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Asa Bell, III

Professor Griffin
UWRT 1102
9 March 2015
How Law and Marketing Has Forced Musical Evolution
Since the beginning of time, music has been used as a form of
self-expression, communication, therapy, and entertainment (North 2).
Over decades, centuries, and millenniums of social growth, music too,
has grown. This art form, like many others, has become bigger than
just personal communication between small groups of people, created
on simple instruments; it has become an industry. Because of this
industrialization, the presentation, creation, and most importantly, the
sound of music has changed. The two main factors in this art forms
modern evolution are the laws of the land and marketing. But why is
this? Why arent artistic value or self-expression or therapy at the
forefront of reasons popular music is popular anymore?
Modern music, or music over the last 50 years or so, is more
marketed than ever before and marketing of music is important than
ever as well. According to rapper and singer Kellee Maize, money is
motive. In an article she wrote for the Huffington Post, Maize points to
maintaining a professional image, charging for all work, licensing and
good legal practices, and most of all, social media, as the keys to
making it in the music industry. Some, like Maize, advise artists not

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to worry about being discovered and getting signed to a major record
label, but others who have studied the music industry extensively
disagree (Maize 1). (insert database article about 4 big labels and
artists). Its no secret that being signed to a label is a big deal. It
usually means better promotion, more connections, more marketing,
and ultimately, more money being made. But this isnt always the case
(insert an article about artists who were mistreated by labels).
To examine how popular music has changed, the most popular
music must be defined. Pop music is identified as a body of music,
which is distinguishable from popular jazz and folk music (Hatch and
Millward). It can also be defined as music that acts as a hybrid between
folk music and fine arts music (Seeger). Pop music is a huge genre
around the world today and it regularly takes up the most space on
music charts across the world. Since its early origins in the 1920s, pop
music has grown to be the mainstream norm for everyday listening. It
is estimated that at any given time, 6 of the top 10 albums on
Billboards top 200 albums around the world are classified as pop
albums. So of all the genres that are available, what makes pop music
the listened to music in the world? Most people say that they enjoy
pop music because of its catchy rhythms, familiar melodies, and fun
lyrics. Its relatable, just enough, so that large masses and different
types of people can feel a commonness; its designed to all be the
same, in a way (Haigh).

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Pop music is great for most occasions, but often times, pop
artists admittedly do not tap into their deepest emotions to produce it.
Not often can an artist score a top 10 Billboard, platinum selling hit
while talking about serious issues they may be facing and exposing
themselves emotionally. Then again, not many people would want to
hear artists wallowing in emotional turmoil when they turn on popular
music-playing radio stations. Because of this, most artists conform to
what works. And what works for their employers is selling records, at
whatever cost; even at the expense of sacrifice authenticity in the
music they are willing to sell and market. One writer describes making
personal music this way: For the romantic artist did not view nature
objectively, but filled with the conceptions of his own spirit. Into nature
he injected his own being, his own impassioned emotions (Wellesz and
Baker). Obviously, this music critic isnt writing about music during
our era, but the basis of what hes saying is still applicable to todays
music; specifically, todays popular music. Intense, personal emotional
content from what many would call the soul of the artist is what
makes music have a real impact.
The other piece of this quote that is extremely important are the
words filled with conceptions of his own spirit. Understanding the
value of personally created music is understanding the value of
authenticity. Often times in popular music today, it takes an entire
team of people to build one single (a commercially released, radio-

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ready song). Some of the people credited for the number one pop song
on Billboards Hot 100 right now, Uptown Funk, include: 4
songwriters, 3 producers, 10 mixing engineers, 1 mastering engineer,
as well as a host of other personnel for instrumentation. The amount of
personnel commissioned to create these 4 minutes of funk is
astonishing. Of course, this song is not meant to be a deeply
moving, emotional piece. This is a dance record, a funk record about
nothing more than grooving to a beat. It was not written to make you
think about a social issue or a personal problem; rather, it was written
and produced to make you stop thinking, if only for 4 minutes. And that
would be just fine, if it werent the standard of modern, popular music.
More than ever before, artists are creating music primarily for
commercials, advertisements, and radio and less because of a personal
desire to make something unique. The problem with is, since the
entertainment industry rules the music industry, the music begins to
all sound the same. Consumers start to hear less sonic uniqueness and
instead hear more clones from new-named artists. This is the state of
the modern music industry and, specifically, the condition of pop music
today. Yet, pop music (and its variations) is still the top selling genre
around the world and there is no sign of that changing.
So if everyone around the world likes pop music so much and is
willing not only to listen to it, but buy it as well, why is it that pop
music is able to stay the same, sonically? Why is it that new artists are

