Music production: some starting principles. Music was a performing art for hundreds of years, as such it was linked to rituals of some sort or other. An example: going to a music hall to listen to classical music or opera. Partly as a result the emphasis was on the song, not the singer. There was such a thing as a famous singer, but they would be expected to sing popular songs, not a distinct repertoire. These assumptions have been pretty much reversed by recorded sound.
In an advert for a London commercial radio station, a very, very popular singer suggests there is a song on this station(s playlist) for every possible mood. This is an interesting idea, if we take this at face value. Either the audience's moods are so predictable you can base a radio station play list around them, or it's possible to programme mass consciousness.
People go to concerts to see pop stars, not listen to them. There is not the faintest chance of a Rolling Stones gig being relevant or vital, at least not as relevant and vital as once they might have been. You go to a gig to watch The Stones, to be near Mick 'n' Keef in the flesh.
It is nowadays rare for people to put an album on simply to listen to it, like one might read a book. It's so unusual there are now album clubs, where people get together to specifically do this. Music is instead incorporated into everyday life: "it was the soundtrack to our lives", a common form of approval for modern music. The advent of personal listening, walkmen, internet downloading, Ipods etc has accelerated this trend.
Popular music is ambient music unacknowledged, music designed to influence and enhance mood.
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