Martin Cloonan

Rethinking the music industry

This article examines a very basic question for popular music studies: what is ‘the music industry?’ It surveys the usage of the term in various arenas and argues that it is often used in ways which state or imply that the industry is a homogenous unit with shared objectives and interests. However, the reality is that this picture is, at best, outdated and an inaccurate portrayal of the organisational structure of the global music economy in the mid-2000s. In addition, to think of a single ‘music industry’ rather than music industries, plural, is simplistic and does little to aid understanding of those cultural industries which are primarily concerned with the creation, management and selling of music, either as a physical/digital product, a performance, or as a bundle of intellectual property rights. We tease out the implications of this, especially as they relate to understanding what is routinely referred to as ‘the music industry’ and the development of policies for it.

Alco‐pop? The Use of Popular Music in Glasgow Pubs

In recent years popular music studies has witnessed a turn towards concentrating on music at a local level (Cloonan) and its use in what DeNora calls everyday life. In a separate, but overlapping, development there has been a growing interest in the night‐time economy. At an academic level this has included some interest in the role popular music plays in that economy (e.g. Bennett; Björnberg and Stockfelt) and at the UK governmental level it has included responses to “binge drinking” (Home Affairs Select Committee; Prime Ministers Strategy Unit; Scottish Executive) and to licensing.1 But there has been less attention paid to the role that music plays within a key part of that economy—pubs. In this article we examine the use of music in city centre pubs in Glasgow, Scotland. We include the role of music in attracting customers to pubs, the different types of clientele attracted, the relationship between music and alcohol sales, and the ways in which music can act as both a trigger for disorder and a means of preventing it. We develop a typology of uses of music and explore the implications for popular music studies.

Killing me softly with his song: an initial investigation into the use of popular music as a tool of oppression

Popular music studies generally celebrate the power of music to empower the construction of individual and social identities, a site of positive self-realisation. But such an approach risks overlooking a significant element in the musical transaction. How, for example, did the inhabitants of Jericho feel? Or President Noriega when musically besieged by US troops in Panama City? Or street kids in Wollongong, New South Wales, driven out of shopping malls by the strategic broadcasting of Frank Sinatra recordings? Every time we applaud the deployment of music as a way of articulating physical, cognitive and cultural territory, we are also applauding the potential or actual displacement or even destruction of other identities. On occasions that displacement may well be conducted as an act of extreme violence: music as pain. This negative side of the territorialism of music, however, receives little attention in popular music studies, even though it is potentially the dark side of any musical transaction. In attempting to redress the balance, this article is a ‘trailer’ for a joint investigation into the use of popular music as a weapon. It represents our initial attempts to think through some of the issues surrounding popular music and its use as a tool of repression and the deliberate inflicting of pain.

What is Popular Music Studies? Some observations

Popular Music Studies (PMS) is now taught in over 20 higher education institutions (HEIs) in the UK and numerous others across the world. This article outlines the constituent parts of PMS in the UK and questions its status as a discipline in its own right. It concludes by arguing that, having established itself, PMS will need to deal with two key pressures in modern academic life – those of conducting research and widening participation. In the former instance, PMS might have to be pragmatic, in the latter lies potential for radicalism.

Rock the Vote: Popular Culture and Politics

Rock the Vote was founded in 1996 as an attempt to exploit popular culture to boost political participation. Using pop musicians and comedians, it attempted to encourage young people to take part in politics. This article examines the formation of Rock the Vote, and explores its implications for the character of contemporary politics. It argues that Rock the Vote has to be understood not only as part of a larger shift in the nature of political campaigning and communication, but also as a response to the mutual needs of political parties and the popular culture industry. Rock the vote is both a symptom of new forms of campaigning and also a pragmatic solution to particular political problems.

Analysing Live Music in the UK: Findings One Year into a Three-Year Research Project

This is the first of four related articles in this journal presenting findings from an ongoing research project on the history of live music in the UK since 1950. This introductory article outlines the project’s starting assumption—that popular music culture in this period was organised around the constantly changing relationship of the recorded music and live music sectors—and suggests that this is to challenge the conventional academic assumption that the post-war history of popular music can be written as the history of the record industry. To approach popular music history from the perspective of live musical promotion means a) rethinking periodisation; b) examining a very wide range of musical activities; c) paying attention to the regulatory and the promotional roles of the state; d) understanding the importance of locality and place; e) reconceiving the power structure of musical institutions.

‘Having an Impact. Academics, the music industries and the problem of knowledge’

This article reflects upon recent interest in knowledge transfer from higher education to the creative industries, using the UK music industries as a case study. It suggests that traditional academic values of impartiality and concern with research methodology can come in to conflict with instrumentalist agendas that see research as valuable only insofar as it fits with pre‐existing worldviews and policy ends. In this setting, knowledge resistance is often more significant than knowledge transfer and may be expected to frustrate any attempts to have an ‘impact’.

Cultural value and cultural policy: some evidence from the world of live music

This article considers live music policy in relation to wider debates on the cultural (as opposed to instrumental) value of the arts. The findings are based on research into amateur/enthusiast, state-funded and commercial concerts across a range of genres – classical, traditional folk, jazz, singer–songwriter and indie – using the Edinburgh Queen’s Hall venue as a case study. We argue that (1) articulations of the cultural or intrinsic value of live music across genres tend to lapse back into descriptions of instrumental value; (2) although explanations vary from audiences, artists and promoters as to why they participate in live music, they also share certain characteristics across genres and sometimes challenge stereotypes about genre-specific behaviours; and (3) there are lessons to be learned for live music policy from examining a venue that plays host to a range of genres and promotional practices.

Three dimensional change? the relationship between theory, policy and adults' understanding of literacies

Abstract Despite the essentially functional, technicist basis of both the International Adult Literacy Survey (1997), and the Moser report in England (1999), the past two decades have witnessed a radical shift in our understanding of the nature of literacy and numeracy, which should in turn have a marked effect on the way that provision is structured. This ‘new’ approach is embedded in a definitional shift from literacy and numeracy, to literacies. This article examines the impact that the new approach to literacies has had in three areas; (1) the nature of literacies provision in communities, (2) adults’ understanding of ‘being literate’, and (3) their perceptions of literacy learning. Drawing on an innovative research project in North Ayrshire, it asks whether this new vision of literacies is a shared one, or one that has not yet impacted on providers and learners. The authors suggest that the task of translating theoretical understandings into local praxis is a major one. In addition to the significant changes that it requires of providers, evidence from their research indicates the enormity of the task ahead in changing many adults’ perceptions both of self as learner and of literacies learning, and they consider the policy implications of this.

Researching live music: some thoughts on policy implications

This article offers some initial impressions of the potential policy implications of conducting research in to live music. It examines issues of regulation, the black economy and sharp business practices, and developments in concert ticketing. It argues that the live music industry offers a potentially richer field of study than that of recorded music which has hitherto tended to dominate academic enquiry.