Popular music showed that it wasn’t all about the music but had huge marketing role on the industry. This was clearly shown by the Spice Girls huge marketing campaign.
Since the start of pop music it was seen that the music has often been influenced by the social and political issues that were raised at the time. Even religion influenced various artists such as Cliff Richard.
In the late 1960’s was the introduction of Glamrock. This genre was heavily influenced by legislation of homosexuality. The bands took on a very gay and camp image from this.
Punk erupted in the early 70’s for the same reason as Glamrock, but they created an image to rebel against this legislation and also gave an image to society that they were anti-government and against most things. The band that started the scene was the sex pistols and they started a huge scene for the 70’s in the UK.
Popular music showed that not only is it influenced by its self but showed that it had the power to influence the listeners and even the general public which was shown by the Mods and Rockers and The Beatles played a huge part in this.
It also can have its negatives effects on people though, when the Beatles said that they were bigger than Jesus. It caused a huge reaction to the general public and resulted in thousands of people burning Beatles merchandise. The introduction of bands like The Who caused huge riots between the Mods and Rockers.
As shown through the existence of popular music, most major artists had created a landmark in history. Elvis started the whole sexual dancing and bad boy image which was followed on in the UK by such artists as Cliff Richard. There was Beatlemania which set a huge scene over the world, showing the success of the first ever boy band.
Then the introduction of Glamrock by key artists such as David Bowie who bought in the whole camp look to UK culture. There was then the Punk scene which bands such as The Sex Pistols, The Clash and American influences such as the Ramones. Punk bought in a whole new image rebelling against everything such as the government and homosexuality. In the 80’s the introduction of the New Romantics took off with artists such as Boy George and Duran Duran who introduced the whole feminine look for young men in the UK.
The Spice Girls were the first massive Girl Band to hit the scene in the mid 90’s that influenced most pop groups of today. They were a huge success with their catchy tunes and dominated the UK charts. They were also a huge marketing campaign with a massive range of Spice Girls Merchandise. This showed that they were more about money then the music by selling themselves as a product.
As shown over the years music is starting to become less about the talent and has started to be more about the image with the huge rise of Hip hop and the gangsta look.
