110   Unaerstuiuling popular music culture
Laing, D. {2008) 'World Music and die Global Mush: Industry: Plows, Gorporatic and Networks', Papular Musk History^ 3,3:213 31.
Rap and hip-hop
Chang, J, (2005) Can't Stop Won't Stop. A History of the hip-lhp Generation,
New York Fbury Press/Random House. Forman, M. and Neal, M, (eds) (200+) 'I hat's 'The Joint.' The Hip-Hop Studies Header,
New York, London: Roudedge.
7   'Shop Around'
Marketing and mediation
Canons
Dougan, J. (200fi) 'Objects of Desire: Canon Formation and Blues Record
Collecting', Journal of Popular Musk. 18. 1:40-65. Regev, M (2006) Introduction to theme (canon) issue of Popular Musk, 25, 1. Von Appen, R. and Doehring, A. (2006) 'Nevermind "Ilie Beatles, Here's
Exile fil' and Nico: 'The Top 100 Records of all Time' - A Canon of Pop and
Rock Albums Trout a Sociological and an Aesthetic Perspective', Popular Mnsk,
25, I: 21-40.
Marketing has come to play a crucial role in the circulation of cultural commodities. Il is a complex practice, involving several related activities: research, product planning and design, packaging, publicity and promotion, inning policy and sales and distribution; it is also closely tied to merchandizing and retailing. Central to the process is product positioning and imbuing cultural products with social significance to make them attractive to consumers. In popular music, ihis has been concentrated on die marketing of genre Itytes and stars, which have come to Function in a similar maimer to brand
........'s, serving to order demand and stabilize sales patterns. I begin this
i llapter with an examination of the marketing of Bob Marley arid the Wallers to illustrate this.
The marketing process illustrates the manner in which the music industry Ni< hides a range of people and institutions that 'stand between' consumers and iln musical text, once it has been produced as a commodity. 1 use the phiaw
■.land between' as shorthand lor what are complex processes of tuuikeliiiK
.....I consumption at work. The concepts of 'gatekeepers' and 'cultural iniii-
inediarics' have been used to analyse the way in which workers in ilie cultural an lust lies select, reject and reformulate material lor production, broadcast and | nil iln atioit. Based on a tiller-How model of information How, gatekeepers
U|ten die gate' for some lexis and information and close it for others. 'Jhc gae-kecper concept became critiqued for being too mechanistic and oversimplilail ami, following the work of Bourdieu (19111) was largely superceded by the more llcnihlc concept of'cultural intermediaries'.
I he sound recording companies have a number of such personnel making the iimu.iI decision ab0Ut who to record and promote and lillering material al i.it li Mep of ilie process involving ihe recording and marketing of a song. Beyond the
<......I companies arc a number bf institutions and related practires mediating
......i>, including retail, lilin, radio, television, the musii press, MTV and the
mi.....i  I in m- I.....i something ol a him......il mn > i sn......     the second pan ul iln
i duplet lakes up the In si of llinu retail .mil i ..i. , mil the maimer iit whii h lln\ mi' linked b\ the i hails
112   Understanding popular music uthure
Marketing and mediation
113
Marketing and commodiiication
It is noteworthy dial by the 1990s the cant term for music within the industry was 'product'. Although this process was hardly new, it referred to popular music being an increasingly commodilied product: merchandise to lie packaged and sold in Qte market. There are aspects of popular music as a commodity form that distinguish it from other cultural texts, notably its reproducibility, its ubiquity of formats and its multiple modes of dissemination.
Recorded music can be reproduced in various formats - vinyl, audio tape, CD, video, digital files - and variations within these: the dance mix, tlie cassette single, j the limited collector's edition, the live performance and so on. These ran then be disseminated in a variety of ways - through radio airplay, discos and dance clubs, television music video shows and MTV-style channels, live concert performances and on the internet. Then there is the exposure of music and musicians through the use of popular music within film soundtracks and as part of television advertising for consumer goods (Klein, 2010). In addition, there is the assorted paraphernalia and memorabilia available to the fan, especially the posters and the i-shiits. Complimenting all of these may \x reviews of the musical text and interviews with the performer^) in various print publications or online.
In sum, these reinforce one another within the wider music culture and society more generally.
This enables a multimedia approach to be taken to the marketing of the music and a maximization of sales potential, as exposure in each of the various forms strengthens the appeal of the otircrs. Marketing includes the use of geiirr labels as signifiers, radio formatting practices and standardized production processes (e.g. Stock Aitken Waterman and dance pop in the 1980s). Above all, it involves utilizing star images, linking stars and their music with the needs, demands, emotions and desires of audiences. The case of Rob Marlcy and die Wailers is instructive here.
Marketing Marley
Island Records was started by Chris Blackwell, the Jamaican-born son ol an English plantation owner, in 1962 to supply Jamaican music to West Indian cus- I tamers in Britain. The company had its first major success when Millie Small's ska tune 'My Boy Lollipop' reached no. 2 in the English pop charts later that year. The company diversified to black music in general, setting up Sue Records in 1963 as a subsidiary to market American soul, blues, ska, and rhythm and blunt trucks under licence. In the later 1970s Island hooked into the commercial end of the British counterculture, releasing records by Traffic, Fairport Convention .mil I'm In 1972 Blackwell signed tlie Wailers, with Bob Marley (see Baric, 2004: 239 62).
Conventional histories see this move as inevitably successful, riding iln burgeoning western interest in reggae But in fact the marketing ol reggae and the Wailets is illustrative ol leeotd nuiipanv attempts to maximize their investment at' their must mm cestui moment  Island      ■« • I .mil marketed Marley and the
Wallers as ethnic rebellion for album buyers, both black and white (Barrow ftixl Dallon, 1997; Jones, S., 1988; White, 1989). The strategies used included recording Catch a Fire (Island, 1972), the Wailers' first album, in stereo; doubling tin pay rates for the session musicians involved, enabling litem to record lor longer; employing the latest technical facilities of the recording process to 'clean up' the music; and remixing and editing the hacking tracks in Ixindon, after they li.nl been recorded in Jamaica. Blackwell, a very hands-on label boss, also accel-11.1 led the speed of the Wailers1 basic rhythm tracks by one beat, thinking that a 'I'm. kei tempo might enhance the appeal of reggae to rock fins. The result was a more 'produced sound', with keyboards and guitars, moving away from reggae's traditional emphasis on drums and bass. [Catch a Fire: Deluxe Edition of Island/ UME, includes the UK remixed and overduhbed album [2001], along with the Original, previously unreleascd version recorded in Jamaica.)
Catrh a Fire had an elaborated pop art record cover, designed as a large cigar-Bite lighter, while the Wailers' second album, Bwrtin' (Island, 1973) pictured rastas In various 'dread' poses, and printed the song lyrics. These ploys seemed to Confirm Island's intention to sell the Wailers as "rebels" by stressing the uncuui-I......using and overtly political aspects of their music' Jones, 198B: 65). At the
line lime, however, this stance was watered down for white consumption. The Kimip's third album had its title changed from Knotty Dread, with its connotations "I rasta militancy and race consciousness symbolized by dreadlocks, to .\utly Dread, with its white connotations of fashionable style.
Island carefully promoted the Wailers concert tour of Britain in 197'J to in. hide appearances on national radio and television. This level of exposure was in w for reggae, previously constrained by the genre's limited financial support. I ntei marketing or the band, following only fair success lor their first two albums, Included pushing Bob Marley to the lore as the group's frontman and 'star'. This
n.uegy proved particularly successful during the 1975 tour of Britain, as the
I......I    now 'Bob Marley and the Waileis'    commercially broke through to a
.....ss white audience. Original founding members Peter Tosh and Bonn)' Waiter
!■ It towards the end of 1974, bnth leeling that too much attention was now being n to Bob. In another strategic marketing move, instead of simply replacing litem with similar characteristically Jamaican male harmonies, the more gospel-nillei ted lemalc backup vocals of the l-Threes were brought in to Supply a sound more lamiliar to rock audiences at that time (Barrow and Dallon, 1997: 131), \ lung of record hits and successful tours followed in the late 1970s, due at least ni p.id to the music becoming more accessible and pop oriented. In 19111, Bob Made) and die Wailers worldwide album sales were estimated to be in excess of »1 'SI"Ml milium.
I In success of Island with the Wailers helped usher in a period ol tin   nit i
national commercialization of reggae. For the multinational record c.....panic*,
'legg.u was a rich grazing-ground requiting low levels of investment bill yielding ■iibsl.mii.il profits' (Jones, 1988: 72). ,Jamaican artist! could lie bought cheaply i mop.tied to the advances demanded b\ linn western rock counterparts, Yet ■ I'd. reggae spurred the succeM ol dub ami die sk.i irvivul ol tin eailv 19110»,
11 1   Undei standing popular musk culture
and was a crucial iulluence on commercially successful bands like the Police, Bob Marley remained the only major star to emerge from reggae. His international success arguably owed as much to Blackwell and Island as to his personal charisma and the power of the music.
Marley's death in 1081 did little to diminish bis commercial worth, as Island successfully marketed a greatest bits package. Legend (1984), which was no. 1 in die UK for several months. Indeed, die continued appeal of Mailey was indicated hy the album's remarkable longevity: by 1997 it had snld 12 million copies worldwide (Barrow and Daltou, 1997: 135), and has remained the top-selling (bark) 'catalogue' alhum in Billboard since that chart's creation in 1991. By 1984 Dave Robinson was running Island, and his market research indicated that:
You should keep the word 'reggae' out of it. A lot of what people didn't like about Bob Mailey was the threatening aspect of him, the revolutionary side. So tlie (album covet) picture chosen was one of the softest pictures of] Kul i h was :i wry well conceived and thought out package. And -i verj w< II pul-logether record,
(Blackwell, cited in Stephens, 1998: 145)
'l'liis approach set die trend for the subsequent marketing of the reggae star, as his image was subtly remoulded, moving from the Rastafarian outlaw of the 1970s to the natural family man of the 1980s to die 'natural mystic' in the 1990s. This process reflected not only the incorporation of bis music but also the incorporation of his image and message. A new CD compilation, The Natural Mystit (1995) and a four-CD boxed set Sotigs of Freedom (1992), both reflected how 'The Marley of the 1970s, rude boy, revolutionary, Rastafarian, needed to be exorcised for the singer to appeal to a more mainstream white audience' (Stephens, 1998: 142). The cover v/Malural Mystk, a profile head shot of a gently smiling Marley with his hand at his chin, was similar to that used on the Legend cover and indeed came from the same phnto session in 1977. The booklet accompanying the 1992 boxed sel tells the story of Marley's origins as a rude boy in Trenchtown, Jamaica, the turn to Raslafari in the late 19b(Js and his rise to international stardom in the 1970s. The accompany CDs parallel this history. The booklet and its images, and in the choice of songs for inclusion in the package, emphasize Marley's growing commitment to spiritual and social issues, playing down liis increased political consciousness and desire to connect with a black audience ai illness looked likely to end his career.
Prince and the bat
A further instructive example of marketing, illustrating newer synergies within the music industry was Prince's soundtrack for the film liutmaii (19119). Ilns mi of a carefully orchestrated marketing cam|>aign to create interest in the film, die first in what became a franchise, and In break him c In a wider audience, primarily through exposure on MTV. Win tier < '<>i>............ttoM Inc. <W( :i) invi MM
I S   II) million in the lUitimm liliu, Hiring tl mil mini h     a one nil him. I>ul as *
Marketing and mediation   115
package of ongoing projects: a series of films, albums, sheet music, comics and uiiudi/aiious. The soundtrack tor Batman was actually put out in two forms: an nil mm by Prince, which featured songs for the film soundtrack and music inspired by die iilm, which achieved double platinum sales; and an orchestral album by composer Danny Ellmaii, with respectable sales of around 150,000 copies. WCI had recently acquired Chappie, making the corporation the largest song publisher in the world and the two albums generated further income for die company through their sales of sheet music. Both album jackets featured the bat logo, an icon that reinforced publicity for the film and its associated products. Unusually, l'i hire's video of lite album's lead song, 'Batdance', featured no Ibotageliom die Iilm. but used the actor's lines as a lead-in m the rap/funk style number. The video received heavy airplay on the MTV channel, watched primarily by white middle-class youth and adults. WCI had established Prince's main audience as while females in their late twenties m early thirties, so the MTV exposure helped broaden his appeal, while also bringing die Batman Iilm to the attention of non-COJnic book fans and white women.
The marketing of popular music has become increasingly sophisticated since llie efforts of"Island with Bob Marley and the Waiters and WCI with Prince. The expansion of the music press, the sophistication of retail, the continued formatting ol i adio, the popularization of MTV and music video and i he emergence of the
......met liave all contributed to the ability of the industry to coordinate marketing
internationally across a range of media. The star as a form of commodity has been exemplified in the careers ol, among others, Kylie Minogue, Be.yonie and I nylot Swill.
Mediation and cultural intermediaries
These ease studies of marketing indieaie the role of other cultural intermediaries, primarily various music media in disseminating and popularizing music. There is a historical progression of these media, which provides a logir and .structure for the discussion that follows. Based in the established sector of sheet music sales, i 'I.lil shops were where sound recordings could lirst be listened to and purchiised.
I.....i, film and radio provided cultural spaces in which music could be experi-
.....-tl, informing and shaping consumption. The music press, established in the
1920$, played a similar role, especially in the emergence or 'rock culture' in die 19li().s. The introduction of television in the 1950s, followed by MTV in the 19803, provided new sites of mediation. Most recently (as indicated in Chapters 1 .mil 2), die internet has dramatically altered the relationship between the sound n voiding industry and the manufacture, distribution and consumption of music.
II.....pjHiriunilirs ollc.red by die new digital environment, with practices and
in .millions such as web radio, blogs and YottTube, have both inHected and, in nunii- cases superseded, the older historically dominant forms of mediation. In the
.......iniln n| this chapter, 1 consider the role of retail and radio in mediating
I■> i|■ l11,11 uuisii. Willi snl>s!,|lii ill chapter* looking at ihc place ol later media in
iii Ii pi l ii i'SKCK.
116   Understanding papulw miuic culture Music retail
Marketing includes the sites at which musk is sold, including street markets (Iaing, 2012), the physical record shop', music megastores and online retail Their inventor)' can encompass sheet music, musical instruments, music-related merchandise, concert tickets, music DVDS, music magazines and luniks. Primarily, however, the term 'music retail* refers to the sale of sound recordings to (he public. Information on this topic is sparse and there is a history of music retail yet to be written, hut a quick sketch is possible.
Sound recordings were first available dtrough shops selling sheet music and musical instruments. In the early 1900s, chains of department stores began supplying li>t songs, along with sheet music. Later, smaller, independent and sole proprietor shops (the 'mom and pop' stores in the US) emerged. By the 1950s, and the advent of rock 'n' roll, record retailers included independent shops, often specializing in particular genres; chain stores; and mail order record clubs. The subsequent relative importance and market share of each of these has reflected the broader consolidation of the music industry, along with shifts in recording Ibrmats and distribution technologies. Retailers have had to adapt to changes as mundane as the need for dillerent shell space to accommodate new foimats. The advent of electronic bar coding in the 1990s enabled retail, distribution, and production 'to be arranged as an interconnected lugistic package'. This allowed 'music retailers to delineate, construct and monitor die consumer of recorded music more intricately titan ever before' (dit Gay and Negus, 1994: 396). A similar process now occurs with (he tracking of the pre I ire i ices of browsers and purchasers in online music retail sites, such as Amazon.
Retail chains have, at dmcs, also assumed a direct gatekeeping role, by censoring or not stocking particular artists, genres and recordings (for example Wal-mart in the US). Record company sales and distribution practices can be directly tied to music retail. Several leading mail order record clubs in the 1950s were adjuncts of labels, receiving discounts on slock, a situation successfully challenged legally by their competitors (Baric, 2004). Linked independent record stores have been part of labels, such as Rough Trade and Beggars Banquet in the UK, although the importance of such arrangements declined in the 1990s.