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able to reproduce the same sounds and themes in their new songs
that we have already heard before? Is pop music timeless and immune
to evolution? This is where music marketing, the beauty, ugliness, and
brains of the music industry, comes into play.
Music marketing can be done in various ways and no one method
is used more than others. However, the main source of marketing
comes from record labels. There are two types of record labels:
independent and major. Independent record labels are not connected
to any of the major labels and are not dependent on them for
recruitment, promotion, and marketing. However, sometimes smaller,
independent record labels partner with major distributors to release
records. Major record labels, divided by the Big 4 (Warner Music
Group, EMI Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Universal Music
Group), do all of their work and are huge operations. They own
hundreds of subsidiaries, or children to their parent label, and all four
major labels hold at least 11.3 percent of the market (Lamb). Together,
its estimated that these four labels own a whopping 71.3 percent of
the market and the imprints of these labels are responsible for 85
percent of music sales in the US and 70 percent of music sales globally.
It is rather easy to see why artists would want to be represented by
such massive, ominous organizations. Or is it?
Technically, the job of record labels is to recruit talent,
manufacture music, promote, market, represent, and distribute artists.

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But some labels do much more than that. They influence the very
sounds that are heard by the masses. One would think that after an
artist is signed, they would possess the creative freedom to make the
music they want, within reason, as long as it is a quality product. Too
many times, this simply is not the case. There have been many
instances of artists who, before signing to a label, made a certain type
of music for a certain demographic. But after being signed to that
label, their whole musical style seems change and the demographic of
people to whom they are being marketed sometimes changes as well.
Of course, this is nearly impossible to prove, but a classic case
would be an artist named Abel Tesfaye, or The Weeknd. Tesfaye started
gaining attention online after a cosign (positive remark) given by a
very successful artist. He went on to make three bodies of work which
were all critically acclaimed, receiving glorious reviews. It looked like
he had changed his genre forever, and maybe he had. But his debut
major record label release, produced by completely different people
than his previous work, received less glowing reviews from critics. Not
only did Tesfayes reviews become more negative, but his fan base also
noticed the change in his lyrical content and overall musical product.
Was this Tesfayes fault? Partly, but more than it being his doing, it was
the work of the mainstream. Major labels expect their major artists to
present a similar sound, to a point, regardless of genre. This is not
necessarily because major record labels dont like creativity, but more

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because they know what typically sells and it would be illogical to
venture outside of a proven, moneymaking formula.
The other component of artist marketing is that, like any high
school basketball team, there is favoritism on a label. Typically, the
artists whom the label can profit optimally off of are the most intensely
marketed, as it should be. However, those are also typically the artists
who make the same poppy music that is synonymous with most
other popular acts. Essentially, the ultimatum is, make massappealing, pop music or lose proper promotion and label priority. An
artist who has experienced this firsthand is Scott Mescudi, also known
as Kid Cudi. His double platinum single, Day n Nite, released in
2008, was an example of a rare feat: the ascension of an unsigned
artist to global fame, through a single. However, as a result of that
single, and the mixtape that followed, Mescudi scored a record deal
with G.O.O.D. Music, Kanye Wests Universal Motown imprint. Day n
Nite achieved commercial success with lyrical content that centered
on a lonely smoker trying to free himself of lifes worries and simple
production and instrumentation composed of a few synths and a
typical syncopated drum rhythm (Ghoneim). After Cudis signing and
debut album though, problems began. Mescudi refused to conform to
the standards of the label and continued to make the same style of
music he always had; it was not long before he started to feel that he
was not being adequately promoted or fairly marketed. So, soon after

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his second major label release, Mescudi left G.O.O.D. Music altogether,
stating that His sound did not change drastically at all, and
ultimately, that was his downfall. It was apparent that Mescudis label
thought they could mold him into a successful pop-rapper (pop-rap is
unconventional rap music that strays from the roots of drum and bass
with familiar themes. Examples of pop-rappers today are Iggy Azelea,
B.O.B., and Macklemore).
Part of the reason for this stagnation of popular music is
marketing, but what it all comes down to is the law. Often, the blame
for this situation can be credited to Payola laws. Payola laws are laws
that keep independent artists off of mainstream radio by financially
binding radio stations to playing major record label artists.