Chapter Resources

Case study 1: Flying Nun

The textbook mentions the ‘Dunedin Sound’ and the associated role of Flying Nun records (Chapter 12, page 202). As the label has now reverted to its original, founding owner, and is once again very active, it is worth giving a bit more information on its development.

The Flying Nun (FN) label was begun in 1981 in Christchurch, New Zealand, by Roger Shepherd, inspired by punk rock’s DIY (do-it-yourself) ethic. The southern city of Dunedin soon became most strongly associated with the label and the term ‘Dunedin Sound’ was applied to bands such as the Chills and the Verlaines, who used four or eight-track recording to produce a distinctive ‘homemade’ sound. Chris Knox, also an artist on the label, provided cartoon graphics for the cover art and advertising flyers that became part of the label’s signature. In 1981 FN’s second single release, ‘Tally Ho’ by the Clean, reached no. 19 on the New Zealand singles charts, despite the label’s distribution relying on a network of personal friends. Over the following decade, FN’s roster of local bands became more diverse and the FN/Dunedin Sound less cohesive.

In common with other indie labels of the period, FN initially operated in a very relaxed, laissez faire manner. However, as the company developed a more international presence, it increasingly adopted the business arrangements and practices of the mainstream music industry. In 1987 Flying Nun (UK) was established, along with Flying Nun Europe, a joint venture with the German label, Normal. Several licensing arrangements were also made with independent labels in the US.

In 1987 Shepherd made a ‘production and distribution’ deal with WEA and FN shifted its two-person office operation north to Auckland, New Zealand’s largest urban centre. In 1990 a deal was made with the powerful Australian independent label, Mushroom Records, forming Flying Nun Australia and providing the more substantial recording and promotional budgets that would allow leading FN bands such as Straitjacket Fits, the Bats, and Headless Chickens to realize their more global musical ambitions.

Recognition for the company’s increasing overseas profile and international success won it a New Zealand government Export Award in 1995. By 1995, when FN celebrated its 15th anniversary, the label had released 430 recordings. For many listeners, especially the overseas followers of ‘alternative/indie’ music, Flying Nun became a metonym for New Zealand music as a whole.

In 1996, Shepherd moved to London to run FN’s now extensive northern hemisphere activities, but left the label in 1999 disillusioned with the music business. Warner Music took over FN; the label was less active in the following decade, although it continued to release a now broader range of New Zealand artists. In 2006 a retrospective box set was released, Flying Nun 25 Years, with music chosen by Shepherd. With 83 tracks across four CDs, arranged roughly in chronological order, the set chronicled the breadth of the label’s roster; it was commercially and critically successful and revived interest in FN.

In 2009 Roger Shepherd regained ownership of FN from Warner Music, who now became the exclusive distribution partner. He saw selling the back catalogue in digital and physical formats as important for the next phase of the label, in addition to redeveloping the label’s web site. In 2011 Flying Nun celebrated its 30th anniversary with a series of press retrospectives (e.g. Sunday Star-Times) and concerts in New Zealand. In 2012 the label moved its operations to Auckland, with Ben Howe (Arch Hill Recordings) taking over as general manager. Founder Roger Shepherd continued as a shareholder and consultant, based in Wellington. In the last few years Flying Nun has continued to reissue classic recordings from its early days, including compilation albums by Toy Love and the Clean, in vinyl (see discography below).

Discography

Toy Love, Toy Love,Flying Nun, 2012. This includes the group’s only album along with their three singles and demos.

The Clean, Vehicle, Flying Nun, 2013.

Flying Nun 25 Years, box set, Flying Nun, 2006.

References

Sunday Star-Times, 2011, ‘Flying Nun’s 30th’, Sunday Magazine, guest edited by Shayne Carter, 30 October.

Web site

Flying Nun records: http://www.flyingnun.co.nz/

Case study 2: Review of Osborne, Vinyl

Rather than a ‘case study’ as such, I have included here a recent book review of a substantial and significant study of the dominant historical record format: vinyl. The book raises a range of related topics and suggests lines of inquiry additional to the discussion of formats in Chapter 2 of the text, as well as the discussion of the appeal of collecting vinyl in Chapter 11.

Richard Osborne, Vinyl: A History of the Analogue Record, Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series, Ashgate, Farnham, Surrey, 2012, 224 pages.

With the advent of sound recording, music became a ‘thing’, as recording technology in the late nineteenth century enabled its development in commodity form, independent of its ‘live’ performance. Subsequent shifts in the popularity of various recording formats are important in explaining the historical evolution of popular music. Each new recording format offered fresh recording and marketing opportunities, helping to shape the constitution of musical genres and the nature of consumption. Historically, we can identify a procession of formats: the wax cylinder; the shellac 78, the vinyl 45, EP and LP, cassette audio tape, the compact disc, digital audio tape, the erasable compact disc, and MP3 downloads. Of these, it is vinyl that has exercised the greatest fascination.

Osborne provides an excellent detailed historical study of the evolution of the vinyl record and its relationship with music as ‘both the carrier of artworks and an assembly-line product’ (4). A wealth of detail is included, with many informative asides and extended footnotes, all in the service of a frequently insightful general account. His starting point is the current vinyl revival in the digital age, along with the manner in which ‘vinyl receives attention out of all proportion to its market importance’ (1). His study takes what he terms an anatomical approach: ‘The vinyl record has distinct auditory, visual and tactile qualities, and one way they can be delineated is by breaking the record down into its component parts’ (2): the groove; the disc format; the label; vinyl itself; the primary formats of it (the LP; the 45rpm single; the 12" dance single), and the place of B sides; and the sleeve. Many of the characteristics associated with vinyl, he notes, were in existence before vinyl was developed, and earlier formats and industry practices are accordingly included in the discussion. The emphasis is on genres such as rock, punk, indie, and dance music – ‘all conscious of the possibilities and meanings of recording formats’ (4) – rather than more broadcast-related pop and performance-focussed classical repertoire, although these are not neglected. There is also a concentration on examples from major artists: Sinatra, Presley, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles. Observing that the balance of historical accounts of sound recording have concentrated on the American industry, Osborne’s focus is principally on the British market, which has had ‘its own take on each development’ (4). He is not so concerned about the issue of sound quality, although there is some consideration of the limits the format has set in terms of duration, sound quality, volume, and tonal range. The focus is rather on historical, visual, and tactile properties of vinyl: ‘the vinyl record only grows more interesting when you realize that much of its appeal lies elsewhere’ (5).