As with the culture industries generally, increased concentration of ownership has been a feature of the music retail industry since the mid-1990s, as CI) sale* peaked and then declined. In 200G Mall Brennan documented how the increased concentration of music retail in Britain constrained i he availability of releases from indie and specialist genre labeLs. In addition to central buying, the live major chain stores have iulroduced the use of'retail packs', with only a limited numlaer of sales spaces available:
At HMV there's 24 non-pop reiail packs up for grabs every month, And that's for folk, world music, classical and ja/.y.. If you don't get one of them, you're not going lo sell even I01MI records
(Tom Bancroft, ownei of ja/./. label (label Music, . iied in Brennan, 2041611: 224)
Marketing and mediation   117
As he observed, this 'can mean almost guaranteed commercial failure for independent artists not offered a pack' (ibid.). Further, the central buyer's decision (o oiler a pack will be based on an artist and labels 'track record': a combination
0 I favourable press coverage; radio airplay; band tours and promotional activities; and previous retail history. Obviously, there is a process of validating existing advantages likely tu occur here: lo those who have, shall be given.
Smaller local music chains have been forced to retrench by consolidating shops and 'downsizing' stall"or have kept operating through niche marketing and iIn-ir increased use of the internet. In New Zealand, local music retail chain Marbecks announced in March 2012 that il was closing its remaining Wellington store, after 17 years of trading a I the site, as the company scaled clown its retail operations to focus on digital mid online sales. 'It's really jusl a change in our industry1, said Roger Harper, the co-owner and major shareholder. This was the latest in a succession of music retail stores to close in Wellington, New Zealand's
1 apital.
An increasing proportion of recordings are now sold through general retailers Woolwortlis, Wal-mart) and die surviving music megastores. This con-< duration influences the range of music available to consumers and the continued economic viability of smaller retail outlets. The general retailers frequently use music as a loss leader: reducing their music CD and DVD prices to attract shoppers whom they hope will also purchase other store products with higher piotit margins. This situates music as only one component of the general selling of lifestyle consumer goods. In New Zealand, for example, this marketing strategy is Central to the Warehouse national chain, now the country's largest music retailer. The Warehouse has used its bulk purchasing power, along with heavy advertising ..l discounts through blanket media coverage (die press, flyers to home mail boxes, TV, radio advertising) to secure market dominance. What diis means for
.....aimers, however, is a relatively restricted range of music on offer, with a
h. av) emphasis on the discounted chart-oriented recordings, which ate available-only on < 1).
Historically, indie or specialist and second-hand record shops occupied a distinct space within the music market In many cases, they contributed significantly to local music scenes bv promoting shows, supporting local arlists, and si lliug liekeis, l-shii ts, fanzines and other merchandise not handled by major retailers, Pan of the appeal of such shops is the shoppers' relationship with the i ill, which frequently involves trusting their musical knowledge and reeninmen-il.uiMiis, along with a reciprocal recognition, often hard won, of the buyers' own ■ K|)crtUe, The 1980s was something of a high [joint lor the specialist and used .....id store. As Hayes notes of the US:
Whik ninny small (largely regional) labels continued lo release music on 7" mid 12" records throughout the '90s, locating their products was often a difficult task since mainstream retail outlets such us Tower Records and IIMV shelved lew if am LI' releases after deleting previous slock.
(Hayes, 2006: 56)
118   Understanding popular music culture.
Mtnkttiiig and mediation   1 ] 9
This limited vinyl enthusiast to two main sites of acquisition: a small number of I independent retailers who continued to stock vinyl releases, usually limited | pressings by small labels; and used record stores.
Emma Pcttit (2008) has documented how independent (and second-hand) record shops continue to form a minor but still culturally significant part ] of record retail. However, they have increasingly struggled, with the impact of I the internet and its auction websites, increases in rent for traditional central I city areas, especially as these become 'gentrified 7 renewed and the ongoing I concentration of music retail generally. They have managed to survive and, in some cases, even flourish, by using the internet, by catering to specialist interests and continuing to stock vinyl. The shift online of music retail continues, and has resulted in changes in the nature of music consumption (see Chapter 10).
Radio
Radio developed in the 1920s and 1930s as a domestic medium aimed primarily I at women ill the home, but also playing an important role as general family I entertainment, particularly in the evening. Radio in North America was sig- I niiicant tor disseminating music in concert form and helped bring regionally based forms such as western swing and jazz to a wider audience (Ennis, 1992). I Historically die enemy of the record industry during the disputes of the 1930s ami 1940s around payment for record airplay, radio subsequently became its most I vital promoter. Until the advent of MTV in the late 1980s, radio was indisputably I the most important broadcast medium for determining the form and content ol popular music.
The state has played a significant, yet often overlooked, rule in radio. First, it 1 has shaped the commercial environment for radio, primarily through licensing I systems, but also by establishing broadcasting codes of practice - a form of cen-1 sorship, This state practice has at times been challenged, most notably by pirate I radio (see later). Second, the state has at times attempted to encourage 'minority' cultures and local music, with die two Irequently connected, through quota and I other regulatory legislation. Examples of diis are attempts to include mora I French-language music on Canadian radio (Grenier, 1993), a case illustrating the difficulties of conflating 'the national' in multicultural/bilingual sellings; anil The New Zealand goven intent's recent introduction ol local content quotas lor I radio (see Chapter 14).
The organization of radio broadcasting and its music formatting practices have I been crucial in shaping the nature of what constitutes the main 'public lace' of I much popular music, particularly rock and pop and their associated suhgriirrt, I Kadio has .d-.ii played a central role ,n paiticulai historical moments in popularizing or marginalizing music genres Two examples of this follow: tlx popularizing ol rock V toll in the 1950s and tin impact ol Uritish pirate radio in I the IMft
Radio meets rock 'n' roll: payola and the cult of the DJ
The reshaping of radio in the 1950s was a key influence in the advent of rock 'if roll. Radio airplay became central to commercial success, especially through the popular new chart shows. Hit radio was 'one of America's great cultural inventions', revitalizing a medium threatened hy television (Barnes, 198f»: 9). The l)J (disc jockey) emerged as a star figure, led by figures such as Bob 'YVollman jack1 Smith and Alan Freed.
The place of radio in tiic music industry was brought to the fore by the debate .ikmud payola, a term used for the ottering of financial, sexual or other inducements in return Tor promotion. In 1955 the US House of Representatives legislative Oversight Committee, which had been investigating the rigging of quiz SfaOwS, began looking at pay-to-play practices in ruck music radio. Payola, as the practice was then known, had long been commonplace, but was not illegal. "Song plugging', as the practice was originally termed, had been central to music industry marketing since the heyday of Tin Pan Alley in the 1920s. By the 1950s DJs and radio station programmers frequently supplemented their incomes with 'consultant tees' and musical credits on records, enabling them to receive a share of songwriliug royalties. During the committee hearings, Dick I Hark admitted to having a personal interest in around a quarter of the records he promoted on his inlluential show American Bandstand, lie divested himself of his music business holdings and was eventually cleared by the committee. A clean-cut figure, Clark survived the scandal because he represented the acceptable face of ii" k 'if roll. Pioneer DJ Alan Freed was not so fortunate; persecuted and eventually charged with commercial briber)' in 1960, his health and career were i uiiied.
Payola did not target all music radio, but was part of a conservative battle i   return to 'good music', a campaign underpinned by economic self-interest. I In   American  Society of Composers, Authors  and  Publishers (ASCAP) iimported the attack on payola by criticizing rivals RMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.), whose writers were responsible lor most rock V roll. The major record labels participated in the campaign as part of a belated attempt to hall the I'.Nisiun ol die independents. Hill goes so far as to conclude that one way lo He the payola hearings was as an attempi - ultimately successful - 'to force a greater degree or organization and hierarchical responsibility onto the record 'inIn,try so that the ilow of music product could be more easily regulated' Hill. 1992; 39). The involvement of conservative government officials, and a
......iIxt of established music figures (including Frank Sinatra), w;is largely
• 'I on an intense dislike of rock 'u' roll, a prejudice with only loosely concealed racist overtimes, given the prominence of black performers associated with lite N.....■
Payola did not disappear, .....lily becoming less visible ami concealed undei
promotion' budgets. In Uk US in 2005, echoing the earlier controversy,
» Viiik \llniii<\ (.i-nri.il l.lmi Spil/ei initialed a sweeping payola investigation, mil 'In ating all four uiajoi iei mil lain I. in |t> lm play practices
120   Understanding papular musk culture
AlarLimg unit umliulivn 121
Pirate radio and the BBC
Pirate radio broadcasts are those made by unlicensed broadenstera as an alternative to licensed, commercial radio programming. However, the pirate stations usually rely on the same popular music that is programmed on commercial radio, rarely programming music other than the main pop and rock slylea. A major exception was in the 1960s, when the British pirates challenged the BBC's lack of attention to pop/rock music. British pirate radio in its heyday, 1964 1MB, was an historical moment encapsulating the intersection of rock as cultural politics and personal memory with market economics and government intervention. Twenty-one different pirates operated during this period, representing a wide range of radio stations in terins of scale, motives and operating practices.
The myth of the pirates is that they were about providing pop music to iheii disenfranchised and previously ignored youthful listeners, representing a somewhat anarchic challenge to radio convention and commerce; indeed, this is the narrative of the recent celebratory feature film 77« liuat that Radted (21 Hit). However, as Robert Chapman argues, the reality was rather more commercial. Given that the BBC's popular music policy was woefully inadequate in the early 1960s, the pirates did cater for a largely disenfranchised audience; they also pioneered some innovative programmes and boosted the careers of leading DJs of the lime Kenny Everett and .John Peel. Hut, as their programming indicated, they were never predominantly about popular music and were heavily oriented toward advertising. All the pirates were commercial operations: 'though work-place and] legal judicial circumstances were not typical, in all other respects Uiese were entrepreneurial small businesses aspiring to become entrepreneurial big businesses1 (Chapman, 1992: 167). This was particularly evident in the case of Radio London, set up with an estimated investment of £1.5 million, whose 'overriding institutional goals were to maximize profit and bring legal commercial radio In Great Britain' (Chapman, 1992: BO). In this respect, the station succeeded, with the BBC* Radio 1, established in 1967 as the pirates were being dosed down, borrowing heavily from the practices of pirate radio and even hiring pirate DJs.
From FM to iveb radio
FM radio was develo}>ed in the early 1930s, using a frequency modulation (hem <■ FM) system of broadcasting. It did not have the range of AM and was primarily used by non-commercial and college radio until the late 1960s, when demand foi its clearer sound quality and stereo capabilities saw the FM stations become ten iral players in die commercial market. They contributed to what fiecninr a dominant style of music radio in the 1970s and I91i(ls (radio friendly; high production values; relatively 'easy listening'; Vlassii lock', exemplified by the Kagles and Fleetwood Mai). The app'a) of I'M witnessed a < oiixolidaiinn uf the historically established role nl radio in chart suirrvc lnile|K-ndent programme director)
became die newest power brokers within the industry, replacing the independent recOtd distributors of the early sixties (Eliot. 1999}. Most radio stations now followed formats shaped by consultants, with a decline in the rote of programme directors at individual stations, a situation that persisted into the 1990s and .....imues today.
Terrestrial radio's audience dropped steeply in the early 2000s. In response to this dwindling market share and its serious impact on advertising revenue, right of the top radio companies in the North American market formed the lli> Digital Radio Alliance in 200J and began launching digital radio stations In key markets. These new Stations offered listeners near Gi>qualiry sfeund and up to three additional channels per frequency, along with alternate versions In then primary format {Rolling Stone, 23 February 2006: 18. 'Radio's Next I ■eneration').
Web radio and new broadcasting technologies have continued to foster an explosion (jf radio stations, even although many have a localized signal, in die Miinuiercial sector, digital technologies have produced new production aesthetics iiul reshaped the radio industry. The fast decade lias seen a renaissance of radio, i .[linking lite new platforms of cable, satellife, digital transmission and the internet. 'Though olien widely scattered, the audiences for internet stations are not necessarily large but they gain the potential for interactivity; they can download imiMi- and other material1 (Starkey, 2010: 169). In the United Kingdom, thanks to ilii broadcasting Act of 1990, there has been a remarkable expansion of the independent' or com mere ial sector along with the many stations available ihiough Sky and Freeview television services. Radio continues to expand at local, regional and national levels, 'with a greater choice of programming today than ever before' (Starkey, 2010: 165).
Mutions and formats
Kadio stations arc distinguishable by the type of music they play, the style of their I (|s and their mix of news, contests, commercials and other programme leatures. \\Y can see radio broadcasts as a How, with these elements merging. The main 111 >i s of radio station include college, student, pirate and youth radio (e.g. the LIS college stations; New Zealand's campus radio; Australia's Triple J network); slate
.........d lirnndcaslers. such as the BBC; community radio; and, the dominant
group in terms of market share, the commercial radio stations. There is a long-
i uidiug t onlrariiclion between the interests of record companies, which are targeting radio listeners who buy records, especially those in their teens and early twenties, and private radio's concern to reach the older, more affluent audience ■ I' ned by advertisers. To some extent, this contradiction has been resolved by niche marketing of contemporary music radio.
•Staiii.....nd juogranuue directors act as gatekeepers, being responsible for
ensuring a prescribed and identifiable sound or Ibiiual, hased on what the nian-tigciiii'hl of I he slat inn believes will generate the largest audience and ratings and .....lequeW advertising revenui (the < la.vsit muiK heir is Koihenbuhter, 2006)
122   Understanding popular mask culture
The station's music director and the programme director - at smaller station! same person (ills both roles - will regularly silt through new releases, selecting three or four lo add to the playlist. The criteria underpinning ihis process will normally be a combination of the reputation of the artist; a record's previoutt performance, if already released overseas; whether the song tits the station1! formal; and, at times, the gul intuition of those making the decision. Publicity material from the label/artist/distributor plays an important role here, jogging memories of earlier records or sparking' interest in a previously unknown arlisi Chart performance in either the UK or UK is especially significant where the record is being subsequently released in a 'foreign market. In clroosing whether or not to play particular genres of popular radio functions as a gatekeeper, sij" niliauuly influencing the nature of the music itself (Neill and Shanahan, 2005; the siluation lliey oudine in relation to New Zealand's commercial networks remains evident).
Historically, radio formats were fairly straightforward, and included 'top -10', 'soul', and 'easy listening'. Subsequently, formats became more complex ami by die 1 yj-SOs included 'adult-oriented ruck', classic hits (or 'golden oldies), eon* temporary hit radio and urban contemporary (Barnes, 1988). Urban con-temporary once meant black radio, but now included artists working within black music genres. In the US, black listeners constitute the main audience for urban contemporary formats, but die music also appeals lo while listeners, particularly in the 12-34 age group. Today, radio in most national contexts includes a range of formats: the dominant ones, reflecting historical developments in addition lo current demugrapities, are rock, contemporary chart pop, adult contemporary and classic hits.
As channel switching is common in radio, the aim of programmers is to keep the audience from switching stations. Common strategies include playing fewci commercials and running contests ilut require listeners lo be alert for a song 01 phrase to he broadcast latrr, but the most effective approach is to ensure that tin* station does not play a record the listener does not like. While this is obviousl) strictly impossible, there are ways to maximize the retention of the listening audience. Since established artists have a bigger following than new artists, it makes commercial sense to emphasize their records and avoid playing release! horn new artists on high rotation (i.e. many times per day) until they haw become hits, an obvious catch-22 situation.
Classic rock radio
The mosr extreme example of this approach is classic rock radio, which has it* origins in progressive rock radio in the mid-1 %0s. DJs began playing tracks fmitl albums such as the Beatles Sergeant Pepper's Lotieh Hearts CM Hand (1967) which had not had any singles released from them. A subsequent variant of this prai I ii ■ was albutn-orienied ruck (AOK), which emerged in llir mid-1970s and which
evolved into '< lassh rock' on mam ol the new I \ I radio .!........-,, . lot mat lh.it
induded singles lloiUE With album 11 .u ks ill......n, runt. Thr til.si station to i all
the l
Marketing mid mediation i'2'5
itself 'classic rock' was WYSP in Philadelphia, in January 1981 and the format In Lame I irmly established over the next lew years. Some radio stations used the i elated term 'classic hits', mixing the classic rock playlist with hits from pop and R&B and drawing on both historical and contemporary material. Classic link radio became prominent in part because of die consumer power ofthe aging post-war 'baby Isomers' and the appeal of (his group to radio advertisers. Tile
■ jiiii.il i-iuiiiniiL s to concentrate on playing 'tried and proven' past chart hits that ivill have high listener recognition and ideutilicaiiuii. Its playlisls are largely drawn from the Beatles to the end of the 1970s and emphasize white male rock performers (see Thompson, D., 2008). »
Ideologically, 'classic rock' serves to confirm the dominant status of a particular period of music history - die emergence of rock in the mid-1960s with its associated values and set of praedces: live performance, self-expression and authenticity; the group as the creative unit, with the charismatic lead shiger pl.iving a key role and the lead guitar as llie primary instrument. Ibis was a version of romanticism, with its origins in art and aesthetics. It incorporated particular notions of authenticity, valorized by first generation rock critics such as Robert Chrisigau, Dave Marsh and lister Bangs (see Chapter 9),
(lassie rock radio depends heavily on British hard rock and progressive rock bauds, notably die Rolling Stones, the Who, link Hnyd, Led Zeppelin and I Ircain. American artists who are staples of classic rock include Jinn Hendrix, the [)oors, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Lyuyrd Skynrd and Fleetword Mac. However, these artists represent oulv a selection ofthe music ofthe 1960s and /IK. Some commercially successful rock acts, such as Kiss and Grand l''uuk Railroad, receive only limited airplay on classic rock radio and there are also examples of commercially successful styles that coexisted with rock during the Iii nod, such as soul, luiik, and Motown and performers such as Sly and the I'.iuiily Stone and James Brown are noticeably absent. The reasons for such .ibsciiies warrant further investigation.
