Media in the 21st Century - Popular Music History

Due to the problematic nature of proving firsts, it is better to look at popular music history as a series of events without using specific dates.

Modern music revolutions tend to follow the same sort of pattern:

·         1920’s – Jazz – originally mistrusted, seen as dangerous, associated with drugs & miscegenation

·         1950’s – Elvis & Rock ‘n’ Roll – morally suspect, thought to sexualise young women

·         1960’s – Dylan ‘goes electric’ – seen as a betrayal of culture and politics – also a technological revolution

·         1970’s – Punk – created fear over moral values, seen as untalented

Nowadays these styles are seen as significant steps forwards in music and are often praised and therefore have cultural worth (often leading to increased prices on related items – ‘vintage’).

This sort of pattern can also be seen in technological revolutions; the use of amplification in music can be debated as either de-skilling or democratising the ability to play instruments such as the guitar in the same way that auto-tune has with singing.

This shows that histories are constructed narratives which can be made to fit the views of an audience to provide evidence for a certain point of view.