excellent quiz answer

The article "Innovation and Diversity in the Popular Music Industry" is a study published in 1992 that evaluates the results of an older study by Richard Peterson and David Berger, in order to determine if oligopolization of the popular music industry leads to less diversity and innovation.

To do this, the authors examined and collected the statistical data published by the weekly Billboard magazine from 1969 to 1990, that lists the top 100 singles and albums being sold or listened to. The authors measured innovation and diversity by counting the number of new artists in the top 100 singles and albums chart every week during this time period, and they measured the oligopolization of the popular music industry through a simple label to firm ratio.

The results published in the study are contradictory to those hypothesized by Peterson and Berger, with the data collected showing that even with a monopolized popular music industry, the number of new artists reaching the top 100 charts was increasing, and two new genres, New Wave and Rap, were increasing in prominence and popularity. The authors theorized this is due to the acquisition of many smaller independent labels by the larger firms, allowing for a multidivisional companies and open systems of development, as well as new mediums like MTV that introduced newer popular music to a greater segment of the market.

In comparison to this, the article "Social Movements and Cultural Transformation: popular music in the 1960s" was a study that focused on the Folk genre of music, and how it affected the social movements of the 1960s. Unlike the scientific method used by the Innovation and Diversity Study, the authors of the Social Movements study used the cognitive approach of social theory to interpret this relationship. The cognitive theory consists of three important concepts.

The first is context, or specifically the environment and historical circumstances in which a social movement occurs. In particular, Folk music rose to prominence during the civil rights movement and the beginnings of the anti-war movements in the United States.

The second is process, in that a social movement does not suddenly come into existence, but is actually built upon earlier movements and context. Folk music was built upon the blues, and music such as work chants, each of which have an important root in African American culture and the civil rights movement.

The final concept is articulation, or how the message and identity of a social movement is delivered. For Folk music, the use of simple songs, and a feeling of community amongst protesters contributed to this.

The authors found that Folk music was an important part of social movements during the 1960s. However, commercialization of popular music, a trend noted in the other article, and a shift in the counter culture led to a dissociation of the political and social movements of the 1960s, and many people believing that Folk music had sold out, eventually leading to its demise as a popular medium for social change.