The concern lo retain a loyal audience assumes fairly focused radio listening. I'.u ;idoxi< ally, while the radio is frequently 'on', it is rarely listened' to, instead l.ugily functioning as aural wallpaper, a background to other activities. Vet high
■ in.uiiin radio airplay remains vhal in exposing artists and building a following for ihi'ir work, while radio cxpi>surc is also necessary to underpin activities such as inuring, helping to promote concerts and the accompanying sales ol records. The u iv ubiquity of radio is a factor here. In its terrestrial formats, it can be listened til in a variety of situations and with widely varying levels of engagement, from the Walkman lo background accompaniment to activities such as study, doing domestic i In ncs and reading. I lowever, the internet radio experience is very dillerent from iiiiiiiisiream listening, given it is much less portable and flexible.
I In* charts
I hsli h ii alb, the churls provided a crucial link between music retail and radio,
..... ili.ii ii in,mis pro mine nl despite the nhili ol musu utiline The populai music
124   Utukistanding popular music culture
A tarketutg and mediation   125
chart is a numerical ranking of current releases based on sales and airplay, usually over a week; the top ranked album/single is no.l and the rest are ranked correspondingly. The charts were a feature of the music press from early on its development. The first UK chart appeared in 1928 (the Melody Maker 'Honours List'); in the US, leading trade paper Billboard began a 'Network Song Census' in I9'.i4. Such charts quickly became the basis for radio 'Hit Parade' programmes, most notably the 'top 41V shows.
The popular musk charts represent a level of industry and consumer obsession with sales figures almost unique to the record industry. The charts are part of the various trade magazines (e.g. Billboard, Variety', Musk Week), providing a key refer* ettce point for diose working in sales and promotion. The record charts also a major role in constructing taste: 'to the fan of popular music, the charts are merely quantifications of commodities but rather a major reference point around which their music displays itself in distinction and in relation to other forms' (Parker, 1991: 205). This role remains evident, although arguably less influential, in the digital age.
The precise nature of how contemporary charts are compiled, and their basis, varies between competing trade magazines and national approaches differ. In the US, singles charts arc based on airplay, while the allium charts are based on said Current releases are generally defined for the singles charts as up to 26 weeks after the release dale. In the UK, the charts are produced by market research organizations sponsored by various branches of the media. In both countries, data collection is now substantially computerized and haxe.d on comprehensive sample data. Airplay information is compiled from selected radio stations, with sales information from online retail and wholesalers, assisted by bar coding.
This represents a form of circular logic, in that the charts arc based on > combination of radio play and sales, but airplay influences sales and retail promotion and sales impacts on radio exposure. Historically, there has been frequent controversy over attempts to inllueuce die charts and debate still occurs ovi I perceived attempts to manipulate them. The charts continue to provide the muni industry with valuable feedback and promotion and help set the agenda foj consumer choice.
Changes in the presentation of the charts can have important repercussion for the relative profile of particular genres/performers. The charts air broken
down into genre categories; these can change over time, acting as a ban.....i< i ol
taste, as with the change in Billboard from 'race' records to R&li in 1949. The decline of the single has influenced the way in which the charts are constructed In the UK, in 191S9 lite music industry reduced the number of sales required In qualify for a platinum award (from one million to 61X1,000) to assist tin* pioinu tional system and ensure charts continued to fuel excitement and sales. In 201 M> greater chart recognition of online sales of singles reflected their increasing market share (see Chapter 2). More recently, the proliferation of formats hal complicated the tracking of sales and undermined the place and inlluence ol tlu (harts When Robbie Williams' Inteuurr < me album was released in 2005 tin n were  Hi I elements and t niiliguialious ■■! material you could buy. As David
|i linings observes: 'It's increasingly difficult for chart rules to keep up with dtis kind of proliferation and provide a credible measure of the overall market impact I .m album packaged in the age of digital convergence' (Jennings. 2007: 67). 'Hie following chapter picks up the theme of mediation and marketing in an examination of the relationship of various audio visual media to the production mil consumption of popular music culture.
Further reading iirtail
Bade, L. (2004) Where Have all die Good Times Goaf? Tlie Rise and Fall of the Record
Industry, London: Atlantic Books. Pel lit, E. (200U) Old Rare jVeiv: 'the Independent Record Shop. London: black Hog. Si i aw, W. (1997) 'Organized Disorder: The Changing Space of the Record
Shop', in S. Redhead (ed.) Tlie Club Cultures Reader, Oxford: Blackwell, pp 57-65.
Music industry websites include considerable accessible information on marketing ai nl sales.
Kttdio
Mantes, K. (1988) 'Top 40 Radio: A Fragment of the Imagination', in S. Frith
(ed,), Faring the Music, New York: Pantheon Books. (IrisseU, A. (ed.) (2004) him 77;«« a Musk Box: Radio Cultures and Communities in a
Mnlti-Media World, Oxford: Berghahn. I itnis, P. (1992) The Seventh Stream, Hanover, London: Wesleyan University Press
(especially Chapter 5: The D| Takes Over, 1946-5G"). Rolhenbuhler, E. (2006) 'Commercial Radio as Communication', in A. Bennett,
II. Shank and J. Toynhee (eds), The Popular Musk Studies Reader, London
New York: Routledge (first published 19U.5) Mai key, C. (2010) 'Radio' in D. Albeilazzi P. and Cobley, 77« Media: An Iritroductm,
Ird edn, Ilariow: Pearson Education Limited (Chapter I I).
From film to video games 127
8   SU Got the Look5
From film to video games: music and pictures
This chapter continues the theme of mediation, examining the relationship popular music production, dissemination and consumption to an historical succession of audiovisual media: film and television, music video and MTV, video games. With tilm, my focus is on commercial feature film and popular music, primarily the popular/rock musicals that followed in die footsteps of classic Hollywood musicals. With television, I am interested in the impact of the new medium on the impact of rock 'n' roll and the subsequent role of mainstream television music shows, including diose that are a form of reality television (S Club 7; Idot], Both film and television have screened popular music documentaries, bio-pics, validating and myihologizing particular performers, styles and historical moments. Music video and MTV illustrate, once again, the global reach of the music industry and die synergy between music, marketing and audiences. Video gaming represents an increasingly important contemporary site for die production and consumption of popular music. Currently, You'Lube has enabled access to 1 wide range of music in all its previous audiovisual forms.
Film
Film has an important historical relationship to popular music. Early silent film! often had a live musical accompaniment (usually piano); and with the arrival ol the 'talkies' musicals became a major film genre iti the 1930s and continued to U important HtitQ the 19fi0s. Composers and musicians, primarily stars, provided a source of material lor Uiese films, as did Broadway musicals. The various gciircn of popular music, its laus and performers have acted as a rich vein of colourful, tragic and salutary stories for filmmakers. A new form of musical, the 'rock musical', played an important part in rack 'n' roll in ttie mid-1950s. Allied with such musicals were youth movies, with a range of subgenres. Over tin- pant 40 years or so, considerable synergy lias been created between the music and lilm
industries: film soundtracks and video games represent another avenue oi'revi.....
Ibr recordings, including the hack catalogue and help promote contemporary releases.
The classic 1 lolly wood musical was ,t hybrid tilm genre, descended from
European operant* and American vaudeville and tin music hall. While 'flu jfa
Singer (Alan Crosland, 1927) was the fust feature film with sound, the first 'all-talking, all-sinking, all dancing' musical was 77ie Bwadway Melody (Harry Beaumont, 1929), which was important also for establishing the tradition of the backstage musical.   The musical soon became regarded as a quintessential!)
\iiicrican or Hollywood genre, associated primarily with die Warner and MOM Hudius and RKO's pairing of lied Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Mainly ]>erceived as vehicles for song and dance, the routines and performance of these became unceasingly complex, culminating in the highly stylized films of Busby Berkeley, 'the Iflzard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939} introduced a new musical formula, t < mi billing youth and music. Oilier new forms of the musical were introduced dining die 1940s, including composer biographies and biographical musicals of
Jiowhiz' stars. The vitality and audience appeal of the musical continued into i in 1950s, with contemporary urban musicals such as An American in Paris (Vincent Miiniilh. 1951), which portrayed a dynamic Paris music scene, with a cast Including musical stars Frank Sinatra and Biug Crosby. Although the 1960s did ■ ivcral blockbuster musicals, noiably The Sound rj£Musk (Robert Wise, 1965), (lie heyday of the classic musical had passed, with fewer Broadway hits now making it to tire screen. The 19b0s saw a move towards greater realism in the 'Ihi ii al, exemplified by I Vest Side Story (Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, 1901), an updated version of Romeo and Juliet. The classic musical established a link between
.....lit and the screen, featuring stars from bodi media and creating a market
lynergy between thetn, a relationship that rock 'n' roll was able to build on in the 19511s.
Pit/nttur and rock musicals
I In classical musical's place was taken by a plethora of new forms associated with tin [tojHilar musical genres spawned by the advent of rock 'if roll. These films are i   qucntly treated as a generic group    'popular musicals'    but this term could
Ippl) equally to their historical predecessors, or as 'rock films', although their »nb|i it mallei' goes beyond rock as a genre. There are a substantial number of ■mil films, including a number of identifiable subgenrcs, and there is a considerable liiii autre on them.
During the l'J50s, the decline of the Hollywood studio system and a dwindling cinema audience led to the need to more systematically target particular audience demographics. I lollywood linked up with the record industry to lai^ei yonih, with a spale of teenage musicals. Many of these starred Elvis I'lcxlcy, with his song and dance routines in films such as Jnil House Hod:
I i haul Tholpe, 1957). Most early popular musicals had Uiisic plots Involving die career of a young rock performer: Rack Around the (Jock (Fred
-us, 1955), Don't Knock the Roek (Fred Sears, 1956), and Tin Girl Can't Help It tl'iank Taslilin, 11)57). TtMMS were bcquenily combined with the other stork liiini, dims serving purely as connived M'hii Ir.s loi their real-life stars. Most of
I hi. I'm .lc\ \ niu\ ies, I......       In.-, \l,  h n.l,i i Kill >ei I Webb, I 95(>j onward, were of
il.i,  null i,  uhlli    linn I.  i s. 11111' 11 ,    n< hull    I till   Kilhaill   in   '/lie   hiiutf> Ottr\
128   Understanding popular music culture
(Sydney Furic, 1961) and Tommy Steele in Ihe Tommy Steele Story (Gerard Bryant, 1957).
Any interest such films retain is largely due to their participant's music rather than their acting talents, although they did function as star vehicles Ibr figures like Presley. In helping establish an identity for rock 'n' roll, the teenage musicals placed youth in opposition to adult authority and lor conservatives con*! firmed the 'tblk devil' image of finis of the new genre, associating them with juvenile delinquency, a major concern internationally through the 1950s. The-matically, however, the popular musicals actually stressed reconciliation between generations and classes, with this acting as a point of narrative closure at die film's ending.
Such musicals also helped create an audience and a market for the new musical form, particularly in countries distant from the initial developments (see Chapter 13). These related roles continued to be in evidence in the subsequent development of the popular rock musical. The single 'Rock Around the Clock') by Bill Hailey and the Comets, provides an example of the market power oj cinema in the popularization of rock V roll. Originally released in May 1954, the song barely dented the US Billboard chart, peaking at no. 23, where it stayed lis only one week. Greater success came when the song was prominently used on the soundtrack for Blackboard Jungle (Richard Brooks, 1951). One of the most sun a ful and controversial films of the period, it used the new genre of lock "if mil to symbolize adolescent rebellion against the authority of the school. Re-released in May 1955, 'Rink Around the Clock' went to no. 1 in the UK. and the US. By the end of 1955 it had become the most popular recording in the US shim 'The Tennessee VValu', selling ti million copies and having an international impact.
British beat and the 'British Invasion' of the early 1960s were served up in .i number of films. Cerry and the Pacemakers hi ought a taste of the moment to a broader audience with Fetry Across Hie Mersey (J. Summers. 1964). This stuck to what had already become a standard formula struggling young band makes good after initial setbacks - which was only shaken when the Beatles enlisted director Richard Lester to produce the innovative and pseudo-biographical A Hani Day's Mgfd (1964). Along with Lester's Help (1965), this consolidated tin group's market dominance and extended the rock film genre into new and more interesting anarchic forms, in the mid- to late 1960s, with the emergence ol the counterculture, popular music was a necessary backdrop and a cacliel i>l cultural authenticity for films such as Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) and Ihe Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967). Both tii.sed contemporary rock soundtracks with thematic youth preoccupations of the day: the search for a personal and cultural identity in contemporary America.
During the 1970s and 1980s there was a profusion of |nipular musicals; the realist Jamaican film The Harder Ihey Com (I'erry I len/el, 19/2); the Howei powei
and religious fantasy iti God sprit (David (on in, 1973) and Hoi) (Milos I'.....tail
1979); the disco dance musical Giease (Radnal Kleister, 1978); and the dame liuilasies of htudidume (Adrian Lyne, 1986 and Ihily llnuum; i.i'.niile Ardoliiio,
From film to video games   129
I»87). The 'rock lifestyle' was the locus of That'll Be lite Day (1973) and Ken Russell's version of Tommy (1975). Nostalgia was at the core of Amercuvi Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973), The Blues Brothers John landis, 1978), Vie Buddy Holly Suiry (Steve Rash, 1978) and (hiadwpliaiiu (Franc Rodham, 1979). The success of these |Hipuiar musicals helped prepared the ground fur (lie success of MTV, launched in 1981, by reshaping ihe political economy of popular music, shifting the emphasis from sound to sound and images.
Since the 1980s popular musical films have continued lo mine a range of themes; youth subcultures (River's Edge, Tim Hunter, 1987); adolescent and young .iilull sexuality and gender relations [Singles, Cameron Crowe, 1992); Hass and
ii in-rational conflict: nostalgia; stardom and the rock lifestyle (Purple Rain, Albeit Magnoli, 1984; Baikbeat, lain Soliley, 1995; Rock Star, Stephen Herek, 2001); dance fantasies such as Strntly Ballroom (Baz l.uhnnan, 1992) and Take the isad Li/. I riedlander, 2006); and landom and the joy of making music, as in High Fidelity Sti plien r'rears, 2000), School of Rod (Richard Linklater, 2004) and Swll Pilgrim vs tin World (Edgar While, 2010). Ihe Rudy Honor Picture Show (Jim Sharrnan, 1975) treated a new subgenre: ihe cull musical, with the audience becoming an integral pari of the cinematic experience, an indulgence in fanlasy and catharsis. The liliu went on lo become the king of die 'midnight movies' cull films shown at midnight for week after week, usually on I'riday and Saturday nights.
Ihe storylines of such musicals involve popular music to varying extents, ranging from its centralily lo the narrative theme, to its use as soundtrack. These liluis articulate with the hopes and dreams, and fantasy lives, which popular iiihm, brings to people When an actual artist is drawn on, or featured, such films help the process of mytliologiring them, as with Kb is Presley, the Beatles and Jim Morrison, Dominant themes include youth ami adolescence as a rite of passage, frequently characterized by storm and stress, and using subcullural versus 'main-nil cam' af filiations to explore this; reconciliation, between generations, compel nig -•ill ii nil ii res and genders, frequently expressed through the emergence of couples; and the search (or independence and an established sense of identity. Given such llieines are ones identified in the literature as central adolescent 'tasks' and pre-
iii i upations, they clearly appeal to youdiliil cinema audiences and to filmmakers looking Ibr Ixix ollicc success.
