Who is Mike Curb?
For someone who aspires to have a big name in the music industry, Mike Curb is a great icon and truly an inspiration.
Mike Curb did make not only a great name in politics but also a massive success in music. He was a former Lieutenant Governor and Acting Governor. On top of being a multi-award-winning songwriter and producer, for 55 years, he has presided over his own independent record company, which launched the careers of numerous stars. His company is considered the oldest record company in the nation still being operated by its founder.
Awards
In his illustrious career that had spanned over five decades, Curb, as a songwriter, singer, producer, and record company owner with a wide range of musical styles, had earned multi-faceted success. He has written almost 400 songs and received prestigious BMI performance awards for his pop and country music compositions.
“You Light Up My Life” song is the only debut No.1 simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 (Pop) chart, the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart, and the Billboard Hot Christian Singles chart. It made Curb won the Billboard magazine’s Overall Producer of the Year and the Billboard Producer Award. He also won the Billboard Producer Award for “How Do I Live,” achieving the longest-running record of the 20th Century on the Billboard Hot 100 (Pop) chart.
Additionally, Curb’s music company has also has achieved over 300 No. 1 records and has been honored by Billboard magazine as Country Music Label of the Year. The Radio & Records magazine credited them as Overall Gold Label of the Year and Mediabase CRS Gold Label of the Year.
Curb’s numerous achievements made him star on the historic Hollywood Walk of Fame and on the Music City Walk of Fame in Nashville. The Music Industry by the Grammy Museum honored Curb as a Grammy Icon, and his artists received 32 Grammy Awards.
Mike Curb Congregation
A harmony pop chorale, Mike Curb Congregation, was very famous with songs like “Burning Bridges” and “Sweet Gingerbread Man.” It charted in the early ’70s when Curb was president of MGM Records. The Congregation consisted of over a dozen performers from various musical backgrounds, including but not limited to rock, country, and gospel.
Undeniably, the numerous recognitions and awards Curb, and his company has achieved are just a reflection that his works define pop culture in the music industry during his time. Today’s music and bands were had influenced by Curb’s 50-year-legacy in music.
You define Pop Culture
Pop Culture is almost everywhere. It’s in music, sports, entertainment, leisure, fads, advertising, print, cyberculture, and television.
Pop Culture or ‘popular culture’ holds a wide variety of meanings. And it depends on who’s defining it and the context of use. When something becomes people’s vernacular, or people’s culture that predominates in a society at a point in time, then it is pop culture.
In Rhetorical Dimensions of Popular Culture, Brummett explains that pop culture considers social life’s aspects, most actively involved in by the public.
What is considered “the culture of the people” is evident in how they speak, dress, the food they eat, the music they sing and listen to, the movie everyone watches, and everyone’s status in social media, is considered popular culture. Media is also a significant influencer and promoter of this popular. Nothing quickly becomes more popular, trending, or viral, unless the social media and other media platforms give attention to.
Some elements comprise popular culture. A particular example is that it encompasses the most immediate and current aspects of our lives. These aspects can change rapidly in highly technological regions because people are brought closer and closer by omnipresent media.
Pop culture is a reflection of people’s held standards and beliefs. And due to its commonality, it mirrors and influences people’s daily lives. Stronger members of the masses or defined as the “changemakers or influencers,” can easily promote particular lifestyles, brands, or products because of the power to influence and create a domino effect on people.
Thus, brands can attain pop iconic status. (e.g., Apple, Samsung, Nike, Burberry, Prada, Chanel, Hermes, etc.) However, these brands may experience rise and fall depending on the behavior from the buying masses.
With these fundamental aspects in mind, popular culture is defined as the products and forms of expression and identity that are widely accepted, commonly liked or approved, and characteristic of a particular society at a given time. And we can say that during the rise of Mike Curb’s songs, and his companies, his influence had gone far beyond a certain period but a decade after decades.