Can Manufactured Bands Ever Be Classified As good Art? The Effect O :: essays research papers

Can Manufactured Bands Ever be Classified as Good Art? The Effect of the Marketon the tress of MusicIntroduction     Manufactured bands now make up a major percentage of chart music today,not least of them Take That, Boyzone, baneful Boys inc., East 17 and other completely-boypop bands. In this essay I would like to discuss how the standard of art hasbeen lowered by the capitalistic administration of the music industry, using a specificexample - "Upside Down", which is maybe the latest addition to this genre ofmusic.     By this genre of music, I symbolise the all-boy bands which have beenspecifically manufactured and targeted at the teenybopper age class (and alsothe gay market?).Personal Opinions     To argue that this form of art is bad art, one must have a referencepoint - a set of values by which to judge. This is almost always a personalopinion, and I would first of all like to explain my personal opinio n.     I believe that good art has something to offer to the individualperceiver, be it painting, book, film, dance or music. These are all differentforms of art, just one thing binds them all together - the fact that they arecreations, created and crafted to the personal specifications of the artist.This makes the product original.     Two values by which I judge music are creativity and originality. Ibelieve that good art provides food for thought - that special something which,after the tape has finished, after leaving the cinema or closing a book, leavesan aftertaste - something to retrieve about, be it, how did he/she play that or,what was he/she trying to say with that piece, the list goes on.Basic Market Analysis     For the purposes of this essay, I want to split marketing into deucegeneral strategies. The first of these is where the designers make a "product"to their own specifications and then look to s ee where and how they will be ableto cope it in the boilersuit market. The second strategy is the opposite of thefirst - the designers examine the general market, target a certain area andtailor make a product to tick off this area exactly.     The latter of these strategies is the one employed when a band is goingto be manufactured. The designers have studied the market and worked out whatthey think they can sell a certain group of consumers.Hirschmans three market segments model (see figure 1) can be used toexplain which type of bands fall into which category. The first segment is title "Self-orientated Creativity.