25 October 2021
Guest Post
Popular culture is made up of the most popular practices, objects and beliefs in society. Popular culture influences everything that we do, and over the last couple of decades, music and technology have been significantly influenced by popular culture.
But how exactly have popular culture films and trends influenced the music and technology industry in 2021? In this article, we will discuss how popular culture has shaped and is continuing to shape the way we listen and consume music and how we use technology.
How Pop Culture Is Shaping The Music Industry
Music in pop culture is constantly changing and evolving. Every year, trends change and develop, new music trends are created and older pop culture icons come back into the focus. Now more than ever, pop culture, such as the use of Spotify and TikTok, has influenced the music industry greatly.
Spotify is the leading streaming service for music, and its popularity has ultimately shaped the way that music is created and shared. With over 165 million premium subscribers, Spotify has greatly influenced the music industry. Now, music artists create their music to share directly onto Spotify. This has almost completely halted the use of CD’s and has allowed every user of Spotify to listen to almost all of the albums in the world from one platform.
But Spotify was not able to dent the popularity of one classic method of music consumption. Interestingly, classic Vinyl records have had a resurgence in popularity over the years. Partly due to aesthetic appeal and partly because of their unique sound features, many recording artists now offer Vinyl records as well as online versions of their albums.
However, nothing in popular culture has had such an impact on music in 2021 as the biggest social media of the decade, TikTok. Incredibly, TikTok reached 1 billion monthly users, and has quickly shaped the way that music is made and streamed. Because so many people use this platform each month, it is the perfect place to promote new music. Music marketing has evolved as a result of TikTok, with many artists paying influences to use their music in their videos.
The Impact Of Pop Culture On The Technology Industry
Technology, over the last decade, in particular, has grown incredible amounts. Popular culture, too, has completely shaped the way technology is used, and how we all interact with each other. Arguably, nothing has influenced popular culture and technology more than the iPhone, which completely revolutionized the way that we communicate, consume media and exist in the world.
The invention of the iPhone allowed people to communicate more than ever before and truly paved the way to ensuring that everyone had a mobile phone on them at all times. This, in turn, paved the way for new ways of communication and social media grew as a result. Platforms such as Facebook and Instagram were allowed to grow because of the app store, which in turn made social media the biggest method of communication in the world.
The growth of social media has seen the largest change in popular culture ever. Because so many people use social media, it has become a haven for businesses to advertise and promote their services. Now, if a business wants to succeed, they need to advertise on social media. It has also allowed the world to become more connected, meaning that people can access news and important information more easily than ever.
Mobile technology has also influenced the way we work, relax and operate. The app store has given us the opportunity to access over 2 million apps, many of which are designed for organisation, relaxation and fun. Some such games are online gambling and slot games, which have risen in popularity over real-life casinos and have altered the way in which people gamble safely and have fun.
With such popular content amongst the public, the technology industry is shaped further by what content audiences are interested in and what they want to interact with more. As TV game shows inspire themed slot games, television shows inspire related mobile apps and shape the way in which users engage with technology and in turn impacts app and game downloads.
From music streaming to game downloads, it’s clear to see just how popular culture impacts every aspect of our lives, and it has had an especially significant impact on music and technology. Over the last 40 years, technology has impacted the way we live drastically and has influenced the music industry. In the future, it will be interesting to see how popular culture will continue to shape the technology and music industry.
