How Social Factors Influence Our Choice of Music

The music industry has always been notoriously unpredictable, and the old A&R maxim that the cream always rises to the top is far from a given. For any one band that makes a living out of their music, there are at least a thousand that never will – and the proportion of musicians that actually become wealthy through their work is smaller still. There is, however, a general feeling (if not an actual consensus) that those musicians who do make Read More

How Did Pop Music Start?

The term pop music is most often associated with music sold heavily in a commercial way starting around the nineteen fifties. The term, of course, means popular music. Looking at this in a broader sense it could mean music that is generally popular among the people at large as opposed to some supposedly ‘serious music’ that is difficult to understand and only enjoyed by geeks in their ivory towers. Let’s take, for example, the following snippet of lyrics from “Rock Read More