How is Sociology Useful in the Entertainment Field?
Researching Music. Any time art merges with commerce and the need to attract a consumer comes into play, research soon follows. This is particularly true of the music that makes its way onto the commercial radio airways. Because of the amount of money at stake, radio station ownership groups hope to attract and keep as many listeners as possible. Thus they continually research the music they play to determine their listening audience’s likes and dislikes. As a result, the music industry has access to extensive statistical data on the country radio listening audience. This in turn provides a means of extracting data that is useful to a particular artist and making it available to others in an attempt to propel that artist’s career forward. Researching the Consumer. The idea of particular consumers comes with certain cultural and demographic stereotypes. In the case of country music audiences, the stereotype is that they are rural, lower middle class, white, limited post-secondary educat