Chapter 1 is on the groove itself: ‘its ability to make sound visible, touchable and mortal’ (2). The discussion covers the prototypes of later vinyl discs, especially the pioneering efforts of Edison and Berliner; the question of any literal ability on the part of the observer to ‘read’ the grooves on the recording; the experiments with the speed of recordings; and, reminiscent of later advocates for vinyl, the issue of wear as in fact a desirable attribute, signalling greater authenticity. Chapter 2, on the disc format, includes the birth of the music industry along with the development of different formats. The production of cylinders peaked in the UK in 1907 and thereafter there was a steady decline in favour of discs. Both these initial chapters are thorough and interesting enough, but I did not find them as engaging as the later ones that deal more with vinyl and the music on it.

The label is the focus of Chapter 3, placing its use as essentially a conveyer of information into the broader context of its role in formalizing generic musical categories (and their associated record buyers) – a practice consolidated by the categories used in sales charts. That only a third of the diameter of the 12" LP and half the diameter of the 7" single are bisected with grooves could be seen as a design flaw. However, it was one turned into an advantage, with this central space/gap utilized to provide the title of the recording and additional information on it. Emile Berliner pioneered this, but it was Eldridge Johnson in the early 1900s (head of Victor), who was the first to realize the full potential that this presented and used a central  label to brand both the artist and the recording company. Helping to define a product, the term ‘label’ became a synonym for ‘record company’. Labels subsequently became a way to distinguish various genres, especially for the output of smaller, specialist companies, beginning with those primarily producing ‘race’ and ‘hillbilly’ recordings in the 1930s. The label also became a significant part of the marketing of celebrity artists, as with the Gramophone Company’s Red Seal series, introduced in 1903. There was an emerging hierarchy of label colours and prices, along with series for musical genres, notably ‘race’ records (e.g. Paramount’s 12000 series, launched in 1922). An important consequence of such practices was that the audiences for classical and popular music became increasingly divided; a situation reinforced by the development of separate sales charts (53). Record collecting reflected this situation, with many early collectors valorizing more obscure and harder to locate recordings.

Chapter 4 is on vinyl itself: black plastic as a general recording material (as distinct from its main formats, which are the focus of later chapters). The first vinyl discs were produced in the early 1930s, but their use was greatly facilitated with the limited availability of shellac in World War II as a result of Japanese military occupation of the major production sites. In hindsight, it is interesting to note the ‘relative lack of attention that was paid to vinyl at the moment of its wider introduction ... only later on that it was invested with special qualities’ (69). Osborne shows how vinyl was originally perceived by many as a factory product, with its mass manufacture having industrialized music; a debate linked to Adorno’s critique of standardization in popular music and Benjamin’s notion of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. The subsequent decline and survival of vinyl, against CDs and the digital download, is a topic introduced here, to be returned to later in relation to aspects of the continuing appeal of the format.

Chapter 5 considers the LP. The term ‘album’ was initially used for several records in an album, as with photographs; while LP was used for individual recordings. Its development was a function of the search for longer average playing time, which had been achieved with shifts in nature of shellac records, in part by widening the turntable’s rotation speed to 33 and a 1/3 rpm, as with the Vitaphone record (1926) and the RCA recordings introduced in 1930, which utilized a vinyl compound. In 1948 Colombia’s Microgroove vinyl LP represented an historical breakthrough for the format, although its adoption in the UK lagged several years behind the American market.

In the 1950s the British LP was initially launched as a format for classical music: ‘The longer and superior playing surface expanded the repertoire in breadth as well as in length’ (95). Furthermore, classical recordings were in stereo, whereas their pop counterparts were generally mono. What to include on an LP was an issue, with cost a serious concern here as pop fans often did not want to simply repurchase the 45 singles they already had.

Chapter 6 traces the origins and evolution of the 45 in the US and then the British market. In the 1930s the jukebox played a central role in fostering the revival and expansion of the American record industry. Interestingly, as 40 was the standard number of discs in a machine, this became a key numeric for Top 40 radio and the first sales charts (119). The 78 single, with its bulk and inability to be played on the new multi-disc players, had obvious limitations. RCA Victor released the first 45 rpm discs in 1949 (122) and EMI released Britain’s first 45 singles in October 1952. The introduction of the virtually unbreakable vinyl single in the early 1950s was an important factor in the  proliferation of smaller independent record labels, who were significant in popularizing rock ‘n’ roll. In the early 1950s the vinyl single overtook its shellac 78 counterpart as the dominant music industry marketing vehicle. Singles became the major selling format, the basis for radio and television programming, and the most important chart listing, with these in an apparently symbiotic relationship. Singles appealed to young people, with limited disposable income, wanting to keep up with the latest chart hits. For the record companies, singles were cheaper to produce than an album and acted as market ‘testers’. Although singles’ success was important for performers and the record companies, it was also important as a means of drawing attention to the accompanying or subsequent LP, with the release of both being closely related. With a few significant exceptions (for example Led Zeppelin), performers generally relied on the single to promote their album release. This approach became the ‘traditional’ construction of record marketing through the 1960s and 1970s. Album compilations of singles, either by one performer or from a genre or style of music, also became an important market. Though some performers with high charting singles were ‘one hit wonders’, singles’ success frequently launched careers, leading to an album deal and moves from independent to major labels.

Also important was the EP, an ‘extended play’ single; a vinyl seven inch, usually with four songs. In the UK the EP represented an early form of ‘greatest hits’ package, with attractive record covers and it outsold albums until the early 1960s.