A particular form of popular music film is the biopir: a biography presented as ,i film or television feature, but differing from a documentary in that it is aimed at ■ papular audience and will balance reliability and accuracy against coiniuei rial considerations and the need to entertain. A popular music biopie is 'a film which purports lo i ell, in pad or in full, the biography of a musical performer (living or ili ad;, and whit b contains a significant part of his or her music' ilnglis, 2007: 77; In was referring to rock/pop biopics, but his definition can stand for the genre). I he Mlbjei fl lur music biopics can be loimd in a range of genres, including blues, lap, |a/v, soul, cOUntryj anil p"p and rock Lxamples include Sid andNaua (Alex < iiv.lMIM,), on Sid Vicious of the Sett I'imi.Is; Bird (Clint Lustwood, 1988), about ' li.uhe I'aikci;  [he Mwri (QttMM Si.....-,19'MI), Ray (Taylor llackford, 2004),
>t11 Ka\ (Hi,hIrs, Walk 7/if hue Jainin Mangold, .'lio.n, about Johnti) (-ash.
130   Uruierstandtng popular musk culture
From film to video games   131
Nowhere Boy (Sam Taylor-Wood, 2009), on the early life of John Lennon; and Tht Runaways (Flnria Sigismondi, 201 1), on the influential teen girl rock band of the late 1970s.
.As Spencer Leigh (2009: 318) observes, reviewing Nowhere Boy, to some degt 11 makers of such (ilnis are, of necessity, 'playing fast and loose with the truth', aa they are constrained by the limited time to tell a story lhal covers several yean and may include considerable musical experimentation. The original source material, where there are widely varying popular biographies/memoirs and so forth of a figure, like Lcnnnn, can also be problematic.
Svundtracks
As mentioned earlier, Rock Arouud the Clock (1956) and many of the films featuring Elvis Presley demonstrated the market appeal of popular musical soundtracks, as had many Hollywood musicals before them. Mainstream narrative cinema lian increasingly used popular music soundtracks to great effect, with accompanying commercial success for bodi film and record. A key film in initially demonstrate the advantages of such synergy to the music industry was Saturday Night Four] (John Badham, 1977). As shown in Chapter 7, Prince's soundtrack for tlie film Batman (1989) was pan of a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign, which successfully created interest in the film and helped break Prince to a widet audience, primarily through exposure (of the promotional video clip) on Ml V The soundtrack to The Commitments- (Alan Parker, 1991), featuring some imprcssivr covers of soul classics and the powerful voice of Andrew Strong (who plays tlir part of Uie lead singer Deco), charted internationally, reaching no. 1 in several countries.
Such soundtracks feature popular music composed specifically for the film, or previously recorded work which is iheiuatically ur temporally related to the film, as with American Graffiti (1973), The Big Chill (1933), Bqyz N The líood (1991) and High School Mmkal (2006). This enables multimedia marketing, with accompanying commercial success for both film and record. Several musicians better known for their band recordings have followed Ry Cooder's example and moved inin composing music for such films, for example Trent Reznoi (Nine Inch Nails.i foi
Natmal Bom Killers (1994) and The Social Network (2010) and Kirk I la........
(Metallica) and Orbital for Spawn (1999). Television series have also provided it vehicle for music soundtracks. Nortíiern Exposure (1990 95) set the pattern fur later shows, using a local radio station and the local bar's jukebox to get artists front Nat King Cole to Lynyid Skyuiyd into each episode.
Television
Television has been an important mode of distribution and promotion fol the music industry. Il is now commonplace Ibi  successful lele\ision sei ii lo
include popular songs, situating them historically and lending themselves to inu
i .ii ■ w   ihi nils   When ■ ,ii i hilly selected   tlx K   •■'Id lo the elle. Ii\< in s.s ol llli
programme, while also providing an income stream and publicity for musicians and iheir labels; for example, for its series Case Historkt (201 Ij the HBC provides Web links on its website to the music used and its performers, Popular music plot themes, music segments and signature tunes are an important part of many tele vision genres, including those aimed at children ie.g. Sesame Street) and adolescents (The Simpsons, The X Files), but also 'adult dramas such as The Soprams and Grey'i Anatomy, with the accompanying release of soundtrack albums from these series.
I now want to consider i he role of free-to-ah, broadcast television and the popular music programmes that form part of its schedules: light entertainment scries based around musical performers, music documentaries and the presenla-iti hi of musical acts as pari < if ii Icwsiuii variety and chat -'iiiUTv iew sbpvw i.M'l V
.....I similar cable channels are dcali wilh laier). A contradictory relationship
.....alb existed between television and popular music. Television is liaduiiuialb a
medium of family entertainment, collapsing class, gender, ethnic and generational differences in order to construct a homogeneous audience held together by the Ideology of the nuclear family. In contrast, many Forms of popular music, espe-i'tally rock 'u' roll and its various tuulalious, have historically presented themselves as hcing about 'difference', emphasizing individual tastes and preferences (Frith, 2007: Chapter 12). The introduction of public broadcast television in the I !S and the UK, in the 1950s, coincided with the emergence of rock 'n' roll, I clevision helped popularize the new music and established several of its peribr-
.....s, most notably Elvis Presley, as youth icons. Indeed, for some fans, along
uiili film television was dieir only access to 'live' performance. Television was ■ 111ii-k lo seize ihe commercial opportunities ullered by the emergent youih i ulnae market of the 1950s and iliere was a proliferation of television popular music shows.
The better known of these on US television included American Bandstand, one of i he longest rutming shows in television history (1952-89), Tour Hit 1'aradt (1950 -59) and The Big Record (1957-58). Britain had Juke Box Jury and Top of die hps, bolh starting in the late 1950s, and The Old Grey Whistle Test (bunched by the HUC in 197 I and aimed at more albunr-oi ienled older youth). In 1963 Ready Steady Gat [RSG) hegan showcasing new talem, who usually performed live, compared id the 'lop of the Pops staid studio lip-synchs wilh backing from a house ot i liestra. In addition lo lite music, such shows have acted as influential pn sei tiers of new dances, image and clodnng styles. Several of these shows were subse(|iienlly marketed as sell-through videos or DVDs, documenting historically mgnilii ant performers and styles (e.g. The Best of the Old Grey Whistle Test, bUC I >VI), 21M) I) and showcasing contemporary acts [Later, with Jools Holland).
Iliiough the 1980s and into the 19911s, a number of studies illustrated the 1.ii tors at work in the emergence and nature of popular music programmes on i ■ hi unci rial television, pat denial ly i heir place within scheduling practices and the | iiucrss of selection of llic |h't lot tners and music videos for inclusion on them. Of I mil ill.ir interest wete the links between screen space, advertising and record il . While it i> ilillu nil in pnui a dim i causal link, as wilh tadio aiipl.iv ami
132   Understanding papular musk culture
chart 'action' there was evidence that the television exposure had an influence on record purchases. The nature of such shows, and their tendency to play music videos that are shortened versions of the associated song, exercised considerable influence over the way in which videos were produced and their nature as audiovisual and star texts. Also significant, especially in small nations such as Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, was the often marginalized status of locally produced music videos that are competing for screen space compared witlt their imported counterparts, a form of cultural imperialism.
Television's presentation of rock music prior to the advent of music video was generally uninspiring. Performers either straightforwardly performed, even if at times in an impressively frenetic manner (as with the Who's debut effort on RSU\ or mimed to their recordings in a pseudo-live setting. There were a few notable experiments through the 1960s and 1970s to incorporate additional visual elements (see Shore, 1985, for a full history of the development of music video in relation to television; also Austerlitz, 2007). The 1980s' success of MTV boosted televised music videos, reshaping the form and the broadcast shows that relied on music videos Tor their content. In the US and Canada, nearly every major city had its own televised music video show, with several nationally syndicated. MY-based programmes also became a stock part of television channel viewing schedules in the UK. and western Europe, and New Zealand and Australia. These shows were significant because of their importance to advertisers, drawing a young audience whose consuming habits are not yet strongly fixed.
The increased popularity of MTV' and the digital delivery of music undermined music on mainstream television. In New Zealand and Australia, which were slow to acquire cable television and more widely available satellite reception, such television shows retained die high audience ratings they achieved during the 1960s through into the 1990s, but then fell away. Many of the traditionally screened shows have now ended, including the iconic 'lop of the Pops in the UK (in 2006) and the older, chart-oriented shows, have been supplanted hy music-driven reality television. Today, popular music on television is increasingly competing against other genres for scheduling space and advertising revenue, whil the demographic significance and spending power of the youth audience has steadily declined since the 1990s. At the same time, web-based delivery system for audiovisual content, notahly YouTube, have proved more attractive to younger (and many older) consumers.
Reality tetevisiun: from S Club 7 to Pop Idol
"Reality television' describes a variety of programming ranging from crime and emergency-style shows, to talk shows, docusoaps and some forms ol access-styU programming. Emerging in the l9B0s in the US, it established itself as a centra] part of mainstream, popular television by the mid-1990s. In the 20011s reality television became a leading programme format, with many shows internationally Irani hised (e.g. Survivor, Big Brother). A hybrid genre, reality television di.iws on ami reworks geneiii codes and convention* loan a v.uiely ol so.....•», nsiitK new
brum /dm to video games   133
technology (e.g. camcorders) to convey as sense of immediacy and authenticity to \ iewers. Reality television has been criticized for being reliant on shock value and pandering to viewer voyeurism and the lowest common denominator, but also
• eh brated for its emphasis on viewer participation and its influence on producing commercial pop stars for the music industry. Popular music has provided a significant vehicle for reality television, Early series, notably íhe Motáees in the ' 9iills and .S' Club 7 in Minim in tlie hue 1990s, reinforced the public profiles and commercial success of their performers.
Initial TV and 19 Management (who managed the Spice Girls) conducted a nationwide search in the UK to develop a group to star in a teen-ortbnted lele-usion show lor BBC 1. Reflecting their name, the assembled group S Club 7 consisted of seven members whose public image was very much that ol a supportive friendship group. The television show, $ Club 7 k Miami, debuted in the UK during 1999 and went on to be screened internationally. Its success led to the show lx:ing rcscreencd (on BBC 2 in 2000), and to its marketing as two sell-through' video compilations of several episodes. A follow-up series, ivith S Club 7 now in Los Angeles (L\7), first screened in the UK on BBC 1 in early 2000 and was also sold overseas. S Club 7 appeared frequently in the teen music magazines, with several cover stories (e.g. Smash Hits, 5 April 2000) and on shows n< It as 'Iup oj the Pops.
Further media coverage was generated through the group's own magazine, V Club, and a sophisticated official website that introduced visitors to 'the s club l spi lience' in an interactive and engaging manner. The site enabled fans to find out personal details alxjiil each member of the group, the recordings and television shows and their other activities. Fans could register to receive advance inhumation about all of these and leave messages for the groups' members. The website consolidated S Club 7's tan base and was an early example of what has become a valuable adjunct to more traditional forms of music marketing. This Ian base appeared to largely consist of young girls aged between eight and twelve, i ligiuncant 'demographic' with considerable spending power (there were some I»>ys, too, however).
I lelped by such exposure, the group's debut single 'Bring it All Back' lopped the UK chart and enjoyed modest success when it was released in die US. \ second single, 'S Club Parly', also charted, as did the groups self-tilled last album. In March 2000 a second album and the firsl single from ii ('Reach')
• li.u led in the UK and overseas. 'Hie group enjoyed further chart success through .'INI I .mil 2003 and made a third television series, Hollmwd 7. In mid-2002 Paul Calleriuole left ihe band, which continued as S Club. In 2003, alter their iniivie Seeing Double and a greatest hits album {Best) were released, the group
i woke up.
S Club 7 foreshadowed later series such as the Pop Idol, Popstara and Rod Stat t'ii    These musical talent quests, based on audience votes bul with I key loli played by judging panels (especially in ihe initial selection of partu ipanls), Ii.im 1« i nine an inlet national phenomenon  I 1» v have created new pup and kh k sl.us in a number of coiinlilis, although On < a......I some has been short lived, lite
134    Understanding popular musk culture
popularity of such shows, their audience and the discourse of comiuodilicaiiun and authenticity surrounding them are topics that have attracted increased attention in popular music studies.
American Idol; Pop Idol
Pup idol first screened in the UK in 2001, then in the US (as American Idol), Early scries of Pop Idol launched the careers of Will Young and Gareth (hues in the UK and Ruben Sluddard in the US. The show went on to become a global success Story, being produced and aired in more than 35 countries. American Idol has been enormously successful, especially the earlier series, with all the winners and some tinalists going on to recording and touring careers. It is essentially a talent competition, with contestants initially selected (from auditions} by a panel of expert judges, followed by a scries of elimination rounds, culminating in a final Audience voting plays a major determining role in the outcome of each programme. Although primarily about musical talent, howevei that is defined by die judges and the viewers, the appeal of Idol is arguably its focus on the character development of an ever-dwindling pool of contestants, as they handle the increasing pressure.
The antecedents of Pop Idol lay in the high rating PapsUxn television series held in New Zealand and Australia in 1999 and 201)0 respectively. The first part of this was a talent (juest, auditioning singers to make up a band; the second pari followed the band touring, making a record atid gelling (or not) as a group. I In-New Zealand winners, True Bliss, attracted a good deal of media attention and had some chart success, although this was fairly short-lived. The concept and the format were then picked up in the UK and developed and screened (as Popster^ by London Weekend Television (LWT). Alter one season, it was rebranrletl .mil reshaped as Pop idol by Simon Cowell and Simon Fuller, buth ol'whom had considerable success previously as pop producers, along with Alan Boyd from Granada Television (Cowell, 2003: 97-114). The first series was aired on ITV in 2001 and demonstrated enormous audience appeal, widi the consequent attrai tiveness of such high ratings to advertisers. The 2002 final of Pop Idol (UK) was watched by 15 million viewers and received some ÍÍ.7 million phone votes (although it is important to note that there was no limit on the number ol votes an individual viewer could cast). Initially one of the judges in both series, Cow-ell's realistic and ruthless treatment of some contestants created considerable publicity. Cowell then helped create the US show Amaiaiu idol, on which he also judged. American Idol enjoyed even greater success than its UK predecessor and in 201 1 was in its leulh consecutive year. Although its popularity has declined sun c the early scries, in its latest season it remained the most watched television show in the US and has been a "cash cow' lor the Vox network. According to Hiltboard, Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first series, has been the most commercial!; Successful of the Idol contestants, wiih a number of high-charting tt* Drdj
Academic analysis of the idol phenomenon full focused on the construction of lbe i i.uti slants .is niiliu.iiv', enabling < low .nulu in e lili ulitu alion Willi llieutj
Fromjilm to video games 135
the associated role of viewer interact iv \\\, lluough the voting system; the industry tie-in; and the adaptation of the Ibrniat internationally (Suatton, 20011; Zwaan and de Bruin, 2012). With the judges having a background in production or |ierlbnnance, the winner is usually guaranteed a recording contract, with a massive hody of deeply invested fans' (Stálil, 2001: 212) ensuring at least initial commercial success.
Documentaries and rockumentaries
< (instructed as a genre within the field of non-fictional representation, documentary has, since its inception, been composed ol multiple, frequently linked representational strands' (Beanie, 2001: 2). Popular music documentaries include concert, tour and festival films; profiles of performers, and scenes; and ambitious historical overviews. Such documentaries can Ije produced lor either Iilm or tele-visii.ii as both 'one-ofls' and series. The various forms of popular music documentary have served a number of economic and ideological functions, As a form of programming, they create income for their prod ucers and those who street! them, via lights and royalties. They validate and confirm particular musical styles and historical moments in the history of popular music as somehow worthy of more 'serious' attention. While celebrating 'youth' and the mythic status of stars, iliey also confirm their status as "the other' lor critics of these sounds and their I hi limners.
