Issues and Debates within the Music Industry

Are Artists Losing Feasibility and Viability?

Case Study:
Billboard.com
Nov 16th 2010. The Beatles sold 2 million songs on iTunes on just the first day of their availability.

Issues:Is great music timeless, if the artist is a success because of their music?Will they almost always be successful?Will their fans always enjoy there music even if their physical appearance changes because it is their music that is the focus?


Opinion 1:This goes to show that even though the Beatles have not had any new material released within the past forty years they have still maintained a great reputation and loyal relationship with their fans as after forty years they are still extremely popular and enjoyable in modern society. The Beatles have an extremely large audience of fans who are loyal. This could suggest that the Beatles are a band that are ‘timeless’ in the sense that their records are continually being bought by all ages and social groups. They are the ultimate success as they are being listened to by not only their generation of fans but also a newer and much younger generation of fans. 


Opinion 2:
Arguably, the majority of the modern and younger society of the 21st century is not as interested in good music as it is in the entire appearance of an artist. It is not jus the music that should be appealing. In today’s music industry the artist is being sold for their values, beliefs, ideologies, fashion sense and their publicity; not just their music.  Also, in present day the music industry is more explicitly a business than it was in the 1960’s, so the ultimate aim is to gain as much profit as possible as a record label, from your artist. If this means the artist must change their values and preferred image to please their record label and in-turn their audience, this is what they are compelled to do. This was not the case during The Beatles rise to fame in the mid 1960’s; their music was most important and therefore their image may not have been as polished and ‘ideological’ for an audience as it would be for a band of today. Therefore we cannot make the assumption that artist’s or bands like The Beatles are viable in today’s music society as the factors that an audience looks for in a musical success would differ to those of fans in the late 1960’s, where music was a core interest and key element of what a musical success was.   


Case Study:
http://www.ladygaga.com/default.aspx
“It’s not just about the music. It’s about the performance, the attitude, the look”

Issues:Are 21st century artists defined by their music or is their overall image and appearance more important?Is music made for enjoyment where the money is a bonus, or is music is made for money where the enjoyment of the music is a bonus? 


Opinion 1:
Lady Gaga is a musical artist who is not actually liked or enjoyed solely for her music, but rather her ultimate image. She does not in any way express uniquely enjoyable or particularly interesting music. However she does express all these aspects through the way she looks. The visual experience and overall image that the audience gains, is far more important than the music Lady Gaga produces. For artists like Lady Gaga, money is not solely made by their music; it is their publicity, appearance, attitude and scandals that obtain their fame and success. Lady Gaga has an outrageous dress sense; she is dressed to shock and achieves this through outfits like her famous meat dress. In doing so she gains a lot of publicity and therefore as a pop star she is generally far more successful, popular and sellable.


Opinion 2:   
Lady Gaga is a true musical phenomenon. She is liked and supported by fans globally not just for her music but also for the campaigns that she supports and her overall persona. However these are not the only contributing factors to her success as a ‘Pop Star’; she has an unexplainable fashion sense that allows her to defy social norms and this is proof of her sense of limitations: she has none, which in a 21st century society is something that has become greatly admirable. We are citizens in a democratic society who are still frowned upon when we attempt to push limits and attempt challenge society. Therefore Lady Gaga has given these social ‘outcasts’ a voice and a platform for identifying with an internationally successful musical artist therefore causing Gaga to be Viable to a much wider audience than your average pop star. 


Case Study:
Sales Slump in Digital Age What Does This Mean for the Industry?
http://www.themusicsite.info/hip-hop/hip-hop-music-sales-slump-in-digital-age-what-does-this-mean-for-the-industry.html


Issues:Are recording labels that were once worth millions of dollars, now on the verge of bankruptcy and in a constant decline?


Opinion 1: 
Record labels are not taking the advantage that new and upcoming artists are when it comes to considering the influence and benefits of web 2.0 and other internet advantages. Websites like Youtube, although are free, provide an advertising platform for artists where they do not have to pay for the advertising but are still gaining fans, however there are still record labels that do not allow their artists music to be displayed on the website. This lack of knowledge and participation of internet opportunities causes older artists to sell less and less every year. 


Opinion 2:
Is this the cause of the decline in feasibility of artist specifically in the Hip-Hop and Rap sector, or is it that audiences are going back to the roots of music genres like hip-hop and rap, where music was not made for money but rather to express ones emotions and to really begin to enjoy music for what it is, rather than the business aspect of obtaining lifestyles of the rich and the famous? If it is that music like Hip-Hop and Rap are going back to where they began, on the streets of poverty-stricken communities, then have artists who had once made great sales and become great successes, lost their feasibility? Losing feasibility will therefore have a knock-on effect throughout the whole of the Rap/Hip-Hop industry, ultimately losing these artists there ability to sell records, further losing their viability.