As ‘the clearest examples of music being determined by the disc’, the ‘B’ side and the 12" single are accorded their own chapter (7).Not until 1904 was the first two-sided disc available, introduced by German company Odeon at the Leipzig Fair, and it took until 1924 for the coupling of discs to become standard. One factor for this slow development was that it was not immediately obvious what should be put on the second side and its history has seen it used differently by particular musical genres, notably pop, rock, and dance music. While some artists, notably the Beatles, produced great coupled singles (with both sides charting), it was more common through the 1960s for B sides to highlight exclusive or obscure material (150). Furthermore, B sides were usually non-album tracks, enhancing the appeal of the single to completist collectors.

The 12" single, with its wider vinyl grooves, represents ‘the one development of the analogue record that was introduced by the artists rather than by the record industry’ (155). Arising out of Tom Moulton’s dance music B sides, it was the perfect partner for disco. The status of the 12" single was confirmed with the popularity of dance music in the late 1980s and early 1990s and it became essential to the survival of vinyl following the CD’s rise to market domination. However, its sales have declined significantly since 2003 with the impact of digital music..

Chapter 8 traces the artistic evolution of the record sleeve, showing how advances in printing and photography (especially in the 1950s and 1960s); record company policy; retail, distribution, and marketing; consumer demand; and the ideas and concerns of musicians each played a part. Early album collections of 78 discs consisted of card sleeves bound in hinged folders, with some featuring sleeve notes and cover illustrations (since c.1925). The later introduction of the LP represented a major boost to record sleeve design, which enjoyed a golden age from the early 1960s through the 1970s. Designers became associated with particular genres and record labels; for example, Reid Miles’ sleeves for jazz label Blue Note. Although essentially a marketing tool, ‘sleeve art helped to change people’s ideas about the mass-produced disc and the music it contained’ (167), helping elevating particular releases to the status of art. Yet again, a range of instructive examples support the general narrative, including a comparison of the covers of the early Beatles’ and Rolling Stones’ albums. Commonly considered superior to the sleeves of CDs, the appeal of the vinyl LP sleeve has been a factor in the continued support for vinyl and the steady rise in sales since 2008. In the digital age, the packaging of such a physical material products has, for many, maintained a romantic attraction.

A recurring theme is the role of record collectors in relation to vinyl, including the early appeal of the format; the manner in which mid-1970s’ independent labels artificially created rare and exclusive vinyl records targeting the collector market (78–81); and the factors behind its continued appeal today.

This study of vinyl as both a recording format and a material cultural artefact is an informative and entertaining read. Throughout, Osborne’s discussion is replete with numerous instructive examples of the different practices and recordings.

Case study 3: Hynde autobiography

Throughout the textbook I have drawn on popular music biographies and autobiographies as a key resource. This is particularly the case in relation to making music (Chapter 3) and narratives of the ‘rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle’. A recent addition to this literature is Chrissie Hynde’s autobiography, Reckless.

In 1978 Hynde formed the Pretenders, which eventually consisted of lead guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, bass player Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers. Hynde played rhythm guitar, was the lead vocalist, and wrote most of the band’s songs. ‘With their initial records, the group crossed the bridge between punk/new wave and Top 40 pop more than any other band, recording a series of hard, spiky singles that were also melodic and immediately accessible’ (Erlewine, 1995: 617).

Only the last few chapters of Reckless cover the Pretenders, though these provide an informative and, at times, both a harrowing and moving account of the problems of drug abuse; the demands of touring, performing, and recording; and the loss of  band members. The majority of Hynde’s account deals with growing up in Akron, Ohio, her rejection of the mainstream culture, and her experiences in the American counter culture. As a student at Kent State, she witnesses the killing of four students when the National Guard open fire on a student rally. She is sexually assaulted by bikers, an episode she attributes to her naivety and, in the view of some readers of the book, tends to downplay:

“Now, let me assure you that, technically speaking, however you want to look at it, this was all my doing and I take full responsibility.” “You can’t fuck around with people, especially people who wear ‘I Heart Rape’ and ‘On Your Knees’ badges ... I considered their demand[s] while sustaining a volley of lit matches, which bounced off my rib rack”(119). As reviewer Jude Rogers observed in The Guardian: ‘These remarks about the assault on her 21-year-old self, by a biker gang, have recently melted the internet, Hynde’s feminism not being that tolerant of the concept of victimhood. “The good thing about Quaaludes: I wasn’t duly perturbed,” she (Hynde) continues. “I was getting experience”’ (Rogers, 2015; quoting page 120).

Music is central to her adolescence; aged 14, she sees the Rolling Stones in Cleveland and later, in September 1972, she is at David Bowie’s opening concert for the Ziggy Stardust American tour. Of this period, Hynde observes: ‘Bands were everything, nothing else mattered’ (47). Moving to the London in the early 1970s, Hynde has a stint writing for NME and becomes immersed in the developing punk scene. Living in Ladbroke Grove, she meets members of emerging bands, notably the Sex Pistols, the Dammed, and the Clash (whom she accompanies on a UK tour); as well as Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood (working briefly in their shop), Don Letts, and Lemmy (Motorhead).

Her initial attempts to form a band prove frustrating, although they do produce the all-important rehearsal space: ‘the number one stumbling block for most bands’ (228). The coming together of the Pretenders owed much to contacts and circumstances. Recommended by Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott was the ‘guitar hero’ Hynde had been looking for. Listening to their initial batch of six demos: ‘the songs had taken on another life. These weren’t my songs anymore – they were ours. James Honeyman-Scott was the one I’d been searching for. It was him’ (235). Gerry Mcilduff, the drummer on the demo recordings, was dumped: ‘He was a couple of years older than us and had other responsibilities, and I wasn’t happy if anyone had an agenda that took precedence over the band. But that wasn’t the main thing: he got the job done but musically something just didn’t fit’ (24). He was replaced by Martin Chambers, who Honeyman-Scott and Farndon knew from growing up in Hereford.