Concert, loin, festival and scene documentaries demonstrate a close link helween the docunieniation of musical performance and observational modes of documentary filmmaking. Referred to in the US as 'direct cinema', and evident lioiu the early 1960s, these documentaries have a well-established tradition (see llcallic, 2004), exemplified in the work of director DA I'ennehaker (Don't ljuok lt,U\ 1966; Monterey Pop, 1908; and Down From the Mountain, 2002). Direct cinema inutatcd into 'docusoap' and other valiants of reality television, as in MTV's 'Ihc Heal World series (which frequently featured participants who were seeking musical careers), and Meet the Oshourrm, a fly-on-the-wall depiction ui tlx l.tmils lili- of aging heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne.
films of music festivals have consolidated the mythic status of events such as Monterey Pup (HttiM; and, especially, IIhodstodt (1909), with the 1970 Iilm a majoi box Office success. A number of other concert and concert tour films have had a tnilar but more limited commercial and ideological impact; for example: Tit hist W'tillz (Martin Scorccse,]978), a record of The Band's final concert; Stop Making Sw> (Jonathan Derame, 19114), featuring Talking Heads; Hail, flail Hod mid Hull i I .ivlm llaiklonl, 1987), featuring Chuck Berry and other seminal rock n loll peiliiiiiKis; Prince*! Siffi <)' Die Tint) (Prince, 1987); and Neil Young and » i.i/v Morse in Vein oj the Hur.\e (jim Jarninsi h, 1996). Such lihns lapliuc p.uti-1 ul.n moments in 'rock liiMmv'. while  it the same lime validating particular
urn .:■ .i| sl\ I, •, .mi [ | >i I I.il llll-l '.
< Mln i documentali<».......1.1.11. \........i.u ItUlutical moments; |ulian 11 tnpll '<
examination ol 11» Sex I'lstui'i pi...........i......it lulling the televisiun interview
136   Understanding popular musk culture
thai sparked off controversy [Tkt Filth and the Fury, 2000); the Rolling Stones Altamont concert of 196°- (Gimme Shelter, Albert and David Maysles, 1970; released on DVD by Criterion in 2000); and the Beatles first tour of America (What's Happening! The Beatles in lite USA, Albert and David Maysles, 2004). Documentaries have also been important in exposing particular scenes, sounds, and performers to a wider audience, as In 77«- Decline of Western Civilization, Part One (Penelope Sphceris, 1981), on the Los Angeles punk/hardcore scene circa 1981, featuring Black Flag, the Circle Jerks, X and the Germs; its 'sequel', Tlie Decline of Western Civilization, Part Two: the Metal tears (Penelope Spheeris, 1988), featuring Aerosmilh, Alice Cooper, Kiss, Uzzy Osbourne, Melallka and Moliirhead; and Hype! (Doug Pray, 1996), on the Seattle grunge scene. The success of liuena Vista Social Club (Wim YVenders, 1999) introduced Ctihan jazz to an international audience and led to massive sales of the accumpanying soundtrack album (which had initially gone largely ignored following its lirst release in 1996). Genghis Bluet (Roko Belie, 2000) consolidated the appeal of world music and Down From the Mountain (DA Fennebaker, 2002) did the same for contemporary bluegrass. Documentaries have reminded us of the important role of session musicians and ■house bands', for example the Funk Brothers in Standing in i/te Shadows of Motown ;Paul Justman, 2002). More frequently they celebrate major performers, as with The Who in Tfie Aids Are Alright Jeff Stein, 1979; released as a special DVD edition, 2004) and The Rolling Stones in Shine A Light (Martin Scorsese, 2008), a concert film of the baird recorded in New York in 2006 at the end of their world; A Bigger Bang 'lour. As widi any genre the ultimate accolade is parody, best represented by TJiis is Spinal lap (Rob Reiner, I984|.
Documentary series on the history of popular music, made lor television, include the joint BBC and US co-production Dancing in the. Street (1995; with .m accompanying book, by Robert Palmer); Walk rm Hy (2003) a history of song-writing; Ken Burns Jazz (2000); the Australian series Long Way to the lop (ABC, 2001); and the Martin Scorcese series, Legacy of the Blues, screened as part ol the 'Year of the Blues' celebrations in the US in 2003. In addition to the income from their initial screenings and international licensing, such series have produced accompanying books, soundtracks and video and DVD boxed sets. Although the selection of material depends heavily on the nature and quality of what is avail able, they visually construct particular historical narratives, refraining the pisi In dte case of Dancing in tlte Street, for example, the emphasis is on 'authentic ai i i i rather than commercial performers: in the episode 'Hang on to Yourself, Ki^ barely a minute, while punk icon' Iggy Pop features throughout. In sum, as will the music press, music documentary history is situated primarily around key performers and style*, another form of canonization.
Music video
The most pervasive and signilii anl hum of musical audiovisual text is lh| inu-.il video, uadiiiuii.ilK associated with lb U It vUkwi channel Ml V (established in 19111), and more recently ,i pun......... aspn i ol You Folic  While MTV
f
From film to video games   137
certainly elevated the form to a central place in popular music culture, the music video had been around in various lot ins since 'talkies' in the 1910s (see Shore, 1985).
Individual music video clips largely follow the conventions of the additional 4!)" single: they are approximately 2-3 minutes long, and function, in the industry's own terms, as 'promotional devices', historically to encourage record sales and chart action. These clips have heen the staple component in music television, especially the MTV channel; the long-form music video compilation, increasingly available on DVD; and are now widely available through You Tube. The primary locus ill the study of music video (MY*) has heen on their nature as audiovisual texts. Y'arious attempts to read music \ideos have necessarily adopted the insights and concepts of film mid television studies, although these have had to be mod-ilied in the light of the different functions they often play in MVs, particularly in relation to the music. There is also some recognition, at times rather belated, of die point that MVs are not self-contained texts, but reflective of their nature as Industrial and commercial products and dieir close association with MTV (sec later).
1 want to sketch some basic considerations that usefully inform specific 'textual' readings of MV and, with particular reference to the influential work of Kaplan, examine the difficulties endemic in constructing a classificatory typology of music videos. Duran Dnran's 'Hungry like the Wolf (1981), helped establish the conventions of the form. (For extended discussions of
.....sic videos as texts and examples of close readings, see Ausleiiil*, 2007;
\'email's, 2005.)
'Heading' music video
Two general points fiequendy made about MVs as individual texts are their pn occupation with visual style and, associated with this, dieir status as fee) I \c tnplars of'postmodern' texts. Music videos were pioneers in video expression, Inn iheii visual emphasis raises problems for their musical dimensions. As some ilio e-quarters of sensory information comes in through the eye, the video viewer
......."Urates on the images, arguably at the expense of lite soundtrack. This
i umbinadon has been accused of fuelling performers' preoccupation with visual hie, which can dominate over eonient. Since the 1980s MV has been a crucial keiing lool, will) the music often merely part of an overall Style package offered In consumers.
Cultural historian and theorist Fredrie ] atncsnn (1984) saw music videos .   i.ii 1.1 entertainments' that embody the postmodern condition. It is certainly
<li .it thai MVs do indeed merge commercial and artistic i.....gr ploduclion and
iImiIi-.Ii li.idilioual boundaries between an image and its real-life referent. In this unpen, iheir most obvious characteristic is then similarity to advertisements,
making the1.1 ., pari >il a lil.il.mih..............s| i ulliiie Kaplan (1987) went so hit
«» lo .suggest that the MV spm,.....      I..   I......n,  ,|,,,mi,d and fragmented,
.....'hie any longer to ditflnguUtl   Inn <n  horn 'reality', part ol postmodern
138   Undeisiaiuiing popular music culture
culture. Tliis conflation of MV and postmodernism is, however, diflicult to sustain. While many MVs display considerable evidence of pastiche, intertextualn v and eclecticism, this does not in itself make them postmodern (for an insightful discussion of this point, see Goodwin, 1993). Further, by the 2000s, the nature of MVs was arguably becoming more traditional and elicited, as just a few hours of watching MTV then made clear.
Considering music videos as texts means applying some stock topics and questions. These are derived pardy from film studies and include cinematic aspects, such as camera techniques, lighting, use of colour and editing. Different styles of video utilize different conventions; heavy metal videos, for example, make considerable use of wide-angle lens and zoom shots in keeping with their emphasis on a 'live' performance formal. A major focus of MV analysis that draws on film studies is the nature of the gaze in MV who is looking at whom, how and what I do these conventions convey in terms of power relations, gender stereotypes and the social construction of sell?
In mure general thematic terms, there is a need to also consider:
• The mood of the video - the way in which the music, the words and the visuals combine to produce a general feeling of nostalgia, romanticism, nihilism or whatever.
• The narrative structure - the extent to which the video tells a clear time-scquenced story or is a non-linear pastiche of images, flashbacks, etc.
• The degree of realism or fantasy of the settings or environments in the video and the relationship between genres and particular physical settings, as with rap and the street.
• The standard themes evident, for example, the treatment of authority, love and sex. 'growing up' and the loss of childhood innocence, political and social consciousness.
• The importance of performance; why does this format l>etter suit particular genres such as heavy metal?
• Different modes of sexuality - the female as mother/whore figure; androgyny and the blurring of dress codes; homoeroticism.
• The nature of MVs as a star text, centred on the role played by the central performers) in the video and the interclationship of this to their star persons in rock more generally.
• The music - what we hear and Iww it relates to what we see.
The last was often a critical absence from the early, visual-oriented, readings <il MV. Andrew Goodwin goes so far as to argue that:
a musicology of the music video image is the basis for understanding how to undertake a credible textual study. Issues relating to lite sound-vision irla lion, the formal organization of miisii videos, questions ol pleasure and %«. on, need to lie related to the musical puilion ul  In i< \
il......Iwin, I'l'i'f Inlioi Im lii iti|
I'ivmfilm to video games 139
In a substantial, music-based study of latei music videos, Carol Vernallis (2005} tees them as utilizing visual images to represent and enhance the music, while continuing to play a commercial role as industry promotion.
I hese are not simply signposts lo viewing individual MVs, they are also I.h lors that can be utilized to categorize them. Although much criticized, the most thorough attempt to categorize MVs still remains that developed bv Ann Kaplan, in her study Racking Around the. Clock Music Television, Postmodernism, and I oHSumes Culture (1987). While Kaplan is primarily concerned with analyzing M IV, she also constructs an interesting typology of individual MVs. ller live
■ utegorics are derived from combining a reading of rock history with lUeoretical took taken from psychoanalytic and film theory, a combination that at times sits awkwardly. Her live typical video lbrms are: the romantic, the socially conscious, lite nihilist, the classical and the postmodern. However, attempting to apply ihe typology to particular videos has proved difficult.
Kaplan's schema is weak partly because it mixes the bases for each category: the first three are situated in pop history the romantic clips drawing from I'Hills' soft rock; the socially conscious from 1970s' rock and the nihilist from I ilills' new wave and heavy metal inusir. But then the remaining two categories an based in film theory (with the classical category related to realist film texts) ami the postmodern in some sort of catch-all residual category in which postmodern motifs, evident in practically all MVs, are simply more plentiful. The
till is that clips placed in one category might just as easily be located in mother. It is also questionable to collapse the history of pop/rock music into a wiies of decades, each dominated hy and identified with a certain style of music. I inilier, the schema ignores the significance of genre and auteurship in the music Industry, both of which fit uncomfortably with it. What would he a viable alternative schema? Perhaps the eclectic nature of music video makes impossible .inv thing other than a bask distinction between performance and fictional narrative MVs? Having raised some issues surrounding the analysis of music videos, I now want to relate these to an early, now classic example. (For detailed analyses
■ ■I later music videos, see Austerlitz, 2007; Vernallis, 2005.)
liuran Duran: 'Hungry Like the Wolf (dir. Russell Mulcahy, 1981)
I In career of Duran Duran provides an early example of the need to consider iiiiisu videos as promotional devices as much as mini visual texts. Formed in 1978, the UK pop group achieved considerable early commercial success, with il hits in the British Top 20 in 1981, but initially failed to dent the US market Despite intensive touring in North America and the photogenic male
.....p's loiisideiahle exposure in the teen music press, Duran Duian's self-tided
'i '"h ill.......hi < lapttol/EM] failed to yield a hit single and had only risen to no.
I ill on the album ehails. Fxpusurc on MTV changed this dramatically.
I he group had already attracted attention with their first video: 'Girls on Film' (19(111) directed by leading video .luteins Godley and Cicine. The group barely
A
140   Understanding popular musk adtwe
Fmm Jitiii ta ritku gama    141
appear in the MV, which features a scries of soft-cure porn-style scenes, iududinj attractive, scantily clad (nude in the nncensnred version) women pillow hghtit: on a whipped cream-covered phallic pole! Kevin Godley acknowledges the sex of the video, but explains:
Look, we just did our job. We were very explicitly told by Oman Ouran'i management lo make a very sensational, erode piece that would be lor l lulis, where it would get shown unrensored, just lo make people lake notice talk about it.
(cited in Shore, llJU5:
That bands were increasingly making two versions of their videos, one l< mainstream television shows and MTV and one for more adult cable outlets and elnbs, demonstrates the mar kel-d riven nature ofthe video text and any reading MV must take this intention into account.
In August 1981, as MTV began broadcasting in North America, EMI invesn 1200,000 to sent! Durau Duran to Sri Lanka to shool three video clips w: director Russell Mulcahy. One of them, 'Hungry Like the Wolf, became Mt'V favourite. Less than two months after the two-week shoot, the clip was iti high rotation Oh MTV and getting heavy radio airplay and this exposure hel] propel the single into the Top 10 and Duran Oman's second album, Rio, into the upper reaches of the album charts. MTV confirmed Ouran Duran as a teenage pop sensation. In I9U3, in conjunction with Sony's promoting its n video 45s (which included the Ouran's 'Girls On 1'ilm' - the uncensored u club version and 'Hungry'), along with Duran Durau's compilalii m, 'sell-through', video cassette, the group undertook a highly successful video loin of major dubs across North America; 'Each date on the video tour sold out, and in every city the video lour hit, Duran Duran's records sold out within day*' (Shore, 19ftt: 9M).
In 'Hungry like the Wolf Singer Simon I^eBon's head rises in slow motion nut of a river as rain pours down. He then chases a beautiful Indian woman, who appears to be dad only in an animal skin, through a Sri Lankan tropical jan^lr and open air market. During the chase, he has his brow mopped by a yottn| Indian (buy?) and overturns a bar room table. When he catches the beast/ woman, they have an encounter suggestive of both sex and violence:
Mulcahy's ravenously tracking and panning camera, insinuating « ambiguity, and editing wizardry (frames slide in from the leli or light, douhle and split-screen edits on and around the beat, etc) which have been the u ,il stars ofthe show all along, come into lull play ,.. we've been dazzled sedm i d and abandoned.
(Shore, 19(15; 17*
The nature uf the narrative is almost irrelevant here, serving merer) showcase DBon and add an .una ol is.hh ti|>prid and sexuality lo thi .....
Indeed, a satisfactory analysis of 'Hungry' as a text must acknowledge this Tucus on the star' aspect of it. Duran Duran was the pin-up band of the tuid-l9!t0s, particularly among young girls. Watching the video even now, wiiiuen students focus on the physical appeal of the singer, who is variously described as 'delicious', a 'hunk' and 'sexy'. Young male viewers acknowledge
that I j lion is 'conventionally handsome' and .....»■ even tentatively [joint to
his rather androgynous appeal. The star appeal of Lelion is fed on and enhanced by die technical drtuusily ofthe director, already then recognized as a leading autcur of the music video form. Mulcahy is arguably the star as much as 14: Hon - although not, of course, to the young fans of Duran Duran "in the mid-19110s.
Even purely aL the level oľ text, '1 lungry like the Wolf is difficult to categorize in Kaplan's terms. It hus elements of the 'classical', with the male as subject and the woman as object: Tm on the hunt I'm alter you', sings D-Ron - although there is a case tor reversing this distinction, I'Wlher, the video's narrative múmie is a mini-drama, based loosely around LeBou's chase while his friends .ue being enticed hy lithe beauties back in die town, a narrative that never fully \< albes closure. But in Kaplan's terms, the video also has strongly 'postmodernist' ď,nines. The rapid editing creates a series of disjointed images, which disrupt linear time and leave the viewer uncertain about the sequence ofthe events and 11 r n if there is indeed a 'plot' to follow. Kaplan pays litde attention to the music in her analysis of music video, an absence that is significant in the case of 'I lungry' (even if it is admittedly not one of the MVs she examines). The sharp rliylhm and strong beat of the song, along with the single male voice, match the Lipid editing and sheer physical aggression of the video. It is the music that links and 'makes sense oľ the images, winch would not have the same impact on then own.
