Popular Music

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Popular Music

    Popular music is: "music that is enjoyed by the largest possible audience." It includes country music, folk music, rhythm and blues ( R & B), musical comedy, jazz, marches, rock n' roll, and ragtime. Popular music is primarily listened to by young people. In his book, Sound Effects, Simon Frith said that popular music has been about growing up, and that it has been like this since the beginning of the century.1 However, the popular music industry is based largely on the sale of records. However, popular music can also do many great things for society. Harry Belafonte once said "A funny thing happened to the world in 1985, it cared."2 In the 1980's, many benefit concerts such as Live Aid and USA for Africa were held to raise money for people who were in need of help. Other benefits such as Hands Across America and Farm Aid showed that the listeners could get involved too. Popular music reflects the outlook of the listeners of that time period.
The death of friends and family members during the first world war hardened people very much and this was reflected in the lifestyle of the twenties. There was much women's suffrage during this time. People began to smoke and drink more often, and generally became more irresponsible. Jazz had much musical freedom. It represented the way many people were feeling.
    Not everyone was smoking and drinking too much though. Many people still continued to lead highly respectable lives. For these people were th...

Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 10-30-05 11:22pm
Category: Science
Words: 1871
Pages: 7.48