Guest Blogger - Breaking More Waves

How the Internet Is Slowing Change in Pop Music

One of the elements that has traditionally pushed popular culture forward is the interrelationship between fashion and music. Timothy Warner in his book, Pop Music: Technology and Creativity, talked about the clear parallels between these worlds. He identified that both are luxury commodities, which undergo stylistic change in similar short timescales in order to renew themselves. Pop music and fashion don’t ‘wear out’ but instead they ‘go out’. They both rely on high profiles in the mass media to excite and involve potential buyers.



Yet when Warner wrote his book he couldn’t have envisaged the day when pop music was no longer a luxury commodity. The internet, through illegal downloading, online radio, streaming and blogs creates an environment where music is so easy and cheap to access 24/7 that purchase is no longer necessary. The need to fascinate and excite consumers with the constant buzz of the new and the evolution of musical styles is less important, with little money to be made from it.



So instead record companies push out what has gone before. From back catalogue re-issues, to new bands who remind us of the past from the nostalgic sounds of 60’s referencing boy-girl band Cults to the new single by The Horrors, a song that bears an uncanny resemblance to early Simple Minds. Take a scan of any new music blog and the vast majority of new music you will find there will remind you of something from the past.



If this sounds like a negative criticism of those who make music, it’s not. Far from it. There are hundreds of great artists out there inspiring, making people feel alive and creating the same sorts of emotional stimuli as artists that have gone before them. The new acts who are the most successful commercially are no longer ground-breaking innovators but those who are following tradition, the likes of Adele and Mumford & Sons.



So where does this leave music? If it is now less dictated by the fashion of being ‘in’ or out’, if selling stuff that sounds like something we already know is the direction we’re heading in, what of live shows ?

Live concerts are still a luxury commodity. Witness the over £50 ticket prices for artists such as Britney Spears, U2 or Take That. It’s in this area that performers will have to continue to change in order to involve and excite consumers to come and see them again and retain a long term fan base. An artist like Lady Gaga understands this concept completely.

Even if her music is simply likeable but hardly innovative danceable pop music, every one of her performances becomes a talking point with her constant and ever-changing costumes. This is what stimulates consumers and keeps them coming back.



Pop music has reached middle age. There is less stylistic change in sound than there has been in the past. The revolution now is coming from the excitement of the internet and the way music is distributed and consumed. I’m looking forward to where it takes us next.

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"How the Internet Is Slowing Change in Pop Music" was written by Robin Seamer of Breaking More Waves, a great blog based in Portsmouth which focuses on amazing new music. He is going to be featuring on the show on Friday, recommending some tracks to us - make sure you don't miss it!!!