1. Influences on Music Style
A look at society and other factors
which may influence a bands
style.

2. Artist Expression
• There are masses amount of pressure on all
bands and artists to produce music that is
meaningful. Most people assume peoples music
to reflect their own feelings. Some artists have
the ability to live up to these expectations, for
example Adele, who said that the inspiration for
her first album came from a relationship with a
previous boyfriend. However some artists are
unable to produce this ‘meaningful’ music, which
can put a strain on their career.

3. Music Development
• Artists and bands are expected to change their image or
music style throughout their career in order to extend it,
otherwise they risk being out grown by newer artists and
styles. This can either be a positive change as it extends
their career, or it can be a negative change as people
don’t take to their new style. An example of an artist who
developed their image to fit with the current styles is Avril
Lavigne, who was originally renowned for her rock
image, but had a more pop image when she made a
comeback several years ago, this proved to be a
unsuccessful as she quickly slipped backed off our
radars again.

4. Social Influences
• The social trends of people change over time, as
do people likes and interests. A artist or band
that were popular in the 1990’s would have less
chance of being popular now if they still
produced the same music as peoples interests
would have developed since then. Many genres
have been introduced over the years, and
people are producing music that some older
artists would never have known about. The
constant change in society and their interests
puts a lot of stress on artists and bands to be
able to adapt to this.

5. Commercial
• The introduction of TV programmes such as the X Factor
and more recently The Voice have been created to make
a profit out of people who have potential talent. The
slows put thousand of people through auditions, boot
camps and live shows before one person gets the
chance to have a career at the end. Out of all the series,
many of the artists who win the show, turn into one hit
wonders that fade quickly from the charts after one of
two songs. An example of this, is Shane Warn and Joe
McElderry, who were quickly dropped by their label and
are yet to make a comeback. There are some success
stories however, as Leona Lewis, JLS and One Direction
have managed to have successful careers in music
since appearing on the show and are still active now.

6. Image
• Artists and bands are criticised and judged on a
daily basis by the public, critics and everybody else
based on their image. They are caught looking less
than perfect, wearing unflattering clothes or are too
large or skinny. People are so longer allowed to
express themselves or just be themselves anymore,
they have to be what society wants them to be. This
is having a very negative effective on the music
industry and everybody is being moulded into a slim,
attractive and ‘perfect’ superstar, and if they don’t
have these qualities then they aren't seen as good
enough.

7. Technology
• Advances in technology have allowed artists to use
a programme known as Vocodar which allows artists
to change their voice, allowing them to sound better
than they actually are. This links in with the problem
of image, if a person fits with the ‘superstar’ persona
but don’t have the most talented singing voice, there
voice can be edited to sound much better than it is,
resulting in them to have a career that could be
considered false. You can often tell when an artist
uses this type of technology as they sound much
different between their live and album
performances.