Scholarly Article Analysis

Scholarly Article Analysis

In an article titled “Rock Music: Dimensions of a Mass Medium-Meaning Production through Popular Music” Peter Wicke describes the direct correlation between consumers of music (mostly youth) and the strategies major music industries use to appeal to their consumers. The article was produced in the Canadian University Music Review Vol. 10.

I found this article to be very informative, as well as strengthening some of the arguments that have been brought up in class. For example, Wicke writes that “Teenagers . . . tend to be unaware of many song's lyrics and messages; most teenagers are attracted to popular records more by their overall sound and beat - or the performing group - than by their verbal content.” This is an idea that I found to be true in my “Music Memories #1” assignment. While growing up, I really did not care (or know) what the true meaning was of the songs I was listening to. Others have discussed this in class as well. It seems that as a teenager, you simply listen to whatever music MTV is telling you to listen to simply to be popular.

Finally, Wicke goes on to describe how music industries appeal to the youth. He writes “Rather than being related to the individual songs themselves, the songs' gestural and visual dimensions seem to be connected to modes of performance…and to the technological requirements and conventions of media such as television, video and film.” I found this to be informative because as a teenager you do not choose to like a song due to its lyrics. You simply choose to like a certain band or singer due to their popularity. It defines what others think of you, what group you hang out with and countless other means of popularity while growing up.