Thursday 1 December 2011

Is music Dead?

"Is music dead?"

As a music lecturer, I often pose students questions like this to instigate vibrant discussion and research for a thesis or presentation.These are of course, many different ways to approach such a question, much of which would be based on personal opinion and musical preferences, but must be backed up by references and examples as appropriate set against the presented criteria. There is nothing worse that a short, shoddy report based on bad research that is haphazard and not supported by evidence or research in any way.

I decided to takle this question myself as if I was a student being asked to present their carefully researched and referenced assignment to the modern day learning environment.

I looked deeply into examining the current music sales and chart statistics compared to five, ten and twenty years ago.
I looked at the attitude of the public and how they appreciate music in a modern society,
I looked at how music has become a commodity and an ondistry based on finance rather than artistry and talent.
I looked at how music is presented in the moden market of mass media including television and radio.
I examined deep within the industry itself, how music is recorded and produced and how the artist may or may not have lost control and freedom
I looked at as many genres as I could and investigated in depth the similarities and differences between them.
I looked at music historically and ethnically and how this was a relevant factor in the modern day society of multicultural diversity.
I made realms of notes and citations, I interviewed people directly involved in the industry including performers and writers and producers.
I eventually produced my final thesis based on all of the intense research I had conducted.

My thesis based on the assignment brief to summarise all of the research I did and then presented  in a coherent fashion and in less than 10,000 words was thus:

* "NO"


*Please feel free to use this in any assignment work you may have, please remember to reference the author and give due respect and lots of cash for my efforts. Thank you. ©DV 2011

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