Task 2

Media Ideology

Popular Music

There are two different types of music categorized as Popular and Serious music. Popular music is considered to have various levels of value which society take for granted such as social and musical values which are totally independent of one another.
Popular music has Standardized Characteristics as there are rules to follow in its production. The chorus lyrics are easy to remember and the harmony is repetitive these characteristics usually come in the form of various examples such as the 'novelty' song. This music has also simplified its ways of interaction with the listener by making it easy to understand and also has dance types creating a very repetitive listening experience overall.

Popular usic aims to be industrially standardized to become more successful in its promotion within the mass media, but that can not be done with out following the standardized pattern within production as society are conditioned to recognise these listening traits which popular music has always contained.

With Popular music there are no surprises and so the listener is prepared before he/or she listens and is conditioned to except the fact that there is no in depth meaning. With serious music on the other hand each detail be it the musical notes or the lyrics is influenced by the meaning and offers the listener complexity which is dependant on the course of the music. This gives the listener a more in depth meaningful experience.
Popular music also promotes Structural Standardization which takes away the Independence and the freedom of the individuals in society and forces all listeners to take away the same experience. This has taken away new ways of producing music which has resulted in an array of unoriginal popular music being massed produced giving the listener less choice instead of more.

If alistener is not capable of taking in the seriousness of complex music they pick up on the simplest part of the beat and accept the rest as a parodistic distortation of the simplest form.

Popular music aims to be industrially standardized to become more successful in its promotion within the mass media, but that can not be done with out following the standardized pattern within production as society are conditioned to recognise these listening traits which popular music has always contained.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzRkgtJn2is- Is this the way to Amarillo-Peter Kay

I Choose 's this the way to Amarillo'originally sung by Tony Christie, then by Peter Kay to raise money for Comic relief in 2005.

This sony was originally written by two Americans but in 1971 Tony Christie released it into the UK and it came in at no18 in the charts. Although this song wasn't particularly famous and popular at first, it was pickd up by many social groups in society and was chanted at various events such as football matches.

Thesong was originally called Amarillo because it rhymed with the word pillow, this can b linked to where Adorno suggests, the means of these particular songs are very stantardized and have very little meaning.

The song was also played in the key of A major and in a time signiture, which we can also link to where Adorno suggests that there are Musical Characteristics of this type of music to keep it musically standardised and easier for the listener to digest.

In 2005 this song became a hit when Peter Kay re-released it in one of his TV series Phoenix nights. He also did a music video and sung it at various festivals to raise money for charity.

I think this song was so successful because it is easy for the listener to digest as there are no hidden meanings within the song and the music is repetitive and so easy to remember even without the words. I also think it was successful as it has many Peter Kay being one, celebrities attached to it which added some credibility to the song. Within the video the celebrities were also walking, or doing a particular dance to this song which Adorno suggests is also a common thing with this kind of popular music.