The band’s first single, a version of Ray Davies’ (the Kinks) “Stop Your Sobbing”, produced by Nick Lowe and released on Stiff Records, made it into the UK Top 40 in early 1979. Their next two singles, “Kid” and “Brass in Pocket” also charted, with “Brass” reaching no. 14 in the US (and topping the charts in the UK in late 1979). Their self-titled debut album was released in 1980, reaching no. 1 in the UK and the top ten in the US, where the band toured during 1980. Many critics regarded it as the best debut album of the year. Following an EP (extended play) release in 1981, the band released their second album, Pretenders II.

In June of 1982 Farndon was kicked out of the band, because of his escalating drug abuse problems. Two days later, Honeyman-Scott was found dead of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Now pregnant with partner Ray Davies’ child, Hynde went into seclusion. In 1983 Farndon also died of a drug overdose. Hynde reformed the Pretenders at the end of 1983 and they have continued to perform and record, primarily as a vehicle for her song writing: ‘I kept the band going’ loosely speaking. Different line-ups and producers have seen me through and it’s always a pleasure to do the old songs’ (epilogue, 303).

References

Stephen Thomas Erlewine (1995) ‘The Pretenders’, All Music Guide to Rock, San Francisco: Miller Freeman, pp.617–618. (AMG is now online).

Chrissie Hynde (2015) Reckless, London: Ebury Publishing.

Jude Rogers (2015) ‘Review of Reckless: The confessions of a great Pretender’, The Guardian online, 15 September.

Case study 4: Frank Zappa

Auteur status is not always dependent on chart success; indeead, the absence of ‘significant market volume’ is sometimes almost a necessary corollary of cult status and critical recognition. Frank Zappa, who died in 1993, is an example of such a cult figure. Zappa was a rock iconoclast whose career comprised more than 50 albums (including many double and triple sets), three feature films, three feature-length videos, and numerous side projects, including record labels and a merchandizing operation. Zappa self-consciously played with a variety of musical traditions, mutating them into something unique, often with ‘weird’ and not easily accessible results. Although best known for his guitar playing, he was proficient on a range of instruments.

In the mid-1960s, with his group the Mothers of Invention, Zappa developed a musical style that was musically wildly eclectic and thematically weighted to political debate and satire. His subsequent work included many milestones in rock. Freak Out in 1966 was the first rock double album, one of the first concept LPs, and an acknowledged influence on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Freak Out also introduced Zappa’s brand of political parody and social commentary, with songs like ‘Who Are the Brain Police?’ The album reached BillBoard’s Top 200 album chart and established Zappa and the Mothers as ‘underground’ figures. Absolutely Free (1967) is a contender for the first rock opera and carried on Zappa’s lampooning of American hypocrisy and conservatism: ‘Plastic People’ and ‘America Drinks and Goes Home’. In the same year, the album We’re Only In It For The Money satirized psychedelia and the hippy era and sent up the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper.

In subsequent work, on solo albums and with the Mothers of Invention, Zappa continued to explore the same themes. He mixed satire and send-ups with ‘serious’ political commentary and dazzling musicianship, while milling a miscellany of musical genres and utilizing the talents of well-known musicians, including violinist and composer Jean Luc Ponty, Little Feat’s Lowell George, drummer Aynsley Dunbar, vocalists Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan (both ex-Turtles, later Flo and Eddie), and guitar virtuoso Steve Vai. The breadth of this group of performers is indicative of Zappa’s range of musical interests. He formed his own labels on which he recorded and promoted Alice Cooper (whose debut LP is on Straight) and Captain Beefheart (whose Trout Mask Replica Zappa also produced). Zappa’s score for rock group and orchestra, 200 Motels, was launched in 1971, while the London Symphony Orchestra recorded two albums of Zappa’s work in 1983.

The keystones of Zappa’s work were his control over this variety of projects, his composing skills, and his mastery of production technology. In his autobiography, Zappa recounts the problems the Mothers of Invention had with their record company, MGM, and industry sharp practices such as pressing plant overruns: ‘We went through a major legal struggle with MGM over royalties on those first LPs. It took about eight years to resolve’. There were also problems caused by MGM censoring the Mothers’ lyrics without their knowledge or consent. By 1984 Zappa had sued two industry giants, CBS and Warner, and had learned a lot more about ‘creative accounting practices’ (Zappa, 1990: 83). Such experiences led Zappa to emphasize retaining control over all facets of his work. Indeed, Zappa’s degree of control over the musicians in his bands, and the extent of his involvement in particular projects, became legendary.

Zappa was the most prominent rock musician to speak out against moves in the US to censor rock. He argued for the basic right of free speech under the Constitution, seeing the PMRC (Parents’ Music Resource Center) proposals for record ratings as ‘ill-conceived nonsense’ based on totally false notions of the effects of popular music (Zappa, 1990; and see Chapter 14 of the textbook on this episode, moral panic, and popular music). Zappa, as always, injected a sense of humour into a serious message: his subsequent 1986 Grammy award-winning Jazz From Hell carried a sticker warning against offensive lyrics; the album is purely instrumental!

Though seen primarily as a cult figure, receiving critical acclaim from music critics and his fellow musicians, Zappa also achieved some commercial success: his 1974 solo album Apostrophe (’) was certified gold in the US, making no. 10 in the Billboard chart, while the single from it, ‘Don’t Eat the Yellow Snow’, was Zappa’s first in Billboard’s Hot 100 (even if only reaching no. 86). His classical compositions, particularly The Perfect Stranger and Other Works, and his electronic recordings sold well.

Interest in his work has remained steady, as indicated by the current availability of the bulk of his albums on CD and the success of the compilation Strictly Commercial (1995). In addition, since his death in December 1993, the Zappa Family trust has released 38 posthumous albums, culled from a wealth of unreleased studio and live recordings. In October 2015 it was announced that Universal Music were releasing 16 ‘essential’ Frank Zappa albums as digital downloads.

