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Exploring Popular Music

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Exploring Popular Music
Exploring Popular Music What is popular music? Popular music is defined as "any genre of music having wide appeal but usually only for a short time."(Popular music) My definition of popular music is music mostly by one hit wonders or well established artists appealing widely for a short time. Popular music differs from other genres of music because with other genres of music they are constrained to that genre meaning that have to fit that group and really venture outside that box and still be called that genre. As for popular music, I believe it does just the opposite: it isn 't constrained, it doesn 't fit a model, it dares to be different, and it evokes all genres of music. One popular music genre is rock, rock music has gone though many changes in the recent years and has received countless backlash for those changes. I believe Richard Brookhiser said it best "Rock is a form of popular culture that aims downward instead of aiming up. Rather than aspiring, it despires" (Brookhiser, 385). I feel that Brookhiser said this because as that the century progresses and technology progresses we are no longer shocked. So popular rock artists try to push the limits of our society, but in doing so it brings the popular culture down. "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience"(Shaw). Popular rock music of today has had the same effect on older generations as it has had 50 year ago granted, the band names and styles of dress have changed, but the disapproval of the music hasn‘t. Michael Budds once said that " It can be argued, however, that the passion and energy expended in attempts to alter or suppress rock and roll expression have only spurred rockers to flaunt "objectionable" aspects of their music and worldview in a spirit of defiant celebration"(Budds, Pg. 392, 2). Historical Rock music was seen as a defiant celebration that people believed promoted sex, violence, and drugs. In some cases


Bibliography: 1. "popular music." WordNet® 2.0. Princeton University. 09 Dec. 2006. 2. Brookhiser, Richard "All Junk, All the Time" New York Observer (1996): 384 3.Budds, Michael J. "From Fine Romance to Good Rockin '-and Beyond: Look What They 've Done to My Song" Beep! Censoring Rock and Rap Music Ed. Westport: Greenwood, (1999): 392 4. Casals, Pablo "A Disgrace to Music," Music Journal XIX: I (Jan, 1961), 18 5. Segrave, Kerry and Martin, Linda, Anti-Rock: The Opposition to Rock 'n 'Roll (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1988; reprinted New York: Da Capo Press, 1993), vii. 6. Shaw, George Bernard. Quotes-Famous (2006). 10/29/06. http://www.quotes-famous.com/quotes//36426.html
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