Eurovision Song Contest Jury Final, 2016

A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding

musical ensemble A musical ensemble, also known as a music group or musical group, is a group of people who perform instrumental and/or vocal music, with the ensemble typically known by a distinct name. Some music ensembles consist solely of instrumentalists, ...

s, soloists, composers, conductors and musicologists. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets. Examples of music competitions in popular music include Open Mic UK, SoundWave Music Competition, All-Japan Band Association annual contest, the World Music Contest, Live and Unsigned, the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pri ...

, and '' American Idol.''

History

European classical art music uses competitions to provide a public forum that identifies the strongest young players and helps them start their professional careers (see List of classical music competitions). Popular instrumental ensembles such as brass bands and school bands have also long relied on competitions and festivals to promote their musical genres and recognize high levels of achievement. In the recent decades, large competitions have also developed in the field of popular music to showcase performances by pop vocalists and rock bands (e.g. " Idol series" and " Battle of the Bands" events).

Examples

The music

competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, ind ...

s with the largest audiences are widely televised events in the genre of

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Funk ...

, such as the

and '' American Idol''. The Open Mic UK and Live and Unsigned contests in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

each garner approximately 10,000 contestants annually, making them the largest contests in the region. According to 2005 statistics, more than 650,000 visitors attend the

World Music Contest In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

(Kerkrade, the Netherlands), which has 19,000 contestants from over 30 countries, making it one of the largest competitions in Europe. The All-Japan Band Association annual contest appears to be the world's largest music competition in terms of the number of active contestants, with approximately 800,000 competing musicians in more than 14,000 bands. A competition which has recently hit the United Kingdom music scene is called SoundWave Music Competition. This competition allows for singers, bands and all acts of all genres a chance to play at the O2 Academy Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow. SoundWave Music Competition is a high profile competition and the biggest music competition in Northern England and Scotland where entrants can win radio slots and recording within the best recording studios in the United Kingdom and Scotland. One of the oldest music competitions in the world is the

International Naumburg Competition The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. Founded in 1925, it operates the prestigious Naumburg Competition. Foundation and concerts It was founded in 1925 by Walt ...

, in New York, which had its first competition in 1926. In recent years, the largest music competition in terms of number of global genres represented appears to be Sharq Taronalari, an enormous festival sponsored by UNESCO and the government of Uzbekistan. Various online music competitions for young musicians are now gaining popularity, including Unsigned Only, which is a global music contest based in United States, and Machan Music, an open and ongoing music contest based in India. The Songwriters Resource Network organizes the annual

Great American Song Contest The Great American Song Contest is an international music competition run annually by Songwriters Resource Network since 2000. Overview The contest runs annually, organised by Songwriters Resource Network, an educational resource for songwrite ...

which is open to songwriters and lyric writers internationally.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Music Competition

History

Examples

See also

References