Irish Pop Music in a Global Context

There are a number of reasons that motivate the undertaking of research on the topic of the music section of the culture industry in its present form. In Ireland today it is very hard for people not to have heard of some of the bands, which are going to be examined in this thesis because we hear so much about them in the media and because they are Irish we are expected to be proud of them. In a way its like supporting the national football team no one who knows anything about football likes their style of play but they feel that they are representing Ireland so it is their duty to support them. The same can be said about the treatment many of these bands receive in the Irish media people are afraid to question them because they are Irish and we should criticise our own. As this thesis will show, not only is there very little unique about these bands, also there is very little Irish about them unlike many of the other internationally successful Irish music groups before them who in some way drew creatively from their Irishness, the music examined here could have been produced by anyone, anywhere. Another reason motivating this research is the opportunity to look at an early neo-Marxist theory in an age when many believe that Marxism and Socialist theories are things that should be consigned to history along with the cold war. A further reason is that this early neo-Marxist theory on the culture industiy has never been more relevant in attempting to explain the music section of the culture industry as it is today