Pop Music: Context of Globalization (Essay Sample)

Pop Music In The Context Of Globalization
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Date of SubmissionIntroduction
The subject of pop music in the context of globalization has fumed a lot of debate for scholars in the musical field. To begin with, pop music could be elucidated as music that is constantly changing. The most common trait of pop music is that it comprises of verses and a repeated chorus. In fact, these songs frequently last between 2 ½ minutes and 5 ½ minutes. Nonetheless, there are exceptional cases where the songs are abnormally long. This type of genre is also characterized by its aim of attracting a massive audience. It also assimilates and borrows from a wide variety of genres such as country, rock, r&b, and punk. What about globalization? Globalization could be elucidated as the firmness of the world and the escalating notion that the world is a small region. That said, this work discusses pop music in the context of globalization. This is done by discussing pop music in relation to the Islamic culture, globalization of pop music in Hong Kong, the Caribbean, and Israel.
Pop Music in Israel.
Authors like Regev and Serrousi have attributed immense significance involving globalization and Israeli pop music. They argue that pop music in Israel is not diverse from the national sphere of pop music in other nations. In fact, they assert that various influences and the profusion of pop music in Israel are similar to the current trend of pop music throughout the world. The same authors discussed the relation between the desire for local and national identity to accept the pop culture into their society. These authors described three musical cultures that reveal that the pop culture in Israel combines the cultural process of crystallization and homogeneity. One of these cultures is the oriental music whose self-image arises from the local Israeli originality. This culture is connected to the stylistic elements of the Greek Laika, Turkish Arabesque and the French Algerian Rai. Moreover, the typical instrumentation in the Israeli pop music involves electric guitars, synthesizers, and drums. Evidently, this instrumentation connects the Israeli pop to the world beat genre (falls under pop music). The Israeli pop music contains a variety of aesthetic elements that are common to other styles and genres. It follows that the Israeli pop industry represents the unique collective identity of pop music in other cultures. The Israeli pop music also shares a variety of aesthetic and formal elements of the Anglo-American rock. This has been made possible by the sharing of the different pop cultures in the world. In short, the concept of globalization has become the Israeli parallel to other pop music cultures throughout the world.
Pop Music in The Caribbean
In the recent past, globalization has been a source of threats and serious challenges to the pop music in some nations. Nonetheless, its musical expression precedes the widespread use of pop music such as the Caribbean pop music. In fact, the main concern for small cultures is the utilization and assimilation of their original pop productions devoid of distorting their unique productions. Such cases have raised concerns on the legitimacy and representation of the communities and music where the music originates. To be specific, the main issue brought by globalization to the pop music industry is the dilution and exploitation of original productions in the industry. For instance, the exoticism linked to the Caribbean as a tourist destination permeates the consumption and production of Caribbean’s pop music in the western metropolitan centers. A good illustration for such a case is the calypso music that suffered aesthetic and cultural dilution in corporate hands. Rather than selling the music for its aesthetic strengths, the music was reconfigured to penetrate larger markets. Evidently, individual musicians may have benefited from such endeavors.
Musical corporations have emerged strongly in the past 20 years. To date, this conglomerate is represented by four leading companies. These companies include, Sony Musical International, the Warner Music Group, EMI, and the Universal Music. Even though the internet has outpaced the main companies in distributing music, the business models used in distributing pop music are still serious concerns. This owes to the fact that efforts to turn marginal pop music into a mainstream product are led by large companies, which make sweeping assumptions on the preferences of the audience. The western recording industry’s behavior of refining the Caribbean pop music removes the authenticity of original p