Unit 4
Functions of music in society
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Weddings
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Video examples (YouTube)
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The first part of society where music is used that I’m going to look at is for weddings – weddings hold both religious and personal importance in society, so it only makes sense that music is used to convey that importance; whether it’s through the music choice for the first dance or the hymns used, music plays an important part in a wedding. Popular song choices for a first dance include A Thousand Years, I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing, I Wanna Dance with Somebody (which was Meghan and Harry’s first dance), and more. The songs for first dances are usually songs that are popular in the charts or from movie soundtracks (A Thousand Years received most of its success from being used in the Twilight series) and songs with poetic/romantic lyrics. However, sometimes people just pick songs that are popular in the charts such as William and Kate, who used Mr Brightside for their wedding – people either choose songs with emotion or songs that are good for dancing to. If people choose to get married in a church, they’ll also have hymns to demonstrate the religious significance of their marriage that have been used for 100s of years; music is part of the tradition of marriage.
2. Christmas
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Video examples (YouTube)
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The second part of society influenced by music I’m going to discuss is Christmas. Christmas is an event that is heavily commercialised and part of this is the music used because the same songs have been used for decades. For example, songs like All I Want for Christmas Is You (Mariah Carey) and Merry Christmas Everybody (Slade) are still used today despite being released in the 80s/90s and are still re-released on Christmas CDs, making the artists more money as well as the corporations that use these songs. Christmas music is used everywhere, especially in adverts for the marketing of companies such as John Lewis; a popular example of this would be the John Lewis ad from 2015 which used a cover of Oasis’ song Half The World Away – instead of being associated with Oasis, most people now recognise this song from said advert and associate it with John Lewis because of how popular the adverts are now. These are used to generate business for companies and to signify the Christmas season – hymns such as Ding Dong Merrily on High and Silent Night are also used for Christmas because of the religious link but are less recognised than songs like Last Christmas by Wham! Artists like Michael Bublé are also known for releasing Christmas albums and receive success from releasing songs around the Christmas season.
3. Funerals
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Video examples (YouTube)
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Music holds a big role in funerals – if people know they’re going to die, they pick out a song to be played while people are walking in and even if they didn’t know, the family would pick out one of their loved one’s favourite songs to remind them of the person that died and the memories they had with them since funerals are a celebration of their life. Popular songs used in general for funerals include Amazing Grace, The Scientist and Angels; these songs are used because of their poetic lyrics and powerful melodies which serve as a tribute to the deceased person. There are also songs wrote as a tribute for someone specific that are popular choices for music used at funerals. One example that could be used is See You Again by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth which was a tribute for Paul Walker, an actor most popular for the Need for Speed movie franchise (the song was commissioned for the soundtrack of Furious 7 in 2015 as a tribute to Walker from everyone working on the franchise). Songs chosen for funerals are generally songs that hold a lot of emotion and meaning and songs to lighten the mood (such as the deceased person’s favourite song.)
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Overall, if there was no music in certain parts of society then they wouldn't hold the same significance to people - there would be no first dance without music in a wedding and that's something that's very important to people because they chose a song that's important to them and their significant other so without music, the world would be a lot less interesting and companies would have to find different forms of media to sell products for certain times of the year (Christmas especially).
How society influences musical genres
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Music has been around for quite a lot of the time that humans have been, so it only makes sense that society and events throughout history would influence its genres and help to make new genres – whether it’s rock, alternative, grunge or indie, all these genres were shaped by society and events that have taken place.
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One music genre that’s particularly influenced by society is punk rock – punk rock serves as a social commentary that goes against the mainstream, with some of the most popular bands from this genre being Sex Pistols, The Clash and Rancid. Punk rock developed in the 70s to express anti-establishment and going against the mainstream. The Sex Pistol’s song ‘Anarchy In The UK’ was particularly well known for openly disparaging the British political system and social flaws. Green Day is a more modern punk rock band (despite being active since the 1980s) and they’re still popular social activists with songs from their latest album Revolution Radio featuring songs like ‘Troubled Times’ which talks about history repeating itself with Donald Trump being elected president in the USA (he has striking similarities to Adolf Hitler in the way he talks in his party talks and rallies) and ‘Bang Bang’, a song that displays the problems with popularity and the desperation to be famous (and the problems that come with that). One of their most famous songs, ‘American Idiot’, was written as a response to President Bush and the war with Iraq that came from the 9/11 attacks and reached worldwide success.
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Another genre that has been heavily influenced by society is pop music in general – pop music developed in the 60s and it's still the 'main' genre today with songs such as Chained By The Rhythm by Katy Perry which gives an insight on blissful ignorance of the problems in society and how they’re being covered by propaganda and bright pop songs – which has (especially in recent years) started to include more references to and metaphors about issues in society. A pop artist who is famous for creating political songs is Donald Glover. His 2018 hit ‘This Is America’ was inspired by gun violence in America and racism which is still prevalent in its society – the music video includes metaphors about Jim Crow (it uses a caricature through clothes and movements). Jim Crow was the name for the state and local laws that enforced racial segregation in the 19th Century and this reference is used to show how there’s been no real change between then and now for attitudes towards racism. Another reference used is the Charleston Church shooting that took place in 2015 because it shows how these issues are still modern and we still haven’t really improved in terms of attitudes toward others and prejudices in society.
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Reggae developed in the 70s and, like punk rock, is a genre that expresses non-conformity to the mainstream and highlights problem in the government and society. Artists of the reggae genre also make a lot of protest songs with one of the most notable protest songs being Revolution by Bob Marley – the whole song is about how Marley doesn’t trust most forms of man-made systems and longs for a world where trust is easy to come by and not a rarity. Another protest song by Bob Marley is Get Up, Stand Up- Catch A Fire, a song that encourages non-conformity and standing up for your rights instead of standing by. This song is also influenced by Marley’s distrust of political bodies because of the oppression they place on minorities and how they favour the 1% of the population and don’t really care about the rest of the population.
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Overall, music is used as a form of expression which includes expressing people’s problems with society and their cynical views on events taking place. Music has the power to sway people into change if one person speaks up about a problem because it acts as a match to a flame.