this or not, (Shuker rejects it suggesting that the distinction itself is a marketing device, (1994, pg 8)), it would be silly to start removing genres of music such as rock from our sought after definition of popular music because after the onion was peeled, the remnants would be unrecognisable to most popular music fans. A model which excludes Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan from popular music would be unsustainable.
We can see then that a definition of popular music as music which is found in popular culture is inadequate as it is as difficult to find agreement upon the meaning of popular culture as it is popular music. However, as a pointer to a greater understanding it is very useful.
Popular Texts
Shuker argues that popular music texts and contexts are inextricably linked to each other in a dynamic mix of mediation, composer, audience and primary text. (1994 pg 99) He goes on to say that traditional musicological views are inadequate with reference to popular music. (Ibid pg 135) because an historical and generic location is vital in the understanding of this music. Both he and Middleton, (1990, pg 105) question the validity of applying terms such as, "resolution," or, "motive," to popular music because they are ideologically loaded with connotations of classical music which we cannot easily transfer. Equally traditional musicology is often applied to written scores and so emphasises those features that are notated such as counterpoint or orchestration, whilst neglecting things like, timbre, pushing of the beat etc. Often the musicologist has failed to find, in popular texts, that which his training tells him is important and so has assumed those texts to be inferior. This, "normative," definition (Birrer, 1985, pg 104) of popular music is, as Middleton rightly points out, invalid as it relies upon arbitrary criteria. (1990, pg 4).
The problem of describing sounds with musicological terms also afflicts self proclaimed rock experts like Allen Moore who rubbishes Peter Manning for saying tremolo, when strictly the effect is one of vibrato, while referring to an electric guitar, when every rock guitarist refers to the effect as tremolo and guitar makers refer to the device used to produce it as a tremolo arm. (1993, pg 18). Popular music does not fit the old terms and Manning is correct to use the rock musicians language to define it.
But are there certain aspects of popular texts that separate them from other musics? Recent commentators have examined various aspects in an attempt to answer this. One of these areas is the use of technology with some seeing popular music as that which uses electronic equipment (see Shuker 1994 pg 8) but although it is true that this may be a predominant trend it is by no means exclusive as the recent spate of, "unplugged," albums shows. Eric Clapton, Oasis, Sting and many others have recorded and performed with acoustic instruments and string sections are fast becoming ubiquitous on "Top Of The Pops." Jazz and blues have a long tradition of acoustic playing and it seems more likely that the use of technology in pop music is more a reflection of its availability than a defining factor. Throughout the ages music of all kinds has used the technology available to them, from Bach composing for the new piano to 1990's rave music composed entirely on computer.
Other aspects of the text as specific to popular music are almost impossible to pin down and attempts to do so only consist of endless lists of types of music. So wide is the range of texts which can be seen as popular music in context that even books referring to one genre are huge in scope. (see Moore 1993). Moreover books have appeared denying the existence of boundaries for specific genres never mind trying to place boundaries for popular music as a whole. (see Harker 1980 and Scott 1989).
Shuker, (1994 pg 10), comes closest to using text as a definition but he recognises that it is very generalised . Popular music is, for Shuker, a hybrid of a large number of traditions characterised by a strong rhythm and a reliance upon, (though not exclusively), amplification. For our purposes this is, as Shuker admits, insufficient as a definition but again helps to fill in a little more of the landscape.
Popular music politics and society
If, as Middleton has said, (1990, pg 7), popular music exists in the space between being of the people and being at the people, then a central criterion for its definition becomes that of relevance. (Fiske, 1989 pg129). Pop must find cultural resonance in order to succeed and this in turn gives it great, "oppositional and democratic potential." (Hamm 1982 pg 212).
"We the people are getting tired of your lies ," rages Fish in his 1990 album, "Vigil in a wilderness of mirrors", at once a cry against the state and also a rejection of the final conclusion of the postmodernist movement typified by Baudrillard where the wilderness of mirrors is the area of illusion in which everything is meaningless and self referential. (Kellner 1994 pg 8). In this apocalyptic scene, politics, class, gender and society itself implode into a flux devoid of boundaries and all meaning. The real becomes unreal as people flee from its desert to a hyper reality where simulation by computers and media becomes the new real. Fish is saying no, "listen to me........ ," it's not, ".....just our t'shirts that cry freedom..," life has meaning, we can change the world for the better and popular music can act as a focus and even educator. Those who know this must keep a, "vigil in a wilderness of mirrors," as a fixed beacon of hope for purpose and meaning in an increasingly modern world.
One can see the position of Baudrillard as a theoretical future possibility but all of us, like Fish, find meanings in popular music as is demonstrated by the hoards who descend upon Glastonbury with their idealistic sensibilities focused through a huge variety of musicians.
To define popular music as being a political and social force is undoubtedly helpful in seeking to find a full definition for the term as in some sense it is always oppositional in character even if this opposition is just confined to ripping ones jeans. (see Fiske 1989 pg 26). However this is not a characteristic limited to popular music as in many geographical and historical contexts classical music has been viewed as subversive and even banned because of it. "The Golden Cockerel," by Rimsky-Korsakov being just one example amongst many. (Ed Hutchinson 1991, pg 707) So the problem of defining popular music as political in nature is that many other types of music also fit this category and so a distinction evades us.
The Audience
One other way of trying to define popular music that recent commentators have used is what Birrer calls the, "sociological definition," by which he means that it is associated with a defined social group. (1985, pg104). This social group is usually taken to be the youth of the time with sub groupings along gender, class or racial lines. (see Shuker 1994, pg 225). These sub groupings often tend to fall apart under examination. Frith describes punk as exclusively working class, (1983, pg 160), but Laing, (1985, pg 123) points out that as professional musicians their status was more akin to the petit-bourgeois with the ownership of intellectual property and a semi-autonomous financial position. Similarly Angela McRobbie points out that women were much more important in the development of punk and other musics than they have been given credit for. (Sounds 28th August 1976). Bob Marley is as popular amongst white youth as black youth. As Middleton says, (1990 pg 4), "social mobility and class fluidity," mean that music cannot be confined to one social group.
One thing these writers do seem to agree on is that popular music is a youth culture. But, even this is open to question as the young generations become older and keep listening to popular music and musicians such as Elton John and Mick Jagger continue to produce pop into their fifties. Again we see the blurring of boundaries but, as before, the general trend helps to illuminate our original question.
Conclusions
In examining the way various commentators have attempted to define popular music and discussing the difficulties inherent in this, it has become obvious that a simple definition of popular music is impossible to arrive at. We can observe general trends that tip the balance towards a concrete position on each of the themes looked at but all are necessarily vague and open to dispute. The fact that each writer has come up with a different position indicates to us that popular music is a living entity, ever diversifying and vast in scope.
One of the few things that is certain is that popular music must be examined in terms of its context as well as its text and here we come to the crux of the problem. There are as many contexts as there are people, places and situations and so to draw a definition is to exclude a large number of popular music experiences, which in turn invites dissent and debate.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
This bibliography contains only those books which are referred to specifically within the text of this essay.