But commercialism is not what Zappa was primarily about. At times, he almost deliberately eschewed success by opting for ‘bad taste’ and its attendant lack of airplay. Rather he fulfilled the criteria of the genuinely creative artist – conceding the ultimate subjectivity and social construction of ‘creativity’ – and was concerned with exploring and extending the dimensions of the ‘rock’ form. Accordingly, although his output was variable in quality, Zappa’s talent and auteur status in popular music is widely recognized. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995 and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. In 2004 Rolling Stone magazine ranked him at 71 in its list of “The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time”.

References and further resources

Miles, B. (2004) Frank Zappa: A Biography, London: Atlantic.

Watson, B. (2005) Frank Zappa: The Complete Guide to His Music, London: Omnibus.

Zappa, F. (1990) The Real Frank Zappa Book, London: Pan Books.

Strictly Commercial. The Best of Frank Zappa, Ryodisc, 1995 (compilation CD).

There is an excellent biographical profile of Zappa on Wikipedia, along with an extensive discography.

Web site

Official web site: www.zappa.com

Case study 5: Music on stamps

As noted in the introduction to Chapter 5, there are many forms of popular musical texts. An additional one, not mentioned there, is postage stamps to feature music.

The following is a brief case study, with reference to the UK.

This topic can be developed further by students, especially in relation to the related issues from their own country.

Music on your mail

Postage stamps have been widely used since the penny black was issued by Great Britain in 1840. Many states use the issues of their postage stamps as a form of publicity or propaganda (as with Germany during the Third Reich). Stamps are also an important way of documenting a country’s history, nature, and culture. Stamp collecting is one of the world’s leading hobbies.

Music and musicians have regularly featured on stamp issues, especially more recently with the proliferation of commemorative sets in many countries. Often these appear on attractive first day covers or in illustrated presentation packs, with many covers featuring special postmarks associated with the event or figure commemorated. As might be anticipated, most early music on stamps issues were of classical composers, with countries such as Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany issuing commemoratives of their historically significant composers.

The UK

In the UK there were a few music-themed stamps issued as part of wider sets, such as the 1972 Anniversaries issue, which featured composer and conductor Ralph Vaughan Williams on the 9d value. The first issue devoted entirely to music was, I think, the 1980 British Conductors set of four stamps. Later, an attractive 1985 Europe Music Year issue of four stamps featured Handel, Holst, Delius, and Edward Elgar. In 1992 a set of five stamps commemorated the 150th birth anniversary of composer Sir Arthur Sullivan and the Gilbert and Sullivan Operas (The Pirates of Penzance; The Mikado, etc).

Later, issues began to feature musicians from pop and rock, most notably the Beatles (in 2007). The Beatles’ issue commemorated the first meeting of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, in 1957. The six stamps each depicted a Beatles album cover; there was also a four stamp miniature sheet showing some of the memorabilia produced for fans of the band and their first single, ‘Love Me Do’. The issue proved hugely popular in the UK; it also sold well overseas, especially in countries such as Australia and New Zealand where the Beatles had toured and there remained a strong fan following for the iconic band. In January 2010 the Royal Mail issued a set of ten stamps celebrating ‘Classic Album Covers’ and the work of their designers. A set of eight stamps issued on 24 February 2011 looked back at more than seven decades of popular stage musicals, which had all enjoyed long runs in London’s West End. The set included ‘We Will Rock You’ based on the songs of Queen, written by Ben Elton in collaboration with group members Brian May and Roger Taylor; ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’, written by Richard O’Brien; and ‘Billy Elliot’, with music by Elton John and lyrics by Lee Hall, a show based on the hit film.

For current UK issues:  www.royalmail.com/stamps

Elsewhere

Other stamps to feature popular music include the US issues for The Year of The Blues (2003); their Elvis Presley commemorative stamp (1992), reportedly still the biggest selling stamp issued by the US postal service; and The Legends of American Music series: the country & western issue includes Hank Williams, the Carter Family, Patsy Cline, and Bob Wills. Australian Post has put out stamps featuring local 1950s’ rock ‘n’ roll performers and New Zealand also commemorated the local advent of rock ‘n’ roll.

Choosing which artists and musical genres to celebrate represents a form of canonization. The particular image of Elvis Presley used for the 1992 US issue was decided by public vote between pictures of the ‘young’ and the ‘old’ singer: see The Smithsonian Postal Museum: www.postalmuseum.si.edu/

Such is the number of music stamps, that there are several special catalogues listing them and several major collections can be seen on the web.

Activities

1. Who (and how) decides which events, figures, topics etc. are to be featured on your country’s stamps?

2. Have there been any music related issues? (and, if so, why these?)

3. What do you think of the decision to modify the picture used of Robert Johnson? (Textbook, Chapter 4, page 64).

4. Find out which artists feature on other issues in the American Music series (Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jazz, Popular Singers, etc); do you agree with the choices made? Can a case be made for other artists?

Case study 6: Harry Smith

Harry Smith’s Anthology (authenticity and canonical status)

Perhaps the best known example of cultural preservation during the early period of record collecting is Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music. Not only did it make a significant impact in the years immediately following its release, it has come to acquire canonical status. Commenting on its 1997 re-release, Rolling Stone critic David Fricke observed: ‘Today, it is impossible to overstate the historic worth, sociocultural impact and undiminished vitality of the music in this set’ (Fricke, Rolling Stone, 1997: 101; cited in Skinner, 2006: 57). This reputation rests in part on the perceived authenticity of many of the recordings included in the Anthology.

