Studying Pop Stars

There are many artists who lived and died and who's careers died along with them to put it harshly. Yet there are pop stars who's music continues to sell, and to define upcoming generations of singers. Its 'surprising that the dead are so venerated.' 

Mevers of '27 club' who 'lived fast and died young have all had long lasting careers' and there music has been adopted and continues to be brought by successive generations of fans. 'Popular culture far beyond the time and place of their origin'.

Pop music is mainly aimed at the young. The value is dependent on the currency attached to it by its fans. There is a debate the pop music is 'of its time' and 'looses meaning and value after a certain period has passed'. Yet this is not true in certain pop stars. While pop music constantly changes and evolving some values are set the same. This being:

• Youthfulness    
• Rebellion 
• Sexual Magnetism 
• An anti- authoritarian attitude 
• Originality
• Creativity/ talent 
• Aggression/ anger 
• A disregard for social values relating to drugs, sex and polite behaviour
• Conspicuous consumption, of sex, drugs and material good 
• Success against the odds 

Prematurely dead artists making perfect pop stars as they don't get old and unattractive nor lose the plot. They are much easier to worship. That is why we are so familiar with the members of the 27 club. So many pop stars die young and they become some sort of semi-mythological role models  not really someone we want to be but someone we think it would be cool to be.

A Top 10 Of Dead Pop Heroes (in rough order of death)

1: Billie Holliday      

2: Jimi Hendrix   

3: Jim Morrison

4: Elvis Presley                  

5: Sid Vicious

6: Sid Vicious

7: Karen Carpenter 

8: TupacShakur

9: Michael Jackson 

10: Amy Winehouse 

Dyer's star Theory applied to Pop Stars

Depending on who sings the song and the artists personality and star persona we understand and read into songs differently focusing on the music and lyrics. 

When a star dies we tent to start organising their life into a three-act narrative; their story (usually a tragedy) is finished and can be more easily undershoot. The stars death doesn't mean their music is over. In fact Michael Jackson sold more music on the week after his death then he has done for years. 

History of Popular Music from 1950

The history of Music and Technology are closely linked. By technology developing over the past couple centuries it has let artists and song writers reach new bigger audiences. Starting with singles then album collection and now even videos being streamed directly to phones. 

Rhythm & Blues, Rock'n'Roll

The 'era of modern popular music begins with rock'n'roll in the early 1950s. In late 1940s, musicians whittled down the Big Band format to a bare minimum to just vocals, string bass, drums, piano, brass and syncopated version of the blues they called the 'rhythm and blues'. Again like Jazz before it, R&B was associated with sexuality and immorally and disapproved of by the establishment. 'Lyrics were laden and innuendo, and the dancing got very dirty'. It was ok for black youths and poor parts of the country but it was frowned upon in polite white society. 

Then ONE DAY Elvis Presley had a great idea for a birthday present for his mother; he went in and recorded a record for his mothers birthday. Elvis sang religious  gospel, western and even Dead n Martin material. Sam Philips recognised that Elvis had exactly what he had been looking for, a white singer who sounded black. Many listeners thought Elvis was black so Dewey.

By pairing down'n'dirty rhythm and blues Sam phillips created an irresistible pop culture combination. He was classed as a country star for chart purposes, in reality he was playing a new hybrid, country-inflused rhythm and blues, which would evolve into rockabilly and then rock'n'role. 

Pop Music and Television

Television was the next big technical innovation that had an impact on people consuming popular music. Evils Presley's performance of Hound Dog on the Milton Berle show brought a popular swam and focus onto TV screens. 

Reactions to Elvis - His Hound Dog performance rocketed Elvis to nation and international attention. 

In society at this stage in music there was a fear the Elvis music would instigate social changes and integration as he was a white boy who sung black music and had never made any attempt to hide that his musical heroes were black. 

Once Elvis appeared on TV is was clear that segregations were fighting a lost cause against the music. It was all becoming integrated  Rock'n'role was out and proud about the blend of black and white rhythm and soul. By 1957 mixed group tours were happening. 

