Music

Music is a form of art that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My generation has grown up with it's presence; it's influence is seen all around. It completely boggles my mind to think that at one point in time it did not exist! I cannot picture a world without music. While reading this chapter in my textbook, I learned a lot of information that I had no previous knowledge of. It was cool to learn about how music came to be what it is - how it started and developed over time. Choosing the "5 big ideas" from this chapter is a lot more difficult than it seems, because I believe a lot of this information to be of importance.

1. The first topic I came across that I felt could be considered a "big idea" concerned Emil Berliner's invention of the gramophone. Although this is a piece of history, it had a serious affect on the music world today. It led to the development of modern music! This invention gave people the possibility to change the recording in the form of a plastic disc. This plastic disc would eventually become the record, which would lead to CDs! Besides the benefit to the consumer, these discs were a lot cheaper to make and could be mass-produced. Due to the gramophone, the record industry as we know it was begun! This is just one example of how much history affects the future.

2. The creation of MTV had a tremendous impact on the music industry. Beginning on August 1, 1981, Music Television (MTV) broadcasted music videos on a 24-hour basis. This allowed the television to become the most popular way to promote an artist. Visually seeing the music made people wish to own it all the more, in turn leading to increased music sales.

3. The social and cultural movements of the United States changed the style of music quite often. It led to new genres being established, some of which are still popular today. The 1960s were a time of great protest. People let music be their voice, generating music styles such as folk music, psychedelic sound, and folk rock. Folk music was sometimes referred to as the songs of protest, while folk rock was geared more towards the younger crowd. Psychedelic sound came out of artists' experimentation with psychedelic drugs, which they believed enhanced their musical abilities.

4. Learning about the development of rock 'n' roll music was interesting for me. I was not aware that its title was the slang term for "sex" - I don't think many people are knowledgable of that. It started in the 1950s and derived from R&B (rhythm & blues) which had it's roots in blues music. With these genres being so completely different, I was not expecting rock 'n' roll to stem from R&B.

5. The 1960s also saw Americans looking for something new and exciting. This was around the time the Beatles came to America. The Beatles greatly changed the culture of our country - it was because of them that other British artists were able to achieve success in America. What I found to be interesting was that this influx of music from England was known in America as the "British Invasion." I can see where the title is coming from, though, as American artists probably believed their careers were being put into jeopardy because of the artists venturing in from overseas.

So, if I had to choose 5 big ideas from the chapter on music, those are the ones I would choose. This information gives us insight into what the music industry was like in its early stages. Everything has to begin somewhere, and it was interesting to learn about where music did.