MUS 503 Study Guide - Final Guide: Berry Gordy, Commodity Fetishism, Snoop Dogg
Document Summary
Social issues in popular music final exam study note(s): Mass audience arrives with the invention of mass media. Cannot be understood outside of industrialized contexts of production and consumption (hearing the music). The market organization is the most significant factor in explaining how certain institutional autonomy has developed in pop-music. It limits the musician on what they can do (creativity) Recognizes the tensions at work but suggests they are overcome in a systemic ideology of creativity. Exploitation of labour is crucial in the sense that surplus value is created by labour but taken away by other agents (conflict/marxist theory) Institutional autonomy: (ie: drake) corporate interests cede a certain amount of control to musicians and products that they sell. Musician/producers are imagined to be the r and d people in the chain with a more direct connection to the intended audience. Many musicians free to write their own songs and record them as they want until they are not profitable.
