What is World Music?

When I go into HMV, I notice that the cd's labelled under the genre as world music are all exclusive to a specific country which is essentially folk music. Genres such as Irish, country and Arab music is present in this section. Does this mean that World Music is music that is one which is exclusive to one country? I think it is music which is not affected by cultural imperialism and one that is not universally popular. It might be a genre which doesn't fit in with the global template of Anglo-American pop music.

World music can be seen as authentic cultural music which is what I tend to vision it as. Its traditional music from countries globally which is why HMV may decide to label folk music as world music. The function of world music is to keep us all close to our cultural roots and where we came from. Pop music does not strictly fit in with world music as a genre as pop music appeals to the masses while world music may be seen to be just a local thing.

Is Popular Music a Mass Produced Commodity or a genuine art form?

Firstly Aldorno argues totally against the idea of pop music being an art form. He argues it creates inferior commodities. Music can be considered an art form regardless of the genre or can it? I think an art form has to contain originality and creativity which is why some music such as the pop group JLS may have no credibility in the music world. They can be seen as simply a mass produced commodity with no originality whatsoever and just another manufactured boyband foe record companies to make money.

There are millions of bands out there and due to this, some may have similarities which is why Aldorno may not see pop music as an art form as opposed classical artists such as Beethoven. There is some pop music genres out there that not only change the way we listen to music but the style in which we dress and live our lives and to me this is an art form. For example, The Sex Pistols and the punk era. This brought among a new movement for the people which I don't see as a mass produced commodity.

How useful is a production of culture perspective in understanding the birth of Rock and Roll?

The birth of rock and roll has produced many arguments. Peterson's production of culture perspective has weaknesses and strenghts. One of the strengths being that he analyses six factors that have brought around something new. He looks at the socio-economic platform for bringing about something new being Rock and Roll. He states that those artists in the 50's did not create the rock boom, they were just opportunists taking music that was already there produced by black artists putting the myths such as Elvis creating Rock and roll to sleep.

Peterson's theory is very useful in looking at the birth of Rock as it asks us to look at the original roots of the music such as thoses black artists from the 40's, e.g Wynonie Harris with Good Rockin Tonight from 1947. I think this theory asks us to look to cultural roots and artefacts of this music. Artists such as Elvis just developed the genre.

However the theory does not justify the birth of Rock and Roll and give us a definitive answer as to where the exact birth of Rock and Roll came from.

Is it reasonable to consider that rock music is gendered male?

It could be argued that rock music sticks to a trend of most rock stars being mainly male. When we think of the guitar, I tend to imagine a male playing, the guitar itself is a dominant force within rock music so it could be argued that it is indeed gendered. Mavis Bayton analysed trade magazines in 1988, 1992 and 1996 finding out that each year, features, news and photos of guitarists were overwhelmingly male. There is no logical explanation for the absence of the female guitarists. I tend to vision females playing more feminine instruments such as the piano or flute. It is not strictly true that there are no women in rock music because there are but it is dominated by the male. For example Rolling Stones magazine had no women guitarists in the top 50 of all time. I think rock music is gendered due to this reason.