Born in 1923 in Portland, Oregon, Smith grew up in and around Seattle, Washington. In 1940 he began to collect commercially released blues and country 78s from the 1920s and 1930s; records that were often cheaply available in thrift shops. In 1951 Moses Asch, founder of Folkways Records (see Carlin, 2008), met the bohemian collector and convinced Smith to assemble an anthology from his collection, which by this time numbered tens of thousands. Accepting a much-needed two hundred dollar advance, Smith assembled 84 recordings by mostly forgotten performers on an anthology he entitled American Folk Music. Including recordings originally released by such still active labels as Columbia, Brunswick, and Victor, the compilation was released by Folkways Records as three double LPs, re-titled the Anthology of American Folk Music, in 1952. It included an extensive 26-page booklet by Smith, ‘American Folk Music’. In this he briefly detailed the origins, history, and meaning of each song; along with who recorded it, when, and where; and the details of its original issue and catalogue numbers. The entries were interspersed with images of historical period photographs, reprints of old advertisements, and other period illustrations. The booklet included a bibliography of Smith’s sources and represented a work of considerable scholarship.

Due in part to Folkways limited distribution, the Anthology was largely unavailable commercially and the expensive set did not sell well. Indeed, Asch’s ledger books demonstrate that Anthology sales remained consistently low through its lifespan with the label (Skinner, 2006: 57). Nonetheless, the Anthology had an extensive impact, becoming a founding document (Marcus, 1997) and the ‘musical constitution’ (Cantwell, 1996) for the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s. It songs influenced performers such as Roger McGuinn (the Byrds), Gerry Garcia (the Grateful Dead), and, in particular, Bob Dylan: ‘I heard that record [the Anthology] early on when it was very difficult to find those kinds of songs … That’s where the wealth of folk music was, on that particular record. For me, on hearing it, was all these songs to learn. It was the language, the poetic language – it’s all poetry, every single one of those songs, without a doubt, and the language is different than current language, and that’s what attracted me to it in the first place’ (MOJO, 1998: 64).

In 1991 Smith, who died that year, received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards (in New York) for his work on ‘folk’ music, including the Anthology. In 1997 the Anthology was reissued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings and received two Grammy Awards. In 2000 an intended fourth volume finally appeared, issued on two CDs (Revenant); the liner notes include a 1968 interview with Smith. In 2007 a tribute album indicated the Anthology’s continued legacy as a critical document for folk revivalists and the loosely associated and increasingly prominent Americana/Alt. country genres.

References

Cantwell, Robert (1996) When We Were Good: The Folk Revival, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Carlin, Richard (2008) Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways, New York: Smithsonian Books/Collins.

Marcus, Greil (1997) Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes, chapter 4: ‘The Old Weird America’, London: Macmillan.

MOJO, February 1998; Bob Dylan interviewed by Serge Kaganski.

Skinner, Katherine (2006) ‘Must Be Born Again; Resurrecting the Anthology of American Folk Music’, Popular Music, 25(2): 57ff.

Case study 7: Britpop

From Popular Music Culture: Key Concepts (Shuker, 2012), but slightly edited, I provide here a brief sketch to be developed by students. One interesting line of inquiry is why Britpop ‘ended’ (or did it really?!), and why it has continued to generate interest.

Britpop

This is a general label applied to the British guitar-based pop/rock bands of the 1990s, initially by the UK music press, with a distinctively British musical aesthetic. Britpop was a loose constituency of several distinct music styles. Performers looked for inspiration to 1960s’ British pop/rock bands such as the Beatles, the Who, and the Kinks; post-punk British rock of the 1980s (the Smiths, the Jam), elements of glam rock (T. Rex was an acknowledged influence), and British ‘new pop’ of the 1980s. From an American perspective, Britpop has been described, not unfairly, as a ‘defiantly nationalistic anti-grunge movement’. Whereas grunge had idealised an anti-star approach, Britpop was regarded as ‘firmly cemented in snotty arrogance and aspirations to stardom’ (‘The Empire Gobs Back’, Rolling Stone, Year Book 1995: 32–34).  Major Britpop bands included Blur, Suede, Pulp, and, above all, Oasis; with the label also applied to Ash, Echobelly, and Ride, among others.  Along with electronic dance music, Britpop dominated the British charts through the 1990s, with Oasis’s debut album one of the biggest selling records in UK history. Oasis also succeeded in the American market, where Morning Glory sold 3.26 million copies during 1995–6, supported by extensive touring there, but otherwise Britpop had only limited impact in the US.  Through its leader Tony Blair, the (then in) opposition New Labour Party cultivated connections to Britpop, which it invoked as symbolic of the need to reinvigorate British culture and the economy.

In a major study of Britpop, Harris (2003) argues that the groups who defined it ended up shifting British indie rock from its ideological and aesthetic traditions into the commercial mainstream of UK music.  His account traces its rise, success, and dilution into a celebration of Britishness for its own sake, and a decline from artistic endeavor into drug-fueled indulgence (notably in the case of Oasis). 

While several Britpop bands remain intermittently active (Blur, Oasis), Britpop as a generic label is now generally regarded as a historical curiosity.  There continues to be considerable popular and academic interest in it, focusing on questions of its antecedents, its constitution in terms of class and gender, and its legacy.

References and additional resources

Baxter-Moore, N. (2006) ‘This is Where I Belong: Identity, Social Class, and the Nostalgic Englishness of Ray Davies and The Kinks’, Popular Music and Society, 29(2): 145–165.

Bennett, A. and Stratton, J. (eds) (2010) Britpop and the English Music Tradition, Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate.

Britpop. (2009) London: Mojo.

Cloonan, M. (1997) ‘State of the Nation: “Englishness”, Pop, and Politics in the Mid 1990s’, Popular Music and Society, 21(2): 47–70.

Harris, J. (2003) The Last Party: Britpop, Blair and the Demise of English Rock, London: Fourth Estate.

Roy Shuker (2012) Popular Music Culture. The Key Concepts, 3rd edition, London and New York: Routledge.

Listening

Blur, Parklife, Capitol/Food Records, 1994.

Oasis, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? Creation, 1995.

Suede, self-titled debut, Columbia/Nude Records, 1993.

Viewing

Live Forever. The Rise and Fall of Britpop, DVD, 2003.

