How does music effect us psychologically, and why do some producers get more recognition than others?
Since I’ve found it difficult to word my posts properly, I’m going to change the way it is formatted. Hopefully, this makes it easier for the audience as well.
Production of Music: (Record Labels explained)
Major Record Labels:
I am going to go into more depth about record labels, since my last post was a bit bland. Here the pros and cons will be displayed, and then further linked. When being signed to a record label, you’re automatically putting yourself up for competition. The record label company signs multiple artists, because they want to see what stays and what goes. To put it simply, the attention is going to be dragged away from you if you’re not constantly keeping up. In some cases, this is kind of good for differentiating artists, because the ones who won’t throw in the effort lack the attention. Another con would be that it’s an unpredictable business. You’re likely to be ignored if the worker isn’t feeling it, or find it difficult when the one who did support you has suddenly disappeared. The record label side of the music industry is strict, since you’re working for them. An example for this would be: Record Label trying to kick out a member of your band. (Source: https://loudwire.com/linkin-park-chester-bennington-label-tried-get-rid-mike-shinoda-hybrid-theory-sessions/). It’s a bit understandable why some artists feel drained.
However, the record labels do have their cons. If an artist is planning to sign the a non-indie record label, they’ll be entering a large business. Since they’ve entered the larger business, the budgets are larger and you have more options financial wise. If you are going to get into the industry, then having a budget at hand is a good way to start off. You’ll be in need of the money, in order to pay for equipment, shows, etc. Larger record labels have the ability to get better deals with other media outlets. Larger record labels have more connections to other industries, and can help you grow rapidly if done correctly. To sum it up, you have better access to money, funding, networking and media, if you were to take this route.
Independent Record Labels:
Moving onto the indie-record labels. Since they’re independent, they aren’t heavily relying on what’s out, and are supporting you since they actually like your music. Since they’re a smaller organization, you’ll find it easier to obtain relationships with the organizers. Large record labels have contracts, while indie-labels have less complications when signing contracts. Since you’re not stuck in the media-based organization, you have more control over what you produce as an artist, and your image. You have more creativity and freedom, which means you have the rights to your music. These records tend to believe in you, strongly thinking you’ll sell. They’ll work hard to help you grow, and not just work to make a laid out label of yourself.
As with the major labels, the indie-labels also have their cons. The major one being, the money. Unlike the major labels, the indie-labels can’t fund you as much as you’d like. There’s a lower budget and the funding for tours, events, etc are tougher. Since the label is smaller, you won’t be fighting for attention in the organization, but rather to get yourself noticed elsewhere. The label also struggles with being smaller, since they have less options for buying, videos, etc.
Links for both: (6) https://pokovsky.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/pros-and-cons-of-major-and-independent-labels/ (3) https://www.thebalancecareers.com/indie-record-deals-assesing-the-pros-and-cons-2460376 (2) https://www.thebalancecareers.com/major-label-record-deals-understanding-the-pros-and-cons-2460377 (5) http://musicroad.co/pros-cons-getting-signed-major-record-label/
Psychology of Music: (What’s put in front of us)
As I’ve stated before, the music put in front of us is split into 3 genres: HipHop/Rap, Pop, and Rock. These three seem to have a similar feeling of repetition, as also stated before. The music we listen to often influences us, which i’ll go back to a previous post, in which the age range was discussed. Since we’re teenagers, that’s the main focus of the psychological effects. Currently, most music is glorifying topics that are explicit and destructive towards us, but due to the way they’re made, we get hooked on them. People who listen to music with these topics tend to have more aggressive behavior, and will act out towards the adults/mentors around them. This influence could be brought upon them as they grow older as well, being more likely to do drugs, get arrested, glorify their bad behavior, etc. Moving onto music videos, these aren’t helping the situation either. Teenagers also take influence from their favorite artists and if a majority of them are glorifying explicit behavior in their music videos, then they’re bound to only take more influence from it. We sometimes don’t realize how much our favorite artists influence us, until we realize we’re even copying their sense of fashion.
I’d say the only pro that could have minor consideration, is that there’d be less of an influence at live concerts. I can’t say for certain, but there’d be less of an impact than a music video, since you’re limited as to what you can do on stage/tour. It is still not right for people to abuse this to put out halfhearted songs.
Links: (8) https://pumpic.com/security/how-does-music-affect-teenagers/ (9) https://medium.com/@ChrisOtchy/the-hypnotic-power-of-repetition-in-music-8d59ab12b615
How they link:
So, how do these two link up anyway? Well, we kind of need to put two and two together, to even come to a realization. The music industry is taking advantage of the repetition in music, and keeps giving us what we’re hooked on. The music industry, as stated before, sticks with what is doing good within the industry, and discards what is doing bad. If they’re solely focused on the money, success and popularity in media. No matter which path you decide to take, whether that be an indie-label or major-label, you’ll always be fighting for attention, constantly. Is there a way to change this? I’d say possibly, but artists would need to be putting more of an effort to change this. The influence in our current music will only show our generation that it’s good to support the behavior, and the chain may or may not continue. In the end, it really just depends on if the explicit message dies out. As for the production of music, most people tend to go towards the major record labels. Since they are unlike the indie-labels, they get out on the media more. The major labels have more control over their music, while the indie-labels try to get up there through different methods. If you’re not careful, you could sign yourself to a corrupted contract (not to say they’re all corrupt or have high standards).
Extra source: (10) https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/recording-contracts-explained
Resources:
- https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-a-record-label-2460614
- https://www.thebalancecareers.com/major-label-record-deals-understanding-the-pros-and-cons-2460377
- https://www.thebalancecareers.com/indie-record-deals-assesing-the-pros-and-cons-2460376
- https://loudwire.com/linkin-park-chester-bennington-label-tried-get-rid-mike-shinoda-hybrid-theory-sessions/
- http://musicroad.co/pros-cons-getting-signed-major-record-label/
- https://pokovsky.wordpress.com/2015/04/26/pros-and-cons-of-major-and-independent-labels/
- https://www.quora.com/Why-is-popular-music-so-repetitive
- https://pumpic.com/security/how-does-music-affect-teenagers/
- https://medium.com/@ChrisOtchy/the-hypnotic-power-of-repetition-in-music-8d59ab12b615
- https://www.soundonsound.com/music-business/recording-contracts-explained