How is the music industry changing?


The music industry is deemed to be ‘ less easily controlled’ Stafford. This is due to various reasons, but the main contribution to how the music industry has changed into becoming ‘ less easily controllable’ is due to technology advances over the last few years, and these advances have caused major advantages and disadvantages toward the music industry in very recent times.

The use of convergence and vertical integration within media and music related products impact heavily on how the music industry progresses and changes. Convergence is a key term when considering how the music industry has developed, for example mobile phones now can turn into music devices, mp3’s in which you are able to listen to music on your phone. This is a development in technology and it gives you an idea of how wide spread the music industry is becoming as it is converging with other products and therefore tapping into almost everything, making it available everywhere. So the music industry has begun to change due to factors such as products merging together to make music devices.

Another example of how the music industry is developing and changing is this idea of vertical integration in which you have a company such as Apple and Apple alongside Steve Jobs had the idea that created the revolutionary music mp3 ‘ Ipod.’ The genius behind this invention means that you have to have follow up programmes on your computer, for example to have the Ipod you need software such as ‘Itunes’ which you can up load your music onto and then transfer it to the Ipod software, this then leads onto where you consume your music from therefore leading on to having the ‘Itunes store’ which you can locate and buy whatever music tracks you like and put them onto your portable device. This is an example of how the music industry is rapidly changing as technology advancements like this makes music a fashionable thing, you see people with the Ipod and you want it. It makes the music industy a more broadcast and widespread thing than it ever has been before, it lets you listen to music all the time. It is a fact that music is something valued in a persons everyday life, Marocesh records stated that 60 % of 16-34 year olds would rather go without sex than music for a week’ this suggeststhat the transformation of technology has made music something that people cant seem to live, without, as people nowadays thanks to mp3’s have it with them constantly, and this technology is still advancing.

Prosumer technology is allowing people, who may not even be skilled in any factor that involves producing a form of entertainment musically, allow people to enter this field themselves without any previous training or musical talent. Examples of this prosumer technology involves Mac programmes such as garage band and I movie. These advances in technology are allowing the music industry to change rapidly as people who five to ten years ago wouldn’t have the ability or chance to produce there own music and then channel and advertise it via web 2, have the ability to do so now. They’re fore making the industry more accessible than ever before.

Apple also changed the concept of niche audiences from being a bad thing to a good thing. Therefore now changing the mainstream audience to being that of live performances rather than electronic. Alex Martin suggested that ‘ More money is made from live music that physical feels.’ (Rowland magazine, April 09) and if this is actually the case, it means that the music industry is changing in a way that people don’t actually tend to buy there music much anymore, therefore more money is being made from other formats such as gigging and major festivals. Therefore this also changes the market for what music is popular as well,

There has been much debate on the consumption of music itself, and many a lawsuit considering the issue of illegal downloads such as Napster and the lawsuit against Kevin Napster for the distribution of free music. This has caused major havoc in the industry and how the big 4 record labels receive the money and also how the artists make there money. So the music is changing in a way that as Stafford said ‘is less easily controlled.’ On the other hand recent reports and works of certain artists have shown that if you work with the technology advances such as web 2 and file sharing resources, you can actually still promote your work and make money. For example, ok go, using a simple idea within the video ‘here it goes again’ using a dance routine involving running machines, which would of cost little money, managed to sell there record and in doing so there video on you tube became one of the most viewed videos of all time. You also have bands such as Enter Shikari. Edith Blackman stated ‘ they put out their record they and toured it’ and in doing so have become a major success. This tells us that the music industry is changing in a way in which now you can use web 2, through marketing things on face book, my space and you tube to your advantage, when a few years ago this was seen as a major disadvantage to the whole of the music industry, but now music industry involvers are finding ways to overcome this major issue, and in doing so becoming very successful and making there money back. Also if you put the work into doing live shows your self you are also making money, and all of this is possible without the help of the big 4 record labels, and this a few years ago would have been an unheard of thing.

Rebecca Scanlon.

Assess the Marxist view of the role of education.

Marxists views are of a negative outlook on society as they focus on capitalist ideologies, which are transmitted by the ruling class differences and reinforce equality.

Marxists such as Louis Althusser (1972) believe that schools transmit ideologies the capitalism is just and reasonable and they train people to accept there role in society as workers and to except their future exploitation.

