The Field of Commercial Record Production

Abstract

The other element within the creative system is the field of commercial record production. The field is the broader social group that understands, utilizes and subsequently alters the domain of commercial popular music and: ‘includes all those who can affect the structure of the domain’ Csikszentmihalyi (in: Sternberg (ed) The Nature of Creativity: Contemporary Psychological Perspectives, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1988). This chapter contextualizes the field within the creative system so it relates specifically to the context of commercial record production and focuses on two principal areas: the recording industry and the media, their mechanisms and criteria for selection and the ways in which the industrial context of music-making can shape the musical work Williams (in: Robinson et al. (eds) Music at the Margins, Sage, London, 1991).