Pop Idols and Pirates: Mechanisms of Consumption and the Global Circul

Description

The music industry has been waging some very significant battles in recent years, reacting to numerous inter-related crises provoked by globalization, digitalization and the ever more extensive commercialization of public culture. These struggles are viewed by many as central to the survival of the central mediators in the consumption of popular music. These battles are not just against piracy and... Read more

The music industry has been waging some very significant battles in recent years, reacting to numerous inter-related crises provoked by globalization, digitalization and the ever more extensive commercialization of public culture. These struggles are viewed by many as central to the survival of the central mediators in the consumption of popular music. These battles are not just against piracy and the sharing of digital song files on the internet. The music industry is also struggling to find ways to compete or integrate with many other forms of entertainment, including films, television programmes, mobile phones, DVDs and video games in an extremely crowded communications environment. The battles currently being fought by the music industry are about nothing less than its continued ability to create and maintain specific kinds of profitable relationships with consumers. This book presents two inter-related cases of crisis and opportunity: the music industry's epic struggle over piracy and the 'Idol' phenomenon. Both are explicit attempts to control and justify the particular ways in which the music industry makes money from popular music through specific kinds of relationships with consumers. The battles over piracy have been fought with a remarkable collection of campaigns consisting of advice, coercion and argument about what is or is not the best way to consume music. From these complicated and often contradictory campaigns we form an unusually clear picture of what many within the music industry imagine their industry to be. In a complementary way, 'Idol' works to demonstrate the joy and pleasure of consuming popular music the 'right' way. By creating a series of intertwined relationships with consumers around multiple sites of consumption, incorporating television, radio, live performance, traditional print media campaigns, text messaging and all manner of internet-based systems of communication and 'fan management,' the producers of 'Idol' present an ideal relationship between musicians and audiences. Instead of focusing on selling CDs, the music industry's digital Achilles' heel, 'Idol' has given the music industry an integrated platform for displaying its expanded palette of products and venues for consumption. When understood in specific relation to the battle against piracy, Fairchild's analysis of 'Idol' and the emerging promotional cultures of the music industry it exhibits shows how multiple sites of consumption, and attempts to mediate and control the circulation of popular music, are being used to combat the foundational challenges facing the music industry. Read less

IntroductionIndustrial-Strength Strawmen; Part I All of the In-between; Chapter 1 The Acts and Spaces of Consumption; Chapter 2 The Medium and Materials of Popular Music; Part II Bridging the Distance between Production and Consumption; Chapter 3 Power and Property: CDs, MP3s, and SoundScan; Chapter 4 Mediating and Manufacturing the Investment in Desire; Part III The Spectacle as Consumption Environment; Chapter 5 Constructing the “Idol” Empire; Chapter 6 Building the Authentic Celebrity: The Structure of a Spectacle; Chapter 7 Becoming Who You Are: The Content of a Spectacle; conclusion Conclusion Why “Idol”?;

Author(s)

Biography

Dr Charles Fairchild, Arts Music Unit, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney, Australia.

Critics' Reviews

’... a welcome addition to the rapidly-gowing Ashgate series: a thought-provoking and (at times) polemical book that will be highly useful in the popular music curriculum and highly popular among music technology students, most of whom will welcome such a trenchant critique of the current state of play.’ Journal of Music Technology and Education ’... serves as a provocation and stimulus for further work and discussion.’ Media International Australia ’In this wide-ranging text, Charles Fairchild offers a detailed analysis of the music industry, and the broader entertainment industry of which it is part, in the early 21st century. ... the writing is fluid and engaging, and Fairchild offers a persuasive critique of the 'active consumer' thesis. Readers interested in the multifarious and at times paradoxical profit-making strategies of the entertainment industry will gain many rich insights from this text.’ Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal ’Fairchild’s Pop Idols and Pirates is a good read for those wanting an introductory examination of the consumer/producer relationship within the music industry as it relates to Australian Idol...’ Popular Music

Pop Idols and Pirates Mechanisms of Consumption and the Global Circulation of Popular Music

Description

Table of Contents

Author(s)

Biography

Critics' Reviews

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