Sociologists Bowel and Gintus considered this an idea called the correspondence theory and this idea considers that what happens within the school environment mirrors what goes on in society itself and they also suggest that success is not entirely related to the individuals ability. This is why Bowel and Gintus suggest that white middle class students tend to do better, therefore the government uses the schools to transmit there ideologies. Bowel and Gintus also consider the Marxist idea of the social reproduction within the school system. It is suggested that whatever class a young child goes in to the education as whether it be upper, middle or lower, this is how they will leave it, ready to gain a working position within that class boundary.

This also ties in with the idea of cultural and material deprivation in which forsythe and furlog (2003) suggest that the cost of higher education and the prospect of debt puts off many bright working class students, this therefore tells us the Marxists view on education is that the education system very much favours the middle class section of society, as if a child of working class did have the intellectual ability to move into further education it would be very hard due to the cost of university and higher education training itself.

There are various different points of view when assessing the Marxist view on education, for example if we consider the functionalist view on education in which Talcott Parsons suggests that school bridges the gap between family and industry. It also suggests that school is actually a mini version of society and it therefore mirrors society itself, it is a place in which gets you ready for the working world itself, but not in the way that Marxists suggests. This view also suggests that it is irrelevant what your background is as the school sifts and sorts people as soon as they go according to their individual intelligence.

This differs with the Marxists view as it suggest that school is a place in which helps you to grow, learn and gain your independence, not to generate you into just another proletarian worker or whatever your class will eventually generate you into.

Rebecca Scanlon.

Mock results

Overall:
Grade; B 72%

My analysis:
analysis........12/20
examples ....10/20
terminology ..6/10


52% D

Targets:

1) to present more technical observation of what the camera, editing, sound and mise en scene are doing and the represention they are making.
2) More focus on the explicit representation, such as if the focus is on gender focus on gender.

eastenders

We see a static shot of Alfie moon walking down a street, Mise en scene denotes shops on the street, and he walks past a dry cleaners and a news agents, Alfie is also carrying bags which suggests that he has been out shopping. This is representative of life within a working class communal area as it has houses, and shops. The camera then cuts to the Mise en scene of a pub and background lighting is used to create this dimly lighted pub, we have a 180-degree shot with the camera showing 8 or 9 women all shouting. The camera then cuts to a shot opposite to show a young boy looking very confused and quite frightened.


The women within the pub all range between the ages of 20 to about 60 years of age, this represents how all members of society like to socialise, and in this particular scenario at there local pub which is open to all people of the area. Costume denotes the way gender is portrayed within society, we see Kat at the head of all the leering and shouting, wearing a low cut top, Jewellery and an excessive amount of make up. This could possibly be a representation of the average working class women in London.

A long shot of Alfie and Spencer hugging connotes an example of family values within society and this is an example of brotherly love. We then cut to a zoom out shot of a living room, which belongs to the Beale family; mise en scene denotes 3 characters sat on the sofa looking worried about another member of the Beale family. We also see an extreme close up during this excerpt of a camera, which has been given to the boy whom is moving away, and it is showing a picture of Ian and his wife, this again presents this idea of love and family values.

Sound plays an important part within soap operas, as they are a representation of reality background music is not needed, therefore ambient sound of traffic and people talking in the street, which is quiet in order to hear what is going on with the dialogue.

Cuts from different family situations, we see the older generation, a family situation, a pub scene in which Spencer moon is mistaken for a stripper and the ladies within the pub throw themselves at him, and this is because Spencer is Alfie moons brother.

Crime Dramas: Life on Mars.

An essential part in a crime drama is the crime itself here we can see the victim of a brutal shooting this occurs very often in TV crime shows as it is extremely essential in order for the story line to work within this drama.















In a Tv crime drama, depending on who it is the series follows you need police investigators or detectives so that they can solve the problem. In these programmes the problem being a crime of some sort. Another example taken from life on mars considers this there are detectives here who are called to asses the scene of the crime, also as you can see here these characters are all men, it could be valid to say that this could conclude to some sort of gender stereotype.

















Work place, this is representative a a general police station which meetings take place, here we can clearly see the different characters and heirarchy. The detective cheive is most likely to be the male figure sat at the desk here.


















Here we see a clip of a strong women detective/police figure, this clip is from the spin off series to Life on Mars. So female dominant characters can also be presented in Tv crime dramas.