Case study 8: Marketing to collectors

A range of marketing practices emerged amongst the early record companies. While these were largely oriented towards the general market, most also targeted the dedicated music collector and several did so almost exclusively. The most obvious marketing strategy was the production of catalogues and other advertising material, with Victor, Zonophone and Columbia all publishing company catalogues and monthly record supplements from the early 1900s. These alerted retailers and collectors to what was available and also to what was not; consequently, collectors often lobbied companies to release recordings of particular repertoires/performers.

One important promotional strategy was the production of ‘celebrity’ discs (by better-known artists), which were sold at a higher price, adding to their cultural cachet. The Gramophone Company of Great Britain released a number of these between 1920 and 1925. They featured different colored labels, representing different prices, ‘which in turn reflected the eminence of the performers’ (see Copeland, 1991: 39; he includes colour illustrations of many of these recordings). Perhaps the best-known example of this music industry practice is the well-documented Red Seal recordings. A related marketing practice, since it frequently featured celebrity recordings, was the very successful subscription service introduced in the UK by HMV in 1931. This collected subscription advances for significant but as yet unrecorded classical compositions, making them only when the required commercially viable number of subscribers had been reached – a strategy especially appropriate in the depression years.

A further strategy was the release of picture discs, first produced in the 1920s by companies in Germany, Great Britain, and the US. The best-known are those released by Vogue, in 1946–7, in a limited series (of 74) that became highly collectable. The often visually striking picture discs appealed to collectors attracted by their aesthetics. They also attracted the interest of those who wanted a fuller collection of their preferred performer(s), and had the appeal of a bounded series, with at least the possibility of completion. Usually available commercially, picture discs became a more extensive and established part of the industry’s promotional apparatus in the 1980s, although they became less prominent in the digital age.

Since the 1950s, smaller record labels – the independents – have targeted the collectors market, since they were willing to release (or re-release) material in smaller pressings that larger companies considered non-commercial. This practice was strongly evident with jazz and blues and was part of the advent of rock ‘n’ roll in the 1950s.  The cult status of 1960s’ garage rock is linked to the Nuggets and Pebbles compilation series, which rescued many recordings from obscurity. In the US, labels such as Rhino and Sundazed have enjoyed commercial success with well-packaged compilations and reissues. In the 1970s, the emergence of the new independent labels in the UK was partly in response to collector and fan interest in punk music. Chiswick owner Ted Carroll ran a record shop specialising in oldies and saw the music of emerging punk performers as ideal material for his customers: ‘I know there wasn't a large market for such groups, but felt sure there would be a small, but large enough collector’s market’ (cited in Laing, 1985: 10). Other punk and post-punk oriented labels, such as Rough Trade and Factory Records, also targeted record collectors, with a range of distinctive packaging practices and various release formats.

In the 1980s, limited 7 inch vinyl singles became a standard way to launch new bands, while the limited 12 inch single remained essential to the DJ and dance market. As the Rare Record Price Guide observed (2002 edition: 7): ‘there have been a steady stream of instant collectables over the past decade, either as part of indie-label singles clubs, or as  “split” singles, combining two acts from different labels on the same record. All these items are likely to rise in value in the future, and many are already appearing in the Rare Record Price Guide.’

Writing in 2007, Ian De Whalley extensively documented how the bulk of reissued vinyl albums remains ‘largely driven’ by the specialist labels. One example of a calculated promotional strategy, was Beggars Banquet’s inclusion of a new White Stripes single as a cover mount with every copy of the iconic UK music magazine NME. The label’s production manager, Greg Muir explained: ‘The NME track is on red vinyl etched with a picture of Meg White and is in a double gatefold sleeve. To complete the package we will be selling a white vinyl Icky Thump [The White Stripes new album] with Jack’s face on it through regular record shops. We don’t necessarily expect that every NME reader will want to complete the set, but we expect all White Stripes fans will do, and lots of collectors too’ (De Whalley, 2007: 71).

The repertoire and release strategies of major record companies are usually more focused on the mainstream market and historically they have at times been slow to recognize the commercial potential of niche/collector markets. This changed with the success of their indie counterparts in the late 1970s; the majors began extensive reissue programmes, drawing on their often extensive back catalogues and also began to pay more attention to licensing possibilities. While this was heavily oriented towards CDs, vinyl releases have been prominent and continue to be featured. For example, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the vinyl album, HMV (UMG) announced the reissue of a series of classic albums, cleverly titled Back To Black, remastered in 180 gram vinyl. Illustrating the increasing combination of formats as a marketing strategy, purchasers also got a download option.

Record companies have continued to produce a range of commodity forms and packaging aimed largely at collectors; these include picture discs, picture sleeves, boxed sets, and a wide range of promotional items (Thompson 2002, has an extensive discussion of these).

References and further resources

Copeland, P. (1991) Sound Recordings, London: The British Library.

De Whalley, C. (2007) ‘Back to the Future: The Reissues Industry’, Record Collector: June.

Laing, D. (1985) One Chord Wonders: Power and Meaning in Punk Rock, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. [This has been republished in 2015, by PM Press.]

Thompson, D. (2002) The Music Lover’s Guide to Record Collecting, San Francisco: Backbeat Books.

Contemporary developments can be followed in the various music magazines (see Chapter 10), notably Record Collector, which frequently include advertisements for the labels mentioned here.

Case study 9: Rock (stage) musicals

Popular/rock stage musicals

Stage musicals are a historically well-established and popular cultural form. In the late 1960s, following the success of Hair (1967), the term ‘rock musical’ became employed by many New York critics to identify ‘any stage show with even the slightest hint of popular styles’ (Warfield, 2008: 235). Beginning in the 1970s, an ever-increasing number of Broadway shows had rock-influenced scores, for example Chess (1988), ‘yet very few of them – and no commercially successful shows for nearly two decades – was ever promoted as ‘rock musicals”’ (ibid.: 242; nonetheless, he outlines a number of common features that identify what is an extremely loose category).