Tin- 'Hungry Like the Wolf video also raises the issue of authorship in MVs. \\ liile it is customary lo refer to MVs as being the product of the particular per-
I.....ice featured, and some artists take a major role in determining the nature of
ílu ii MVs. 'the directors most often are responsible for the concepts, the vision, dn imagery, and the editing rhythm that coalesce into a look that keeps people »iii hing' (Shine, 1985: 97). This is still the case, particularly with 'new' performers unfamiliar with the medium. There are a numher of MV directors who can
I.....nsidcrcd pioneers and autenrs in the Held, including Godley and Creme,
I'u .dl Mulcahy, David Mallet, Julian Temple and Michelle Gondry. Several,
.....it notably Mulcahy aitd Temple, have gone from making utttsic videos lo
din i ling major feature lilnis.
lo explain the inline ofthe appeal of music videos it is necessary to go beyond then purely textual aspects and consider their function as polysemic nairalives
.....I images ol viewer fuiiiasy anil desire. As wilh other popular culture texts, MVs
pii'Ncul a scoliotic terrain open in cultural struggles over meaning. This illustrates the gciiei.il point thai meanings and plcasuies ate not purely euiiietlded 'in' MV u sis. búl .ue pnnliiM d in the ail of viewing and dnoiigh iheii cultural location .n lite Intersection ■ ■! mi and commerce.
142    Understanding popular music culture.
From film lu video gartu'j    1 1 3
MTV
The 24-hour, non-stop commercial cable channel 'MTV: Music Television', rounded in 1981, made itself and its logo synonymous with the music video form. Originally owned by the Warner Atnex Satellite Company, the channel was subsequently sold to Viacom International in 1985. Viacom, which still owns MTV and. MTV 2, also has interests in broadcast and cable television, radio, the internet, book publishing and film production and distribution. By 2005 it was the third largest communications conglomerate in the world, with annual revenues of US$26.6 million.
After a slow start, with many detractors who did not think a dedicated music video channel would have an audience, MTV became enormously popular and highly profitable. The channel is credited with boosting a flagging music industry in the 1980s. Not unly did il eventually capture a considerable share of the advertising directed at the youth and young adult/yuppie market, as Andrew Goodwin observes, MTV solved the perennial problem of cable television how to gen erate enough revenue lor new programming - by having the. record companies largely pay for the 'programmes' by financing the video clips [Goodwin, 1993).
In the late 1980s MTV was reaching nearly 20 million American homes an was regularly watched by 85 per cent of 18 to 34 year olds (Kaplan, 1987). In November 1991 .1/7T 10, an hour-long celebration of MT\''s tenth anniversary, was screened in prime time on the North American ABC TV network. The show asserted the cultural centrality of MTV over the networks, opening with a performance of'Freedom 90' by George Michael: 'We won the race/Got out o| the place/Went back home/Got a brand new face/For the boys on MTV.' Performers on the show included Mithael Jackson, Madonna and RKM and AflV 10 was subsequently screened world wide, while the 1992 MTV Musk Awards were seen in 139 countries.
By the early 1990s MTV had 28 million subscribeis, and was adding one to three million new subscribers every year. MTV's success spawned a host of imitators in the US and a number of national franchises and imitations around the globe. These raised die issue of the place of local music in a context dominated by international repertoire, especially from the North American music market (Hanke, 1998). .Alter an initial struggle to untangle cable and satellite regulation in dozens of countries, MTV Europe, launched in 1988, broke even for the ii i time in February 1993 and Itecame the continent's fastest growing satellite channel By 1993, its 24-hours-a-day MV programming was available in more than ii million homes and it was adding subscribers at the rale of almost one million ,i month. Thirty per cent of its airtime was reserved for European performers and while the programme formal was similar U> that of its parent station, it playi I I substantial number of locally made videos. MTV-Asia began broadcasting in lair 1991, with a signal covering more than 30 countries from.Japan to the Muldh Fasi. The channel's Fnglish-laiiguagc broadcasts reached more than three million households with a programme dominated by MVs by western stats, but with I 20 per tent quota ol Asian peiloiineis   M I V < haiilieU lonliiinid to ptoliliialc
internationally, although a few have been short-lived (lor die current situation, see die MTV web site: www.mrv.com).
The influence of M'FV on the North American music industry during the 1980s - and, therefore, by association, globally - was enormous. By 1991 80 per i eni of the songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were represented by a video and MTV became the most effective way to 'break' a new artist and to lake an emerging aiiist into star status. Performers who received considerable exposure on MTV before they were picked up by radio include Madonna, Duran Duran, the I lioinpson Twins and Paula Abdul. Dave Rimmer argues that llie new 'invasion' ol the American charts by British groups, in the mid- to late 1980s Vas dire, tf) attributable to MTV (Rimmer, 1985).
(iiven their crucial role in determining commercial success, a key question is how particular MVs are chosen for the MTV playlist. Evidence on ibis point is parse and it is dearly an area for further inquiry. Surprisingly, Kaplan's (1987) iu.lv of the channel ignores the selection issue, as do most commentators
I.....ccupied with the videos as texts. MTV's lop 20 lists are compiled froin
national sales dala, video airplay and the channel's own research and requests, building circularity and subjectivity into the process. In his thorough study of tin operation of MTV, Banks (199fi: Chapter 9) looked at the gatekeeper role of tin American M'FV channel, the operation of its acquisitions committee ami the i daids, Ijoth staled and unstated, that they apply. He com hided thai majol companies then willingly edited videos on a regular basis to conform to MTV's standards, even coercing artists into making changes to song lyrics, while smaller, iinlc|k-udent companies cannot usually get their videos on M'FV. Il would be Worthwhile lo know if such practices remain the case, but an update of Banks' Work is lacking.
Despite the heady growth of the 1980s, the .American MTV channel began the 1990s by retrenching, with MTV executives claiming that the format h.nl lost it ■ freshness and was becoming cliched. The channel initiated a programme overhaul designed to lessen its reliance on videos; new shows included I a/iamm, combining comedy and MV, and Unplugged, a 30-minute Sunday series featuring live Hi oustic performances by bauds such as Crowded House. Unpluggal proved highly .in icsstiil. particularly through associated chart-topping album releases (Eric < Tipton, M.iriah Carey, Nirvana). 'Iliese changes were a direct response to
tearch on viewing patterns, which indicated, not surprisingly, that people tuned iii lo M'FV for only as long as they enjoy the clips. With MVs making up some 'Id per cent ol (he channel's broadcast day, negative reaction to a few clips i.m ■ | n 11 pi ol ileitis for audience retention and the sale of advertising lime. This is a situation MTV shares with 'mainstream' television and radio, which have always been in the business ol delivi iuil; audiences lo advertisers in a highly coln|>etilive iii.ukei
today, while MVs are still llie staple of MTV channel's programming, the dumad also screens concerts, interviews and music-oriented news and gossip Hi ins, ailing as a visual radio channel Although owned by a global media giant (Viacom), 'lot ah/.ilion' is almost a mantra for the nationally situated M I V i h,minis, which use local V|s, play lix all\ piodiueil music videon ami nil lot a I
I4+   Understanding popular music culture
From film to video games 145
programming. Bill Roedy, the Ghainnan and GEO of MTV International provides an informative entertaining insider's account of llie growth of the company, with an emphasis on how 'we took the original American MTV concept of delivering music with a creative cutting edge and adapted it to llie customs and desires of almost every culture on every continent' (Roedy, 2011: 5). Rather surprisingly, given its ubiquity and continued popularity, there is an absence current academic research into die channel.
Video games
In the past 20 years, video games, also referred to as 'electronic games', have become a pervasive part of popular media culture. They ran now be played on several platforms, including Xbox 3C0, PS3, personal computers and the most recent mobile phones. Several of these have the capability lo be linked online, enabling playing with other participants. They are no longer simply a male-dominaled leisure form and have a wider and older range of consumers. In addition to the games themselves and their associated music magazines websites, video games have 'crossed over' to feature films. Video games are an increasingly significant part of the revenue of media coqvorations, including the music industry, which is:
forming closer ties with the gaming industry both in terms of direct income via licensing music for use in games and more recenUy as a means ul extending an artist's brand equity through games designed around musit performance, such as Guitar Hero.
(Hull*/at, 2011: 22)
These performance games are a way for fans (and aspiring musicians) to play along with popular songs, in effect a form of home karaoke. The most successful of these has been 77ie Beatles Rixkhand (2009); made in consultation with the surviving Beatles, it includes dozens of the group's original songs, to play on Rockbaud-stylr guitar, bass and drums, or to just sing along to.
There are several coni]xjsers who specialize in writing music for video gam The most successful is Tommy Tallarico, whose work has appeared in over !1(MI video games, including the best-selling Prime of Persia, Mortal Combat, Advent Rising and Tony Hawk ho Skate. In 2005 Tallarico hosted a multimedia show Video damn IJve, in which an orchestra and choir performed music from popular video garnet, while a large screen showed excerpts from die games. The world premiere, .it thi Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, attracted an audience ol 11,000 and the show went on to tour internationally. In addition to licensing earlier songs for use in games soundtracks, an increasing number ul 'im k urn i cians are writing for video games and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts now has an awards category for video game soundtracks,
Academic studies of die composition and rule of music in such video games, and (he social experience nf playing them, Hie iM-giuning to be published < lol in 20411!) and the topic is one that is going to grnenttr Iniilin inicicat.
Conclusion
The historical succession of media combining music and image tracked here have eroded the distinction between sound and pictures. Access to film, television, music video and MTV is no longer just through terrestrial, physical sites, with all of them increasingly available through the internet and practices such as streaming. You Tube has opened up access, providing art electronic ponal to the whole corpus of audiovisual musical texts. In the process, it has democratized consumer choice, in terms of both the scope of the viewing and listening experiences available and the decision of when and where to engage with these*
Further reading film and television
I lith. S. (2007) 'Look! Hear! The Uneasy Relationship of Music and Television',
Taking Popular Music Seriously, Aide i shot: Ashguic higlis, I. (2007) 'Popular Musk History on Screen: the Pop/Rock Biopic, Populai
Music History, 2,1: 77 93. Mmidy.J. (1999) Popular Music on Screen: From ,'/:, Hollywood Musical lo Made Video,
Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Mu*ie video
Atistei licz, S. (2007) Money For Nothing. A History of the Music Video from the Beattts M
the White Stripes, New York: Gontinitum. Kaplan, E.A. (1987) Rocking Around the Clod. Musk Television. Postmodernism, and
< muimer Culture, New York: Melhuen. Vrmallis, G. (2005) Experkndng Mu.dc Video: Aesthetics and Cultural Context, Columbia,
( Ml: Columbia University Press.
MTV
II,inks. J. ;i99fi) Monopoly Teltnisimi. MlV's Quest lo Control the Music, Boulder,
1 < ): Westview Press. Roedy, B. (2011) What Ma/xt Business Rock Building the Worlds Hirgest GfaM
Xttimrks, New York: Wiley.
/Wif> TV; Idol
i ..well, S. (2IK):t) / Don't Mean To Be Rude, BUT... , London: Kbury Pre*
■nil.......). (20011) 'The Idol Audience: Judging, liitcrariiviiv and Lnteii.u.....nu
in P Illoiisiein and S. Liu km.ui (cds), Sonic Energies: Music, lerhmdiigy, Community, Identity, Aldrrshoi: Ashgair. Ai.i.in, K. .mil de Bruin, J. (2012) Adapting Idol- Authrntn ity, Identity mid Pei/viniame in a (ilolmi Irla'ision Format, Aldeiihol \hi'.u<
146   Understanding popular music culture Video games
Collins, K. (ed.) (2008) Fwm Vac Man to Pap Music Interactive Audio in Games and Mm I Media, Aldershot: Ashgate.
The essays cover a range of topics, including issues of aesthetics, economics, J technology and music making. 'The book includes an extensive bibliography.
The Beatles Rockkmd (2009), Xhox 360.
Came play is easy to grasp following the tutorial included. Songs are ranked in 'level of difficulty'; you can start with their first songs played at The Caver Club in Liverpool and work your way through to receding Abbey Road or just choose any song to play and sing.
'On the Cover of The Rolling Stone9
The music press
The music press plays a major pan in the process of selling music as an economic commodity, while at the same lime investing it with cultural significance. In one of tin- first extended critical discussions of the music press, Simon Frith correctly tugued for its central role in 'making meaning': 'the importance of the professional rock fans - the rock writers', and the music papers, whose readers 'act as the opinion leaders, the rock interpreters, the ideological gatekeepers for everyone • 1st' I Frith, 1983; 16$). Currently, the 'traditional' music press remains significant, but has been modified by the advent of online music magazines and blogs
I.....lining a democratization of music journalism.
\\) discussion begins with a general consideration of jus! what constitutes 'the music press', which 1 view as a diverse range of publications. Music journalism is literary genre in which any distinction between 'rock journalism' and academic ruling on I'li-Mifu music is frequently blurred. Music magazines include industry reference tools, musicians' magazines, record collector magazines, fanzines, 'teen glossies', 'the inkles', style bibles and the new tabloids. Although these publications have many features in common, each selves a particular place in a segmented market, in which journalism becomes collapsed into, and often Indistinguishable from, musk industry publicity. Despite this symbiosis, papular music critics continue to function as gatekeepers and arbiters of taste, a role i s.iiniued in the concluding section uť the discussion here.
The music press includes a wide range of print publications, with many now
il a (inline, along with web-based publications. General interest magazines and in uspapeis will also cover popular music, widi regular review columns. More
l"i ideally, Itowever, the music press refers to specialized publications: lifestyle guinea with major music coverage, music trade papers and weekly and 11 ii ii it lily consumer magazines (lev cited to popular music or particular genres within it. In addition to these are privately published fanzines, usually peripheral \ti the market economy of commercial publishing but significant nonetheless.
slil.....—11 i ah gums frequently overlap, various categories "f publication can he
distinguished They include populai (auloibiomaphies, histories and genre studies; «.minis tonus olTousiiniei Kllidf, uk lulling cm\i Io|m ilt.ts ainl lIii liuii.u ies, (ILs-(Ogtaphirs and chart listing* and .....qnl.it.....s......I discoKtaphies, usually organized hi .tlllsl, Kt'lili  "i I.......i .il pi Mi n I   I In  lil ii pnsrlll .m jinpni t.nit aspect
148   Understanding popular music culture
Ihe music press MS
of popular music history, which they constitute lis well as record, and are impol tanl texts lor tans and aficionados. There are also more esoteric publications, such as rock quiz books, genealogical tables plotting the origin and shifting member* ship of groups and 'almanacs' dealing with the trivia and microscopic detail "I stars' private lives. In one of the first bibliographies of popular music, Paul Taylol observed: 'The variety of these publications is matched by the variation in the quality of their writing, accuracy and scholarship, which means one mu i approach them with a degree of discrimination and care' (Taylor, 1985: Vtm Almost 30 years on, this judgment still stands.
Music journalism and rock criticism
Initially, popular music journalism included a proliferation of 'quickie' publ i D lions, cashing in on the latest pop sensation. This was very much the case with thr pop annuals accompanying the emergence of chart pop in the 1950s, which vverr largely rewritten PR (public relations) handouts. Emphasizing the pictorial as|>c<l and providing personal information about performers rather than any extended critical commentary, these were often little more than pseudo-publicity. Ihe) reinforced the star aspect of pop consumption, feeding fans' desire for consuin able images and information about their preferred performers, as did pop and rock magazines aimed at the teenage market {Record Mirror, UK, which In ■ it publication in 1953; and Disc, UK, 1958).
In the 1960s diis changed with the impact of two factors: first the rise of a 'nick culture' with serious artistic intentions; second, the emergence of the 'new join-nalism', associated with the writing of figures such as Hunter S. Thompson .mil Tom Wolfe. New journalism set out to move journalism beyond simple lintii.il reporting, by using conventions derived from fiction:
Stylistic traits pioneered by the new journalists such as scene by scene t on struction, third person point of view, recording of everyday detail kind tlx inclusion of the figure of the journalist within the text were appropriated Ik US and UK music critics from the end of the 19fi0s.
(Leonard and Strachan, 2003: 234)
There was also a commitment to treating popular culture as worthy of seriotM analysis, an approach thai has continued to Ik* influential. The newly established Rolling Stone (US) magazine and a revamped JÍME in the UK exemplified this ami elevated several rock critics to star status.
