How music is shaped through (cultural) industry

David Byrne, frontman, singer and main songwriter for the band Talking Heads, aksed himself in his book How music works: "Does the venue make music?" Quoting from the TED Talk inspired in this book — "From outdoor drumming to Wagnerian operas or arena rock, [Byrne] explores how context has pushed musical innovation". The question is how the cultural industries, for instance, in the shape of the MP3 format, have influenced the evolution of the music industry.

According to Richard A. Peterson, in "The Production of Culture Perspective", rock 'n' roll music kicked jazz and swing music from the scene because of new recording techniques and of the evolution of vinyl (313). Later, there was dance music in discotheques and, what Byrne calls "car music“ – a mixture of the hip hop genre that sounds really well in cars with quality sound and bass system woofers. What's interesting in all of this is the fact that music today is being recorded for certain formats and for certain markets. For example, commercial music today is mostly recorded for playing videos on music channels like VH1 and MTV (which, by the way, has little to do with music); it also works magnificently on radio stations, especially when played during day time. Why? Simply because in the middle of the day most people listen to radios while driving cars, going to work, doing some housework etc., and they don't really pay attention to what they are listening to,so that it works as a background sound just to break the day routine silence. On the other hand, people who listen to the radio during the night (for example, before going to sleep, lying in their bed) want to really listen and participate in what music has to offer. Thus, most of the times better music is always played during the night. In some cases, commercial musicians rarely even perform their "one hit wonder" live, simply because they can't do it on stage like it was recorded and later produced in the studio because (too much Auto-Tune in the sound mixing!). But they don't need to play shows for money simply because they get enough money just by having their music played on radio stations and music channels all around the world. And maybe they don't want to play live because they don't feel their music, since it results from the artificial business environment and it has little to do with emotion and honesty (that's just my point of view).

Also, as Byrne argues, this type of music sounds great on MP3 players and with your headphones on  simply because it was recorded for that kind of "venue" (27) So not only that sort of "architecture" conditions music, but also the cultural industry (itself shaped by technical innovations). New players and new ways of consuming music are brought to us constantly and so music will also evolve (or devolve, depending on the perspective) to be able to adapt itself to new market needs. And yesterday's opera houses and music halls, correspond to today's new headphones, car sound systems and all other new technologies coming to us out of nowhere. The reason behind all this? Money. 

P.S. I'm not under grading any kind of music here. Music is a personal thing, just like the taste that leads you to consume it.

Mislav Bartoš

Bibliography

Byrne, David. How Music Works. McSweeney's. 2012.

Peterson, Richard A. "The Production of Culture Perspective." Annual Review Sociology. 2004. 30:311-334.