Can popular music ever be unplugged?

This week we learnt about the importance of technology in popular music, in particular the invention and development of the microphone, the amplifier and recording technology. Musicians have used technology to produce new sound and often used technology in the way it wasn’t intended for. This includes Jimi Hendrix using the feedback from standing too close to an amp to produce his trademark wailing guitar sound or Bing Crosby using the microphone to emphasise the bass of his voice to produce a more imitate and warm sound. These technologies have changed the face of live performance as now artists can dance and move around while singing and musicians can be heard in a huge stadium. The development of recording technology has led to artists being able to record multiple tracks to one piece of music at different times, producing a note perfect piece of music. From this I cannot see popular music ever being unplugged. 

What is popular music?

Throughout recent history popular it has meant ’low of base, vulgar or of the common people’, ‘courting favour of the people by undue practices‘, ‘widely favoured‘, a synonym for good and ’from and of the people’.  Anaid Kassabian says that popular means that it’s unmediated yet all forms of music, except pure voice, involved technology in the form of a musical instrument. A main theme of discussion was the difference between popular music and art. Robert Burnett said that popular music is commercially orientated and commercial is defined as being concerned with money over artistic or any other value.  The elitists thought that Nessum Dorma by Pavorotti, what is considered to be the best piece of classical music of all time, was somehow cheapened by the fact that it reached number one in the UK singles chart as a result of it being used for the theme song for the BBCs coverage of the 1990 world cup.