A major part of the historical development of music criticism was in jazz .....I
the blues, where critics established some of the norms that later shaped the lirltl more generally. Mark Bienuan (2006a) explores the relationship between Rolling Stone and Down Beat and Jazz, especially the motivations for jazz publication* lu begin covering rock music in the late 1960s, Subsequently, Othei genres established their own body ol work and associated key publications. Documentation and analysis ol these has been particularly evident in regard to 'rock criticism',
mil tally associated with the early periods of magazines such as Rolling Stone and < mm in the United Slates and JtME'xn the United Kingdom and ihe writing of
......s such as Greil Marcus, Lestei Bangs, Robert Christgau and Dave Marsh in
|hl l IS and Jon Savage, Dave Rimmer, Nik Cohen, Barney I loskyns and Charles i Murray in the UK. (For a thorough overview of the historical develop->i in, approaches and impact of rock criticism, see Lindbergh, et ui> 200.5; the Website Rock's Back Pages usefully brings much of this writing together.)
\inerica's most landed rock critic, Bangs, who died in 1982, was the critic with mi k star status. An early champion of the proto-punk of 1960s' garage, he is the HUlject of a biography (De Rogalis, I9B2) and his character makes a cameo appearance in die Him Almost Famaus. The 1980s saw a continuation of this trend, with a proliferation of articles
mil book-length studies of a more serious vein and intent. Angela McRobbie Observed how:
Two kinds of writing now feed into the study of youth and popular culture. These arc the more conventional academic mode, and vvliat niighl be called a new form of cultural journalism. Each is marked by its own history, its debates and disputes.
[McRobbie, 1988: xi)
I lei edited collection, ^vol Suits and Second-Hand Dresses, showed serious popular music journal ism had changed dramatically during the 1980s, 'with interest shitting from the music itself to a more general concern with the cultural phc-.......ena which accompany it'. This new locus was strongly evident i" die new
i le bibles' of the 1980s, especially Ihe Face. Some of this journalism also colonized lh 'mainstream' press and the more 'serious' weekly and monthly magazines.
Alongside this developed a similar, albeit more historically situated, identifiable body of journalistic work on popular music, not only aimed at a broader reader-lllip, but also thoughtful and critically analytical of its subjects. Indicative of the commercial and ideological significance of this work is its appearance in book form as sustained, in-depth studies of genres and performers: collected reviews
nil ■.■•.!> s, several encyclopedias of popular music, aimed at a broad readership; and
' 1111h jLogics (for example, Bangs, 1990; I loskyns, 2003; the Da Capo series). Also lignificant, are a number of more thematic historical studies that imbue parlieular In iliii itiers, their musical styles and their recordings with meaning and value, ■ mi itiug them as part of a critical tradition and the musical canon. I''or example, in Mystery Iiain, Civil Manns uses a handful of rock artists, including BMi Presley, M\ Stone, ihe Band and Randy Newman, lo illuminate the 'question of the ivla-......ship between rock 'n* roll and American culture as a whole'. I lis i «»n« em is with
a recognition of unities in the American imagination' (1991: Introduction),
Biography
Much iiiusii journalism has bun identilied with biographical nmdics (and uuto-blogi•iphy). which play an important rok >>• popul......i-.i,   in rvfction lo
Iľ ii
IM   Understanding popular musk culture
individuals they 'create, reinforce and also challenge the dominant represeii lions of popular musicians' (Leonard and Strachan, 2003: 13), The biogmpli Interpolates and reflects on random, stardom, marketing and promotion. In spite of the proliferation of general academic writing in the past 20 years, the join n i u  biography has historically been a staple of the music press and remains MÍH is essential to the construction and maintenance of faudom. A number of join nalists are strongly identified with the biographical form, including Dave M.u li Barney lloskyns, Victor Brockis and Peter Guralnick, wlule biographical pmtiln are an integral part of edited collections. Most autobiographies are written with the aitl of professional music journalists, as is the case with Keidi Richards (2111II who was assisted by James Fox.
Such biographies include a wide range of musical performers and vary wi<li h in quality. There is a constant turnover of'quickie' publications on the latest pop sensations. These remain interesting as they trace 'how star appeal has defined at different historical moments' (Frith, 1983: 272). In some instances, m biographies seek to undermine the general perception of stars figures, highligl the scandalous aspects of their lives; these arc biographical exposes, as with All Goldman's studies of Elvis Presley and John Lennon. A new style of biograpl emerged in the UK. and the US in the 1990s, the 'confessional memoir', in whii li fans describing their encounters with music and, at times, their own uusuccc: attempt as musicians to 'break into' die music industry, with these often rr sented as 'celebrations of failure' (I Leonard and Strachan, 2003: 13; for exampli Giles Smith, Lost in Music).
As with literary biography, writers of popular music biographies grapple wi issues of sources, materials and objectivity; the links between the subject's life ami the social context within which it occurred; and questions of musical piudm lioll creativity ami authenticity. (For an insightful discussion of this process, from llir author's perspective, sec the introduction to (iiiralnick, 2002.] An instructive specific example is provided by Tom Perchard, who, with reference to scvei biographies of the saxophonist John Collrane, considers 'the ways that I graphical narratives arc constituted from disparate source materials and the ideological agendas and political problems that attend this creative act' (2007 119). With reference to several detailed examples, Thomas Swiss (2005) cunsidi I 'what constitutes a successful rock autohiography'. Several recent biograpl in | exemplify the insights the form can offer into the music industry, musical itch livity, and particular musical genres, sounds, and scenes, along with theit 'read ability' and entertainment value (Benatar, 2010; Letts, 2007; Richards, 2010 Smith, 2010).
Music magazines
We can usefully distinguish between industry-oriented, p'rlnrmei-nrirnted and consumer-oriented music magazines. The music trade papers keep industry pi i sonnel informed about mergeis. takeovers and siatľ changes in the record '"'I media industries and changes in copyright and regulatory legislation and policies;
•In ill. ,.,1
i pi i
.1.
m i
77« musk pica   151
itihise retailers about marketing campaigns, complementing and reinforcing their mm* promotions; and provide regular chart lisLs based on extensive sales and i nlio play tlata (die main publications are Billboard, Musii Business Intel national ami w. i, I lb A). Musicians' magazines (e.g. (Juitai Player) inform their readers about uisic technologies and techniques, thereby making an important contribute (1 irds musicianship and musical appropriation, flu various consumer- or fan-oriented music magazines play a major part in il«. process of selling music as an economic commodity, while at the same lime nng it with cultural significance. Popular music and culture magazines rimi'i Imply deal with music, through both their features and advertising they are also |iin.i\oes of style. At the same lime, these magazines continue to fulfill then traditional function of contributing to the construction of audiences as iiiiihiimcrs.
The majority of popular music magazines locus on performers and their music Mild the relationship of consumers and fans to these. These magazines fall into a Dumber of (airly clearly identifiable caiegories, based on their differing nuisii.il
i. di. lies or emphases, their sociocultural functions and their target audiences.
Inn glossies' emphasize vicarious identification with performers whose music and image is aimed at the youth market (e.g. Smash Hits, which ended in 2006; a Maker, which ceased publication in 2000) and New Musical Expresi (the ii f) have historically emphasized a tradition of critical rock journalism, with iln ii reviewers acting as the gatekeepers for that tradition; and the 'style bibles'
Ik bare) emphasize popular music as part of visual pop culture, especially Path inn Several relatively new magazines offer a combination of the inkies lotus on hi i (tensive and critical coverage of the music scene and related popular cultun 11 li laged in a glossier product with obvious debts to the style bibles {MOJO, / Mil). Currently, there is a clear splii between inclusive magazines, alteiii|iiiug
1.....ver a broad range of musical styles, and those magazines that are genD
«|n i iln .
Such magazines can lie studied and compared in relation to a series ol i ' i.illy common features:
• Their (overs: the cost, the title and the featured artists are all indicative of the magazine's sen]*" and target audience. Further 'clues' are in the visual design
(layout, graphics, typeface), the level of language and the use of promot......A
give a ways (e.g. Smash Hits key rings compared with the compilation ( II )s used with MOJOmm\ Uncut).
• The general layout and design: e.g. the use or absence of colour, I.....
in in i i.il. sidebars, visuals and even the actual size and length of the in.i m/iih
• Snipe: the genres of music included; other media covered ilhe increasing ii leu nee to internet sites, X I James, video game culture); the relative inipiiit.ini ■
Recorded particulai artists; language used; gender representation (indudin| I I he ad vci rising).
• Reviews: letigth/ileplli lone and language used (e g. IMlmg Sume's slais -a Ii in II.it \ld,:l'; -.Lull i.iiing lyMcm), (Fin a helpful early analysis ol die cxaliiaim
152   Understanding popular music culture
criteria and rating systems underpinning reviews in Australia's Rolling Stone and Juice, see Evans, 1998.)
• Adverts: which products feature? The links to a target readership; e.g. teen magazines feminine hygiene ads; the proportion of the content diat is adverts} and the values and associated lifestyles projected by the advertising. Often the distinction between adverts and 'real' content is blurred, with much content rewritten press copy.
• The readership involvement: letters to the editor; competitions; reader questions answered ({Js 'where are they now?'); the use of their readers to survey taste and the popularity of artists and genres.
In sum, the answers to such questions provide a profile of particular music magazines, and an indication of their relationship to the wider music industry combination of gatekeeper and symbiotic marketing tool. While there is obvious overlap - and market competition - among these various types of music magazine, each has its own distinctive qualities. The following examples illustrate this.
SMI . the inkie tradition
Typical of the more serious 'inkie' nick press is the New Musical Express \NMBm which began publication in 1952, marketed to the new generation of teenage record buyers in die UK. As with its main competitor, Melody Maker, the ,\MI was closely lied into the record industry. In 1952, NME published 'the first regular and reasonably accurate list of British record sales'; the Melody Mukei soon followed with a similar 'hit parade' based on retailers' returns and both chai became  closely  tied   to  the  industry's  slocking  and  promotional poliik (Frith, 1983; 166). Through the 1950s, the MIE focused uu the stars of popular music, with little critical perspective on the music covered. This clearly m< I I market demand and by 196-1 the magazine was selling nearly 300,000 cnpii per week.
The orientation of the UK music press, including NME, changed vvilh thr emerging and critically sell-conscious progressive rock market of the mid-1900» and the development in die US of new, specialist music magazines such as Cretin and Rolling Stone, characterized by their serious treatment of rock as a cultural form. In 1972 the NME was reorganized, with a new team of writers recruited, from Britain's underground press. After a slump in the face of a late I'lno. market assault by the now 'progressive' Metody Maker, by 1974 NME was bai I to 200,000 sales (Frith, 1983). Biting 'newjournalist' prose for many readers l>e< nun part of JVMEs. appeal - whether you agreed or not with the evaluations on ollei was almost incidental.
Increasingly, ihe NME became associated with the British 'alternative'or iudit music scene (see the recollections of its staflT, in Gorman. 2001). To a degiei NMEs very hipness and cynicism in the 1980s proved its undoing, as two new groups of readers emerged in the music marketplace: ageing fans, no lougrt into clubbing and concerts, with an eye to nostalgia, I >irc Slrails, their (3) collci lions
the music press 153
and I'M 'solid rock'/"golden oldies' radio: and younger yuppies and style-oriented professionals. Both groups of consumers were largely uninterested in the indie 11 ne and turned instead to the lifestyle bibles and the new glossies like Qand (later) MOJO, This competition saw a decline in .AA7A's circulation, bui it maintained its role as the essential chronicler of indie music.
WIE remains indispensable for diose wanting to keep up with this scene and invaluable lor those performers and labels working within it. The magazine Stil I,. closely to its traditional format: a tabloid-style layout, although now using better quality paper and vvilh mud) greater use of colour. It continues to feature a mix ol features; reviews of records and concerts, as well as film, book and video N views; competitions and classifieds; extensive Ik gig guide and lour news; and i hail listings, including retrospectives of these, hi addition to its prim version, the magazine has a website.
Rolling Stone; from counlervultural icon to industry staple
The American inspiration for the outburst of the rock press in the late 1900s and Hi reorientation, Rolling Stone was launched in San Francisco on 9 Novembei 1967. Jann Wenuer, its founder, wanted the publication lo focus on rock music, hut il was also lo cover the youth culture generally. The firsi issue of the new lull nightly established that it was aiming at a niche between the 'inaccurate and Irrelevant' trade papers and the fan magazines, which were viewed as 'an ana-■ liioiiism, fashioned in die mould of myth and nonsense'. Rolling Stone was for ihe -, the industry and even- person who 'believes in die magic that can set you In i ; it was 'not just about music, but also about the things and attitudes that ihc
.....si. embraces' (cited in Frith, 1983: 169).
Tins rather earnest ideological mission resulted in considerable tension in lire i.nly years of Rolling Stone, as il attempted to fuse in-depth and sympathetic
0 polling of youth culture and die demands of rock promotion. In ils struggling
1 ,iiIv years, Rolling Stone was supported by die record companies ami the concern miiIi radical and alternative politics was soon suborned by the dependence on the
■......ins of the music industry. In August 1973 Rolling Stone changed its loniial,
becoming 'a general interest magazine, covering modern American culture, poli-ii' . .uuI art, with a special interest in music' (Frith, 1983: 171). However, ii ii i.nurd its now preeminent place as an opinion leader in die music business, in inily because its ageing, allluenl, largely while male readership continued to lepreseni a primary consumer group for the record indusiiy. hi addition In ils pi mi version. Rolling Stone now has an extensive website.
The development of'regional editions* of Rolling Stone, beginning with Hrilain in |969 and fallowed by an Australian monthly edition, along with subsequent |.i|i.iin sc- and i hi mail-language editions reiki is the increasing intern.iliiinali/.ilii m ill popular music and die global |in iIipiiiih.hu e ol Anglo American artists, hi
i.....i,it, Rolling Stone retains ils distinctive ih.ii.nlei llnoiigh ils famous unci pic-
iiur feature (immortalized in the Ifcuioi Hook smith ol 1972, which nuncd Ihe band a ■ over siory), I mi conicnla him) |n< h......... »i ■■ . Il i......l.n i<> u-, iu*wci
154   Ihtdeisiandiug popular musk culture
'Hie musk press 155
competitors such as f^aiid the hip-hnp bibles The Source and \TB1\. This is hartH surprising, given that these magazines are oriented to older consumers with M licient disposable income to allow them lo purchase the music, clothes, spirits |H travel opportunities that Rolling Stone advertises.
No Depression and alt. country
Along with terms such as 'roots rock' and Americana, all. country began 1»
used in the 1990s lor performers who positioned themselves as producing S......
thing heartfelt and worthwhile outside the foul and cancerous divek which typiln country music in the last 15 years' (Russell, UNCUT, May 2004: 98). Russell t i .inniK-in typifies the discourse surrounding all. country, with authenikity a i^M tral referent. The music evokes 'traditional', often threatened American tiilnn peoples and rural landscapes and the universality of these themes is integral lq its appeal. Alt. country is musically wide ranging, with many disparate artists srtm as falling under its umbrella, from Gillian Welch and 1 Jicinda Williams to Will il Ryan Adams and Justin Townes F.arle. 'Die loose style was picked up and iiittfi kctcd by record labels such as Hightown and championed and popularized by tin magazine No Depression.
No Depression IND) look its name from I he Carter Family song, a classic ol'i ,u|y country music, which was later covered by Uncle Tu)>cio, iND began as a pc-ci-li* peer message board, with postings from fans of'diose groups who have followed the pioneering insurgent counlry baud, Uncle Tupelo, by mixing indie nuk aggiession with country twang' (Peterson and Heal, 2001: 235). 1 he print mag*f zine was launched as a bi-monthly publication in 1995 and ran until 2009, wlirtl il became a web-only publication. In an extensive analysis of the maga/mi', Tonya Cooper documents how il became 'ihc seminal magazine far all. roiinliy news and information, especially following the demise of Country Mask utagadii* in 2003' (Cooper, 2012: 75j. Indeed, die magazine provided another label for till*
emergent sub genre: 'The "No Depression" sound is the alternation or a joi......
of grinding punk, country rock and acoiisric country; a focus on the darker siili u| small town life; and a heightened social/polidcal consciousness' (Goodman, < ml in Peterson and Beal, 2001: 235).