Bano from the Rolling Stone in 2004 commented 'The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Creedence Clearwater Revival were all introduced to the blues by Elvis.'

'A background to the Music Industry and some basic theory'

POP MUSIC GENRE

'Girls Aloud epitomise the shiny trash aesthetic of pop music'

Genre - 'classification of a text according to its style and context, and its form and manner of production.'

Pop music involves the widest range of genres of texts in comparison to most other medias. 'Genres are continually being invented, crossed and revisited, and all the process of categorisation is an important one for the producers and fans of the music alike.' 

Generally speaking most music falls into the following categories:

• Pop (including global categories)
• Dance 
• R&B 
• Hip-hop/Rap 
• Rock 
• Punk 
• Country & Western 
• Folk 
• Jazz 
• Blues 
• Latin 
• Gospel 
• Reggae 
• New Age 

These categories usually have sub-genres and different mash-ups. Yet each of these genres have unique musical characteristics. This could be anything to do with the rhythm  instruments used for melody, lyric and vocal style. There are also other factors such as clothing, hair and lifestyle. Genres have specific audiences and sites weather its nightclubs, radio stations and when your listening to your own music. 

Genre and Artist Image

Image is key for an artist. Without even realising it we judge people and categorise them before they have even started singing. Look can be as generic as sound. 

Adele, whose classic pop styles of 1960s and 1970s. She is often photographed as wearing classic retro clothing suggesting she is a serious, soulful artiste in old school mode. 

Genre and Sales

We all have our own music taste and we tent to restrict ourself to a certain style of music and not really interested in buying anything outside that genre. Everything these days is organised into genres. If you go into HMV all the albums are sorted into genres even online music streamers (like spottily) reply on your past genre choices in order to keep playing you new music you might be then interested in buying. 

'Why Piracy is Perpetuating Plastic Pop' by Halienne Lindvall

'Unwillingness to pay for music means more assembly-line artists' and is making it harder to create a rock'n'roll revolution. 

Many artist have been very careful about voicing there opinions on piracy in the music business. Lar Ulrich declared that his actions and thoughts of piracy 'had never been about money but control'. 

Lily Allen, one of the first artists who voiced their opinion argued and idea that i myself had never thought of. Allen argued that for those artists who had already made their money from the industry before digital piracy became such a major issue yet those younger and newer artists will never get the chance to make the living that the other artists had, and will never get the same experiences. This comment by Lily Allen made her 'target of thousands of incredibly abusive messages - even death threats'. 










'What does this actually mean for the future. It will cheapen music eventually. And it it forces the business to take more drastic action...'


Noel Gallagher states 'It cost me a quarter of a million pounds to make it, you're not getting it for nothing'. He also explained that piracy is one of the reasons that tours are getting so long. 'Records dont get any cheaper to make, they get more expensive' and he pays for it all, every bit of it. 

Reading what Lily Allen and noel Gallagher had to say about piracy made me feel as though they are being cheated out of money. While members of the public are listening to their music for nothing they still have to pay to produce their work.  

Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins says 'commerce starts at the point people are happy with happy with paying for something - and the fact that technology now allows people to choose to not pay for music has turning music culture into a service culture.' He explained how the music culture has turned from one that is like 'I am going to do and produce what ever the fuck I like' where has now artists are 'supposed to beg for attention . He states 'it;s completely counterintuitive to why I became a musician in the first place and the personality of someone like me'. This comment I felt was quite saddening as what they love is now becoming more of a task. 

'Piracy and the unwillingness to pay for music is creating a self-perpetuating conveyer belt of cookie-cutter pop stars?'

After reading this article I stuck me that what the majority of the population are doing these days by downloading free music is actually a criminal activity and is taking a strong tole of the artists themselves. What people do not think about when downloading free illegal music is that they are stealing from the music industry and someones hard work is going to waist. I began to think of the price that songs are being sold for and the like cinemas they are having to make it more expensive due to the amount of people committing to piracy and the decreasing amount of income they are receiving.