Can popular music ever really be unplugged?

Unplugged music is an expression given to music which uses instruments in their natural forms for eg. Without amplifiers, microphones or even a device for recording what is being played.

So, can popular music ever really be unplugged?

Let's say your idea of popular music is folk music or opera music, which you go and listen to live in a very intimate space. In this case, it is possible for popular music to truley be "unplugged". However, generally speaking, popular music is music heard by a great amount of people and therefor in order to reach the mass public, the music would have had to be recorded. This is not achievable without some sort of microphone. And finally, in order to achieve the right balance of sound by each instrument, amplifiers would also be used.

Seeing as devices such as the microphone, the amplifier and a recording device needs to be used so that music can reach the masses, popular music cannot ever really be unplugged. This is the same for acoustic music.

What is popular music?

Over the last few centuries the definition of the word 'popular' has changed and today's definition has been reversed from that of the 16th century. According to Raymond Williams, 'Keywords'(1976), in the 16th century the word 'popular' meant : ' low or base, vulgar, of the common people'. However, these days the word 'popular' stands for something good and 'widely favoured'.

The question, what is popular music is difficult to answer as it has no single response. What can be considered to be 'popular music' us unique and different to the individual. Music, like most things, have genres, whether it be folk, hip hop, indie, classical or rock. These genres have their own audiences ad fans which therefore would alter what is considered to be popular.