What is world music, and what are the functions of it?

World music is the bringing together of local (national) and global (international) music. Everything in the world appears to be interconnected, world music may therefore be seen as a hybrid taking on various characteristics, including those of local and global styles. World music should be there to bring together and merge different talents, sounds and cultures. The main issue with world music seems to be the power relations behind it; which record company owns who? are the artists selling well? do they have a high revenue? rather than how enjoyable or well produced the music is. The function of world music is there to challenge the power relations offering people new sounds and experiences. Jocelyne Guilbault suggests that if we want to fully understand world music, we must look at its place within the complex and constantly changing dynamic of a world which is historically, socially and spatially interconnected.

Is popular music a mass produced commodity or a genuine art form?

Popular music is a mass produced commodity, Adorno suggests that when there is a successful song, hundreds of others spring up imitating the successful one, the first version is therefore commodified for mass production and a money making scheme. The genuine art within popular music is only applicable to the song writer as this shows a talent, being able to sing a tune or dance along while singing is not an art form. Adorno suggests that it is exploited to commercial exhaustion, culminating in 'the crystallization of standards'. The standardization of music creates the illusion of the individual, people feel invigorated by the music they listen to and see themselves as different and individual whereas they are just succumbing to the popular. People may view their own tastes in music as an artistic taste, but some people aren't to bothered if theirs is seen as art or not as long as they enjoy what they listen to.

How useful is a production of culture perspective in understanding the birth of rock and roll?

The perspective seems to ignore the music and more importantly the genres of music, therefore it might as well be called the birth of different forms of music rather than rock and roll. This apparent rock and roll of the 50s and the suggested rock and roll of Peterson's perspective incorporates Jazz, R&B, and black music, which in current times would be hiphop and so on rather than the general ideas of what makes up rock. The perspective suggests that the only reason rock and roll was born was due to the creation of vinyl, the distribution of music and the rebellion of radio. Peterson's six factors for the creation of rock and roll ignores the music and concentrates on the economic factors for example the industry structure with the different record companies. Peterson's perspective is key in understanding the economic and environmental factors but ignores the musicality of rock and roll.

Is it reasonable to consider Rock music as gendered Male?

It is reasonable to consider Rock music male, as it may be seen to be written by the men for the men, also suggesting its written to tell women what men want. Women are seen to be too emotional to 'Rock out', they also aren't as willing to show anger or be sexually suggestive. Women are more prominent in 'softer' genres such as RnB where the music is generally written for them. To understand whether something has been gendered male an understanding of the audience needs to take place, heavy metal for example has a large working class following this suggests a common ground between the lyrics and the audience. However for all good Rock music there is normally a woman in the side lines whether this be the guitar, the wife or the androgynous fashion sense of the glam-rockers. In a way the sexually suggestive material of Rock may make women feel sexually desirable.