Although the first musical to include songs in a rock ‘n’roll styles was Bye Bye Birdy (1960), Hair (1967) is widely regarded as the first rock musical.  It was followed by a succession of imitators; among the most successful were Your Own Thing (1968) and Salvation (1969). The early 1970s, argues Warfield, was a high watermark for the rock musical, with the considerable success of Godspell (musical: 1971; film: dir. David Greene, 1973), and Jesus Christ Superstar (1970), and Grease (1972). The last abandoned the usual Broadway marketing model, following up the successful release of a double album.

In the UK, The Rocky Horror Show (1973) and its subsequent film version The Rocky Horror Picture Show (dir. Jim Sharman, 1975), exemplify the cult status rock musicals can attain. Written by New Zealander Richard O’Brien, Rocky Horror was first produced as an experimental work for the Theatre Upstairs, opening at the Royal Court Theatre, London, on 16 June 1973. Tim Curry, who had starred in Hair, played the part of Dr Frank N Furter, ‘a sweet transvestite from Transsexual in Transylvania’, a modern-day rock-oriented Frankenstein, hard at work on his creation, a boy called Rocky. O’Brien himself played Riff Raff, the devoted servant. The London critics enthused and the fans queued. After a short initial run the show continued in larger theatres. Opening at the King’s Road Theatre in Chelsea on 31 October 1973, The Rocky Horror Show ran for seven years. The show won critical praise, awards, and a cult audience, many of whom went again and again (I saw it twice in 1974; and several more times over the years). The long-running show also proved highly successful when staged in Los Angeles and other centres.

Rocky Horror was about the fantasy-fun side of popular music, demanding that its audience let go the restraints of everyday reality and have a good time. O’Brien had blended aspects of late-night science fiction and horror movies on television, Dr Strange comics, and rock history for inspiration. He had spent a year playing in Hair and wanted his own rock opera to reflect, not spirituality, but the sexuality of rock, and developed the songs and dialogue accordingly.

Later successful rock musicals included Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story (1989), Smokey Joe’s Café (1994) – a revue of songs by Leiber and Stoller, Blood Brothers (London, 1983, 1988 revival; New York, 1993), Mama Mia and Rent (1996). More recently, there have been long running international productions of the Who’s Tommy. The Musical (notably Broadway, 1993; the production won five Tony Awards, including one for Pete Townshend for best original score). In mid-2015, musicals on in London’s West End included Sunny Afternoon (Ray Davies; the Kinks), which won the Olivier Award for Best New Musical, The Commitments, and Beautiful (the music of Carole King).

Aside from their income from their audience attendance, soundtrack recordings from such shows have consistently featured among top selling albums. In 2014, the long-running Lion King became the top money earning musical (surpassing Phantom of the Opera). Disney’s tale of the lion cub Simba has grossed more than US$6.2 billion (press reports, September 2014).

Warfield concludes that the imprecision of the designation ‘rock musical’, ‘confirms the desire of producers to exploit the popularity of rock, while simultaneously suppressing its rebellious spirit and most extreme sounds’ (247). Despite the commercial and critical success of a number of ‘rock musicals’, they remain an oddly neglected topic within popular music studies.

References

Warfield, S. (2008) ‘From Hair to Rent: is “rock” a four-letter word on Broadway?’, in W. Everett and P. Laird (eds), The Cambridge Companion to the Musical, Cambridge: CUP.

Weinstock, J. (2007) The Rocky Horror Picture Show, London: Wallflower Press.

Case study 10: Goldmine

When Goldmine and Record Collector (UK) magazines first appeared in the mid to late 1970s, the ‘hobby’ of record collecting remained disorganized. There was a general lack of accessible information to guide the collector, especially in relation to discographies of favorite artists and the prices for recordings. General guides and price guides were not widely available until the 1980s. Fanzines provided some guidance, but were not always easily obtained and tended to be irregular and at times short-lived.

The US-based record collecting magazine Goldmine was first issued in September 1974 by Brian Bukantis of Arena Publishing. Originally an eight-page advertising tabloid, its early subtitle was ‘The Record Collector’s Marketplace’; later this became ‘For Record Collectors Everywhere’, then ‘The Collector’s Record and Compact Disc Marketplace’. Published roughly every two months, it expanded its market from issue number 12 (no cover date, but published in 1975) with the inclusion of previous subscribers to the Record Collector’s Journal, which had ceased publication due to a lack of advertising revenue. Editorial content in the magazine gradually increased, along with the amount of advertising. During its formative period, Goldmine had a strong emphasis on 1950s’ genres such as doo wop.

With issue 29, October 1978, Rick Whitesell became editor. In common with nearly all of the early editors and writers for collecting publications, he was a record collector and music lover. With issue 60, May 1981, Jeff Tamarkin took over as editor, continuing until around 1996, though the role tended to be spread among several staff, especially after Goldmine was sold to Krause publications in 1983. Tamarkin was a respected rock journalist and had previously been a Goldmine freelance writer. Looking back on his editorship, and its relationship to his collecting, he reminisced in 2004:

‘It’s funny, this collecting thing. Although at one time I owned more than 10,000 records and probably half that many CDs (I have since jettisoned a lot of the vinyl), I never considered myself a collector. I was more of an accumulator. When people described record collecting as a “hobby,” I always winced. To me it was not a hobby like collecting coins or Star Trek memorabilia. To me it was a lifestyle, a passion. I did not seek out records because they were rare or valuable … all I ever cared about was the music. My job as editor of Goldmine introduced me to so much of it, in every genre, from every period. Goldmine to me has always been about the quest, and for three decades it has helped countless thousands satisfy their own quests, whatever they might be’ (18).

A colour cover was introduced in 1983 and the magazine became two-weekly in 1984. By 1987, circulation had topped 20,000, with 11,000 subscribers (the remaining copies were sold through record shops). By the mid-1990s, circulation had reached 35,000, with the length of issues consistently around 200 pages. Some issues sold more due to the appeal/collectability of particular artists featured, as with the Tori Amos cover issue (368, in 1994).

In the late 1980s, