Pages: 137 - 158 Abstract: Arts and the Market, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page 137-158, October 2017. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore aural representation of the countryside and English rurality through the contemporary cultural product of folk song. Design/methodology/approach A textual analysis was undertaken of the sleeve notes and lyrics of Steve Knightley, songwriter and founder member of the folk/roots band Show of Hands. Findings The concept of the rural idyll is thoroughly debunked in the majority of these lyrics. Many songs make specific reference to place, and these, in the main, focus on the historical and contemporary hardships of living in rural England, in many cases also making explicit reference to the historical or contemporary social issues deemed by the lyricist to be at the root of the problems faced by people living in English rural communities. Research limitations/implications This paper analyses data obtained in lyrics of only one songwriter within only one music genre, but the artist is one of the most respected within the contemporary folk genre, and Show of Hands have won a number of prestigious nationally recognised folk awards. Originality/value The extant literature contains little concerning aural representations of place identities through song. The contribution this paper makes is therefore in presenting a conceptual framework that shows how folk song, as a contemporary cultural product contributes to the construction and communication of rural place identities. Citation: Arts and the Market PubDate: 2017-10-04T07:28:38Z DOI: 10.1108/AAM-05-2016-0006
Pages: 159 - 173 Abstract: Arts and the Market, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page 159-173, October 2017. Purpose The second wave (true Norwegian) black metal music scene has garnered attention for its ostensible negative impact upon contemporary consumption. Producers and consumers of the scene, as potential heretics, have been associated with acts of church burning, Satanism, murder, and violence. Such actions have circulated under the signifier of evil, and have been associated with anti-Christian semiotics and pagan practices. Contemporary media has positioned such acts of evil beyond rational comprehension via the deployment of a rhetoric of evil. This enframement has evaded the psychoanalytic question of evil and the significant role of negative ethics in theorizing the allure and potential impact of black metal music. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evil in the music scene, its relation to ID evil, and its consumption and production practices. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon Zizek’s (2006) development of evil through Lacan’s three registers, this paper examines evil production and consumption through a detailed analysis of true Norwegian black metal. The authors rehabilitate the complex corridors of evil against its conceptual collapse as merely the ontological absence of good. Via Zizek, the authors offer a reconsideration of the anti-establishment violent activities enacted by some proponents of black metal ideology. Herein, the authors deploy a reading of ideological evil in order to interrogate the role of enjoyment and desire at work in the black metal scene. Findings After extensive immersion in the true Norwegian black metal scene, the authors elucidate on the key issues surrounding good, evil and Satanism, and their relationships to production and consumption. What many might term as “evil” is far more complex than what appears on the surface-level aesthetics. Originality/value While there have been examinations of the black metal scene, there has been scant literature that delves deep into the symbolism of the Satanic and the evil beyond the surface. This paper sheds light on the value of exploring evil in a scene as something that is much more than the mere absence of what is considered good. Citation: Arts and the Market PubDate: 2017-10-04T07:28:33Z DOI: 10.1108/AAM-12-2016-0025
Pages: 174 - 190 Abstract: Arts and the Market, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page 174-190, October 2017. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how music consumption communities remember their past. Specifically, the paper reports on the role of heritage in constructing the cultural memory of a consumption community and on the implications for its identity and membership. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon insights from theories of cultural memory, heritage, and collective consumption, this interpretive inquiry makes use of interview, documentary, and artefactual analysis, as well as visual and observational data, to analyse an exhibition of the community’s popular music heritage entitled One Family – One Tribe: The Art & Artefacts of New Model Army. Findings The analysis shows how the community creates a sense of its own past and reflects this in memories, imagination, and the creative work of the band. Research limitations/implications This is a single case study, but one whose exploratory character provides fruitful insights into the relationship between cultural memory, imagination, heritage, and consumption communities. Practical implications The paper shows how consumption communities can do the work of social remembering and re-imagining of their own past, thus strengthening their identity through time. Social implications The study shows clearly how a consumption community can engage, through memory and imagination, with its own past, and indeed the past in general, and can draw upon material and other resources to heritagise its own particular sense of community and help to strengthen its identity and membership. Originality/value The paper offers a theoretical framework for the process by which music consumption communities construct their own past, and shows how theories of cultural memory and heritage can help to understand this important process. It also illustrates the importance of imagination, as well as memory, in this process. Citation: Arts and the Market PubDate: 2017-10-04T07:28:49Z DOI: 10.1108/AAM-08-2016-0014
Pages: 191 - 212 Abstract: Arts and the Market, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page 191-212, October 2017. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the question of cultural production, consumption and intermediation in the context of digital music. Design/methodology/approach This research adopts an interpretivist, ethnoconsumerist epistemology along with a netnographic research design combined with hermeneutic analysis. Interpreting both the text view and field view of an ethnoconsumerist approach, the netnographic research design includes participant observation across multiple social media platforms as well as virtual interviews and analysis of media material. The context of application is a digital music subculture known as Vaporwave. Vaporwave participants deliberately distort fundamental aspects of modern and postmodern culture in a digital, musical, artistic and storied manner. Findings Hermeneutic analysis has identified a critical and nostalgic narrative of consumerism and hyper-reality, evident as symbolic parallels, intertextual relationships, existential themes and cultural codes. As a techno savvy community embracing lo-fi production, self-releasing promotion and anonymity from within a complexity of aliases and myriad collaborations, the vaporous existentialism of Vaporwave participants skirts copyright liability in the process. Accordingly, Vaporwave is documented as blurring reality and fantasy, material and symbolic, production and consumption. Essentially, Vaporwave participants are shown to be digital natives turned digital rebels and heretical consumers, better described as cultural curators. Research limitations/implications This research demonstrates a more complex notion of cultural production, consumption and intermediation, argued to be more accurately described as cultural curation. Practical implications As digital heretics, Vaporwave participants challenge traditional notions of modernity, such as copyright law, and postmodern notions such as working consumers and consuming producers. Social implications Vaporwave participants present a case of digital natives turned digital rebels and consumer heretics, who are actively curating culture. Originality/value This interpretive ethnoconusmerist study combining netnography and hermeneutic analysis of an online underground music subculture known as Vaporwave shows digital music artists as cultural curators. Citation: Arts and the Market PubDate: 2017-10-04T07:28:35Z DOI: 10.1108/AAM-12-2016-0023
Pages: 213 - 234 Abstract: Arts and the Market, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page 213-234, October 2017. Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth consideration of the color line in the US music market, much deeper treatment than that of a superficial social construct. Design/methodology/approach Content analysis was performed using archives from the Performing Arts Division of the New York Public Library. Findings A complex intersection of social and capitalist influences is fueled by culture and economics, filtered through the contributions of artists and media. Six major categories: social, media, artist, culture, industry, and economics contribute to its development and propagation. It continues to affect contemporary music markets. Research limitations/implications Interpretation of archival data is subject to availability of material and subjectivity of the researcher. Steps were taken to minimize bias. The research implies an opportunity for the US music market to celebrate diversity and social justice. Practical implications Focusing on the symbolic use of music, marketers have the opportunity to empower consumers to embrace diversity, reversing the trajectory of the color line. Social implications Embracing cultural heritage and celebrating diversity can promote economic gain without detriment to cultural interests. Originality/value The present research provides a much deeper consideration of the color line in the American Music Market than previous literature does. The consideration includes a combination of forces, from profit focused to cultural. Citation: Arts and the Market PubDate: 2017-10-04T07:28:44Z DOI: 10.1108/AAM-08-2016-0016
Pages: 235 - 248 Abstract: Arts and the Market, Volume 7, Issue 2, Page 235-248, October 2017. Purpose This paper discusses how vinyl records become souvenirs of musical tourism. The record-as-souvenir dynamic is particularly relevant in the discussion about punk culture in cities like Washington, DC, and other scenes which defy encapsulation as touristic landscapes. Arguing a fluid perspective on musical tourism, the purpose of this paper is to present the argument that vinyl functions as de facto souvenirs of underground musical landscapes. Design/methodology/approach This paper incorporates literature on souvenirs within tourism studies, market research, and empirical data. It also builds upon research on emotional geographies and the resurgence of the vinyl record industry. Findings In many cases, musical recordings (particularly those on vinyl, for tactile and fetishist reasons), while not designed for the function of being souvenirs, come to signify counter-narrative definitions of place. Research limitations/implications This work focuses on the context of vinyl as souvenirs with findings derived from the intersection of tourism, critical geography, and music marketing. In offering this contextual account, there is no claim toward generalization but rather the work is put forward as a depth of insight on a phenomenon long in the making yet neglected by researchers. However, a more comprehensive approach to provide further insight on vinyl as souvenirs might include consumer interviews. Practical implications This paper expands the conversation about souvenirs further into the era of modern, underground tourism. It argues for the inclusion of music consumption, especially vinyl, as prototypical and unintentional souvenirs as decided by the consumer rather than the producer. It also expands the discourse on counter-narratives of places like Washington, DC, in conversations about place-based music marketing and tourism. Social implications This paper frames musical souvenirs in terms of the consumer deciding their value and role in the cultivation of sense of place, rather than the producer. Additionally, music retailers provide a valuable role in their city’s cultivated image, but even this is a collaboration between the retailers and consumers. Originality/value This paper addresses the function of vinyl records within the purview of tourism studies and positions as an original contribution connecting music consumption and tourism practices. Citation: Arts and the Market PubDate: 2017-10-04T07:28:34Z DOI: 10.1108/AAM-04-2016-0005
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