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... Australia, will reflect what it is like living in a while, racist society. In the UK reggae is listened to by three or four generations of West Indians giving them all a common bond to their ethnicity. While in Australia, Aborigines and their families, have a particular attraction to Country and Western music despite its American origins.
Country music emphasises past values and thrives on the identification of the rural ideal (Frith 1983, p. 26). This identification with the land may allow a dispossessed people to mourn and sing about the loss and destruction of their own land. Young women also respond to popular music differently, mainly due to the restrictions placed on their lives. While young women are not actually excluded from youth cultures they are not very welcome in them.
Similarly women performances are not excluded from the music industry but are generally there as representations of male sexual fantasies. As consumers of popular music they are regarded as stupid and politically passive (Muncie 1987, p. 15). Young women usually consume music in three different ways: in the privacy of their or their friends bedroom, at a concert or (as shown in Get Into the Groove by Madonna) dancing. In the bedroom young women can be together in safety. They can talk about things that are of concerns or interest to them and listen to their music together (Muncie 1987, p. 5). The concert setting also allows young women to be together in safety, but this time in greater numbers.
The usual portrayal of young women at concerts is that of hysterical little girls. An alternative view would see them as a group of women out together having fun, and enjoying themselves in a way that is not usually sanctioned in a male dominated society (Street 1985, p. 4). The screaming at concerts is in effect a scream of sexual release, and of... defiance, celebration and excitement (Street 1985, p. 4). What is usually on sale at these concerts and in the records that young women predominantly buy is the notion of real love. (Though concerts and video clips by the likes of Madonna have challenged this in favor of simple flaunting of their own sexuality. ) In a society that penalizes young womens sexuality it is easier and safer, to fall in love with a record / poster / scrapbook of Jason or Kylie than it is to spend an evening with a pimply faced octopus from Year 10.
What is being bought by young women is real love and sex (Steward & Garrat 1984, p. 142). What is generally forgotten about young women and popular music is that... the whole structure rests on the backs of those silly screaming girls (Steward & Garrat 1984, p. 142). It was mainly young women who initially bought the records of the Beatles, the Stones and T.
Rex. It was their purchasing power that put Elvis and Michael Jackson in the superstar category. Male pop performers continue to exploit women in their songs. The Rolling Stones, for example, have traditionally been seen as modern and progressive yet they have consistently portrayed women as objects that men use, degrade and ultimately discard (Brown 1987, p. 26). Despite the fact that the music industry continues to reflect the sexism of our society there are recent challenges to this from performers like Madonna, Melissa Ethridge, Tracy Chapman and Sinead OConnor. These women performers are probably the closest we will come to for the moment in terms of lesbian popular music.
There are a few lesbian performers but apart from Melissa Ethridge non have reached a really popular level. Young lesbians can look to the women performers who are strong, talented, often political and who can do things by and for themselves. While most women performers may not be lesbians themselves, their very success is possibly an inspiration for young women trying to come to terms with their sexuality. Young gay men have quite a few gay performers that they can identify with. Gay performers, and the gay scene have, like Black music, provided young people with that element of thrill and danger. From the gay cabarets of Berlin in the 1920 s and 30 s to gay discos in Sydney, London and New York, the gay scene is usually at the forefront of any new musical style.
For example, the contemporary interest in dance music and its accompanying dress style of Levi 501 s and Dr Martens stems from the gay scene in Sydney. Popular music provides a valuable backdrop not only for sub-cultures but for young people in general, providing them with an avenue for creating and experimenting with their own identity. Young people invest the music, or the artist, with a significance that is unique to themselves (Brown 1987, p. 7). Young people buy records because they already have a cultural significance attached to them (Hebdige 1979, p. 95). The young people themselves have given the music meaning.
This highlights the extent to which young people are active agents in the production of popular culture and popular music, not just passive recipients. Popular music and youth work Popular music is an integral part of youth cultures. It takes up a large amount of young peoples leisure time either in listening to recordings or the radio, discussing music or performers with friends, or even just wearing the associated T-shirts. Popular music is significant to young people... socially, morally and economically in a way that few other leisure pursuits can ever be (Brown 1987, p. 7).
They very fact that popular music does take up so much of young peoples leisure time makes it an issue for youth work. Given the recent rises in youth unemployment, there is likely to be an increased emphasis on controlling young peoples leisure time. There is bound to be conflict between the rights of young people to enjoy their leisure time versus the belief that young people should be out looking for a job or in training. The right to leisure will have to be fought for. In this context the meaning and control of popular music becomes increasingly political (Street 1985, p. 5). There have been demonstrations recently in London, with young people demanding the freedom to party (New Woman 1990, p. 46).
What is at stake here is not only young peoples freedom to party, but also their freedom of expression and freedom of movement. Given the traditional controlling function that youth work has played in the lives of young people, youth workers have to make a conscious decision on where they stand on issues like this. The struggle for the freedom to party cannot be seen in isolation from other freedom struggles. What happens anywhere in the world with popular music gives youth workers here in Australia an opportunity to open up issues like censorship, the nature of society and the music industry, sexism, power, etc.
Young people will have opinions on the subjects involved. Is censorship of lyrics a good thing? Could there be a link between Heavy Metal and youth suicide? Is it OK for women to be portrayed as sex objects in songs? Questioning young people along these lines allows them to explore the music they listen to in more depth. Music videos are another way of getting young people to think about wider societal issues.
Good examples of this are a couple of the recent releases by Midnight Oil: Beds Are Burning, a song which tackles the issues of racism and Land Rights: and Blue Sky Mine, a great four-minute introduction to capitalism. Finally, it must be stressed that popular music is also about fun, and as such it is a good way of attracting young people to particular youth services. The service could, for instance, offer discos or dances, music videos, and make available musical instruments for workshops or performances. Youth workers should also remember that everybody's taste in popular music is different, but that is not what matters. What is important is the cultural significance that has been attached to it. This gives youth workers and young people the possibility of common ground particularly if they are from the same class, gender or ethnic background.
Conclusion Popular music, therefore, is not only significant to young people. It is significant to youth workers in terms of their day to day dealings with young people and in their own personal lives as consumers of popular music. Popular music is also significant to society in general, both as a highly profitable and influential industry and for its role in supporting the dominant ideological view of how society should be. References Bennet, T. 1981. Popular culture and hegemony in post-war Britain, in Politics. Ideology and Popular Culture, vol. 1, Open University Press, Milton Keyes, UK.
Brown, A. 1987, Lets Discuss... Pop Music, Wayland Publishers, Hove, UK. Delahunt, M. 1990. Unpublished lecture notes, WACAE, Claremont. Frith, S. 1983.
Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock n Roll, Constable, London, UK. Gitlin, T. 1989, Style for styles sake, in The Weekend Australian, January 21 & 22. Hebdige, D. 1979, Sub-culture: The Meaning of Style, Routledge, London, UK. McGregor, C. 1984, Pop Goes the Culture, Pluto Press, London, UK. Mc Robbie, A. 1980, Settling account with sub-cultures: a feminist critique, in Screen Education, no. 34. Muncie, J. 1987, British Youth Cultures and Sub-cultural Analysis: A Bibliographical Guide.
New Woman 1990, Acid house: the new craze, August. Steward, S. & Garrat, S. 1984, Signed, Sealed & Delivered: of Women in Pop, Pluto Press, London, UK. Street, J. 1985, Playing with money: political economy of popular music, in Youth and Policy, no. 14, Autumn. Wilson, E. 1990, Unpublished lecture, UWA, Nedlands. White, R. 1990, No Space of their Own, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
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Research essay sample on Popular Music Young People
