Are blackness and whiteness useful concepts in the study of pop music?

Whiteness and blackness maybe seen as useful concepts in the study of popular music when in fact they somewhat complicate it. David Hatch states that "pop music has relied on the merging of both black and white traditions" in order to be where it is. An example of this is pointed out by Barry Shank, "Rock and Roll came about from white peoples fascination with black music." The most recognized person to demonstrate such a blur in the lines of color would be Elvis Presley; he was brought up in a deprived area around the black culture and his style of music reflected this. Sam Phillips famously said "if I could find a white man with the negro sound and the negro feel I could make a billion;" he found Elvis. Recent examples could be the new asian style of Bhangra where traditional asian instruments are fused with western pop in oder to make a new sound. Pop music can not simply be seen as either black or white; history shows us how intwined these two are within the genre.

Can Popular music achieve political change.

Popular music will find it exceptionally hard to achieve genuine political change due to the capitalist grasp on society. David Harker argues that it is the record industries drive to make money which forces them to manipulate society into a certain type of music. They have the power to set the markets agenda to decide what people listen to. George Melly points towards the Beatles as an example of this; they were transformed in to "happy rockers" and a very scoially respectable act. Angela McRobbie describes how artists  are geared towards writing lyrics which indicate sexual stereotypes if they wish to make money. This was evident during the rock period of the sixties where men were "big, bad and boastful" and women were just themselves.  Stratton says its a "political and economic ploy to emotionally capture the listener with something they can relate to;" they will therefore feel it is worth investing in. 

Does the emergency of digital download signal the end of the music industry?

The emergence of digital download does not necessarily mean the end of the music industry. The argument is that if music is free then nobody will pay for it. Well this is not technically true; bottled water for example shows us that people will still buy even if they can have something for free. A lot of this comes down to guilt and the culture we live in where stealing is frowned upon. File sharing is partially proven by a student from Havard Business School to almost no effect on record sales; other factors tend to be the reason sales fall, such as the amount of CD's released. Lawrence Lessige states that it is illegal but can also help get artists recognized. The relatively unknown band,  RadioHead had their first album, Kid A, shoot to number 1 on the billboard chart after it was shared through Napster. It hereby gained recognition and fans went out to purchase it.