No Depression has a tagline: 'A magazine about alt. country, (whatever thai in),1 Remaining vague on the musical aesthetics of all. country ai lists, .\;< / '/-instead prefers to discuss them in relation to their perceived authenticity and sincerity. Reflecting the disparate nature of alt. country music, Grant Allien and Peier Blackslock, llie editors of the magazine, observed dim:
We are not biologists. It is not our purpose to identify, quantify, and codify ft subgenus called alt. conniry, or to limit ourselves to its study ... Il is our pui|ioMi to write and assign articles about artists whose work is of enduring merit.
(Alden and Hlackstock, 2IXJ5; vill)
This indicates the way in which the magazine alleuipts lo iHisition nil i acting outside the inusii industry and to align itself with alt nninny's |h-n.r. <d
......commercial and and-modernist stances (Peterson and Beal, 2001: 237).
Vet at the same lime NO played a prominent role in construct the genre's tra-
.....v. acting as a gatekeeper, helping to define what music and performers are
wihI (perhaps more importantly) are not, indicative of the genre. NO includes new n ii .is, along with older, more established musician deemed lo be indicative of alt. Itmnlry: they 'do not necessarily share musical qualities, but they do share an • miitinnal resonance, genuine sentiment and behaviour which is required of the fane' (Cooper, 2012: 77),
\l> represents die 'intersection or intersection of three main factors: pro-i- ini ml ism, perceived amateurism, and commercially' (Cooper, 2012: 78). Al mih level, NO exhibited the standard characteristics of published magazines: a
.....i.icni format and layout; llie use of a printer and international dislribulion;
idvtl liscinentS and promotional content; an editorial, and the usual mix of lea -reviews and current news items. This was combined with elements of
I.....taiieity ami a DIY (do-it-yourself) attitude, exemplified in die aesthetics of its
logo and typeface and the photos used throughout. As Cooper astutely observes, tin Iniio ■usually in red or black, and all capital letters, has a heavy angular dark li i ling, showing the tough, rebellious spirit of the magazine, as does the weath-i ii 11 rustic feel of the typeface' (2012: 79). Performers' photos frequently lack a iinnpuscd feel and are often unfocused. The online formal of A7) combines pro-|l inlsal music journalists or writers from the prim run with liins and amateur mill is, 'lending it an egalitarian aimosphcrc, allowing readers lo judge writing
.....is merits and opinion, rather than because of reputation or perceived
.mi h< >i iiy' (Cooper, 2012: 78). litis is also characteristic of oilier online music magazines.
Music journalism shifts online
In addition to No liefiressian, there arc now a number of prominent online-only Ml i ■..vines on music and culture. Collectively, lliese exhibit a new paradigm of music journalism, characterized by a wide range of associated activities {podcastl, Ii ilivals, parties), in addition to traditional music reviews and ieatuies. Two i samples aie skelched here:
Resident Adviser (also referred to simply as it-1) was founded in 2001 H a site to pioviilc information and news coverage on the Australian dance music scene.
Ii .....ii expanded to cover global electronic dance music and culture and now lias
--Mi, is in London and Berlin, In addition lo interviews with artists, news, and nviews, the website Includes event listings and ticket sales, exlensive artist and record labels profiles, D] charts and the RA podcasi. Celebrating iis lenllt antii-Mi.aiy in 2011, RA held a series of high-profile dance parlies in tttajtu ...... allium! the world, involving leading DJs. 'Flic podcasi, launched in 211110,
Ii, is Icaliircd an exclusive weekly mix of electron a music limn top D)s and producers, including I'rankic knuckles, Mark K. and luiurenl Gamier.
IShkfwk: Now based in Chicago, Pin block Media, commonly termed simply I'lhlipak,   was established  ill   I'l'l'i   Tinning   itself    The  essential  guid. lo
156   Understanding popular music culture
independent music and beyond', Pitchfork's focus is on indie rock. Along willt extensive regular reviews, the internet publication has annual listings of album and song of the year, with many of these included in its publication 77« PUehjvA 500: Our Guide la the Greatest Songs from Punk to the Present (Plagenhoef and SchreheM '2008). An associated website, Pitchlbrk.lv, initiated in 2000 and now pail ol Pilchfbrk.com, presents videos and odier coverage of independent music aeti. Pitchjork is also on Twitter and Facebook. Since 2007, in conjunction with UK» based production company All Tomorrow's Parties, Pitchfork has held lest ivilli featuring artists performing the content of albums in their entirety The sile h,i« been eiediieil with 'breaking' (helping to popularize) bands such as Arcade I'iir, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Animal Collective, with favourable reviews and 'best of year' awards leading to further publicity and increased record sales.
To some extent, similar activities had already become part of the traditional, print-based, music magazines, but their weh-based equivalents have taken ihein to a new level. In addition, the accessibility of these sites, along with blogs, in readers/fans wanting to post their own comments and reviews has democratized die process of music criticism. In doing so, they have followed the tradition established by fanzines.
The xines
Fanzines are often overlooked in discussions of the music press, due to their kit* gely non-commercial nature, but play an important role in it. They are typically part of alternative publishing, which is characterized by the centra I ity of atiiM* leurs, readers as writers; non-mainstream channels of distribution; a non-piolll orientation; and a network based on expertise from a wide base of enthusiast Produced hy one person, or a group of friends, working from their homes, pop" ular music fanzines are usually eon cent rated totally on a particular artist m group, and are characterized by a fervour bordering on the religious. This stand ran he a reactionary one, preserving the memory ol'particular artists/styles, but ■ more usually progressive. Many of the original punk fanzines were charadei \/< A by a broadly leftist cultural politics, challenging their readers in take issue with the views presented by bastions of the status quo and reasserting the revolutionary potential of rock. Fanzines like Crawdaddy and Bump! in the 1900s and Snijfin' Glut in the iy/0s had tremendous energy, reHe.ciing the vitality of live perfun nancm and emergent scenes.
'Hit' impact of punk nick was aided by a network of fanzines and their enllui siastic supporters. Jon Savage argues that in the early days of punk in the UK, nobody was defining 'punk' from within:
the established writers were inevitably compromised by age and the minimal demands of objectivity required by their papers. The established media ci mid
propagandize and comment, but they could not dramatize the new.....u.......
in a way that fired people's imagination.
(Savage, liWI 20Q
llie mask pi ess 157
With photocopying cheap and accessible for the fust time, the fanzines were a new medium tailor made for the values of punk, with its 11 fY ethic and associa-
.....is of street credibility and there was an explosion of the new form. These
I ni/ines provided a training ground for a number of music journalists (e.g. Paul Motley, Jon Savage, Lester Bangs) and, in some cases, useful media expertise lor those who, taking to heart their own rhetoric of 'here's three chords, now form a band', subsequently did just that (for example Bob Ccldof, die Boom town Rats; Chrissie Hynde, the Pretenders). Fanzines producers/writers did not have 10 worry about deadlines, censorship or subediting and 'even the idea of authorship was at issue, as fanzines were produced anonymously* Or pseudony-
n.....sly by people trying to avoid discovery by ihe dole or employers' (Savage,
1991: 279).
Fanzine readers tend to actively engage with the publication: they debate via tin letters to die editor', contribute reviews of recordings and concerts, provide til urographies and even interviews with performers. A number of studies have i|iinonstrated the value of fanzines to producing and maintaining particular Miiivial styles and scenes, as with Seattle in the early 1990s. In the case of pro-Htessive rock, fanzines maintain interest long after the genre had been discarded by ihe mainstream. Chris Alton (2009) compares how a fanzine, 'Ihe Sound Pť-mtar, and the avail tgarde-oiiented 77te H'ite situate their reviews within a Wired paradigm of alternative music reviewing.
Despite their essentially non-eommerciaf and often ephemeral nature, fanzines remain a significant part of popular music culture, representing a iiilimal space lor the creation of a community of interest. The internet has pWn ided a new medium for the international dissemination of fanzines; thioiigh iheir 'printing' o[ contemporary concert reviews and lour information, mull V zines' have an immediacy that provides a Ibrm of virtual socialization
till I.iiis.
i latekcepers and industry publicity
Witling in 1981, Frith saw the music papers and their writers as operating in a mmbiutie relationship with the record industry, with the blurring of the boundary between rock journalism and rock publicity reflected in the continuous job nubility between them: 'record company press departments recruit from the RUUU papers, music papers employ ex-publicists; it is not even unusual for writcrl in do hoih jobs simultaneously' (Frith, 1983: 173). The situation Frith describe! hiii since become even more firmly consolidated. Popular music magazines have ill w loped in tandem with consumer culture, with die variations evident among them reflecting die diversity of readers' tastes and interests. They have fcko
I.....me pad of a general magazine culture; while they are to be ibund in a
iii p,ii,in set lion iu the magazine racks, they ate ......pning lor advertising with a
pmhli i.iling range ol magazines. Accordingly, the in.nkil profile lespei ially the
.....hi......mil st.iiiiM ill il.....i ■, 111111 11111 unit imi.ii ,ii,n i  advertisers aires* to
tin n  large I commons,   The advcttiiiliiK Milt canU'n I.....Iv indicate* their
158   / kderxtniuiittg popular music culture
particular market orientation. They are providing not just an adjunct to popular music - although that dimension remains central - but a guide to lifestylr, especially leisure consumption.
The ideological role of the music press in constructing a sense of community and in maintaining a critical distance from the music companies had already become muled by the late 1980s: 'The music press has abandoned its pretension! of leading its readership or setting agendas, and contracted around the concept uj "service": hard news> information, gossip, consumer guidance' (Reyuoldlt I 1990: 27). During the 1990s the music press largely abandoned any residual post' punk sense of antagonism towards the industry, realizing that they share it common interest in maintaining consumption. This is achieved by sustaining K constant turnover of new trends, scenes and perli timers, while also mining uuisicV past using the links between older consumer's nostalgia, younger listeners' interest in antecedents and the back catalogue.
They remain influential as gatekeepers of taste, arbiters of cultural history and publicists for the record industry. This influence can sometimes be spectacular, its with Billboard editor Timothy White's decision, on first hearing Jagged Utile Pill, IQ make Alanis Morissette tile focus of his 'Music to My liars' column before the album's release; and then influencing the editors of Spm and Rolling Stone to follow suit. White's column (in the 18 May 1995 issue) was distributed with some review copies of Jagged Utile Pill, helping set the lone lor the generally positive press and magazine reviews the record received. The album was exceptional, but this coverage provided a very helpful initial boost.
Such episodes aside, there is general agreement that music critics don't cxercbi
as much influence on consumers as, say, literacy' or drama critics. The .......
crucial intermediaries are those who control ahlime (DJs and radio programmers] and access to recording technology and reproduction and marketing facilities, (record companies and record producers). Nonetheless, I would argue that tfcfl critics do influence record buyers, particularly those who are looking lo make ihr best use of limited purchasing power. Many buyers purchase (or at least acrjuirt 1 the latest releases as a matter of course, acting as confirmed followers of thai artist, style or scene. But others are actively exploring the byways of fresh talent, new musical hybrids or the back catalogue.
These searches are aided by the way in which music critics don't so innili operate on the basis of some general aesthetic criterion, but rather through situ* atiug new product via constant appeal to referents, attempting to contcxttiali/e the particular text under consideration:
Canadian Angela Desveaux combines a nice mix of gentle Gillian Welch countrified flavours widi a lew Lucinda Williams-like rockier moment*,
However, unlike, say, Jenny lewis, she ultimately falls short of her tw.....hU
inspirations on her debut. Wandering Eyes. While Williams and Lurid Lynn, Neko Case, and Lmmylou Harris is romlbrlnble to wallow in ihr depths of despair as yel another loan has used her and casl her aside,
Itaivelaits takes a fa i.....t restrained approach, 11 > ■ m Eumiltm limes \nA
'[he music press 159
when she does decide to take a rockier ruutc ... il owes more to the Dixie Chicks.
(Lindsay Davis, review of Wandering Eyes, Dominion Post, 9 November 2001))
lu the process, popular music critics construct their own version of the tradi-
i.....al high-low culture split, usually around notions of artistic integrity, authenticity
.iiid ihe nature of commercialism. The best of such critics - and their associated magazines - have published collections of their reviews. The various editions of
/hr Rolling Stone Record Guide, recent series such as the All Music Guides, the Rvttgli thtdti (lo rock, reggae, hip-hop, etc.) and the Pitchfork 500 have become bibles in tin ii fields, establishing orthodoxies as lo the relative value of various styles or denies and pantheons of artists. Record collectors and enlhusiasts, and surviving
|iiii.ilist and second-hand record shops, inevitably have well-thumbed copies of lln sr and similar volumes close at hand.
Yet, diis body of criticism is a field in which highly idiosyncratic and disparate
i .a it lards are the norm. Particular performers and their efforts will be heaped mlh (liaise by one reviewer and denigrated by another. Evaluations relied [>er-
Plial preferences and matters of taste. Rarely are evaluative criteria laid bare for 11 nu al scrutiny and even where this occurs it creates as well as resolves difficulties
I i McLeod, 20111). Popular music critics, and their histories, encyclo|n:dias and
i o nsi it tier guides are playing a key role in defining the reference points, the highs ami lows in the development of'rock' and other styles of popular music. They Hulíne particular performers, genres and recordings with meaning and value, and I Veil their internecine arguments strengthen an artist or record's claim to being |t.n! of a selective tradition. The consumers of the music themselves Irerjiietulv
ii lli 11 (even if only to reject) such distinctions.
litis is idso a Strongly gendered field of writing. An example of this is the Riailiier in which gender is marked in the press coverage of Ani DiFranco, a self-produced indie artist, who records on her own label, Righteous Babe Records, I)rawing on a corpus of 100 ankles on DiFranco, appearing between 199:-)
.....I 2003, in a wide range of print sources and online reports, Anna Feigenhaum
dimvs 'how language employed in rock criticism frequently timet ions to devalue and marginalize women artists musicianship, influence on fans, and contribution in die rock canon' (J'Vigeubauiii, 2005: 37). She concludes that it is necessary to move away from 'gendered binaries', to 'challenge and reconstruct the conventional language that dominates rock criticism' (2005: 54: see also Llalros, 2010).
Conclusion
I here is nov greater attention paid to the role of music press and music critics, placing an emphasis on the manner in which lheir critical discourse constructs
......niis ol authenticity, musical merit and historical value. Music, magazines play
i l.i ii pat I in the economics of popular.....si< , em ouraging readers In I no records
Mild posters, l-.sliitls, ell ,), and geneialh iiiiiuii i  ilieina |,r, in um;,.....ei "|>n|>'
lfif)   Vudeistamling popular musk culture
culture. Similarly, music critics act as a service industry to the record indust lubricating the desire to acquire both new product and selections from the bu catalogue. Music press reviews still form an important adjunct to the record con pany and music retail marketing of rheir products, while providing the ifco companies (and artists) with critical feedback on their releases. In the proc they also become promotional devices, providing supportive quotes for advert! and forming part of press kits sent lo radio stations, websites and press ou Vet both press and critics also play an important ideological function. They tance popular music consumers from the fact that they ate essentially pint has an economic commodity, by stressing the product's cultural .significance. Furlh more, this function is maintained by the important point that the music press not, at least directly, vertically integrated into the music iudusuy (i.e. owned the record companies). A sense of distance is thereby maintained, while at t same lime the need of the industry to constantly sell new images, styles a product is met.
Further reading
Alton, C. (2009} 'Writing About Listening: Alternative Discourses in Ro(
Journalism', Popular Mum; 28, 1: 33 67. reigenbautu, A. (2005) ""Some Guy Designed this Room I'm Standing in"
Mat king  Gender  in  Press Coverage  of Airi  DiFranco',  Popular \!
24, 1: 37-5b.
Iloskyns, B. (ed.) (2003) 7he Sound and the Fury: A Rock's Back Pages Reader. 41) \*m
of Classic Rock Journalism, London: Rloomsbury. .Jones, S. (ed.) (2002) Pop Musk and the Press, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Pie Mcleod, K. (2001) '*l/2: A Critique of Rock Criticism in North America
Popular Musk, 20, I: 29 4G. Swiss, T. (2005) "That's Me in the Spotlight: Rock Autobiographies', Pupalm
Mum, 24, 2: 287 94.
Book series
l)a (jipo Best Musk ]Vriting. an annual compilation, featuring guest edi published since 2001.
Websites
www.rocksbackjjages.com
An extensive archive of reviews, interviews, and features on artists; man) utti are full text. Some content is freely available, fuller an ess is by subscription.
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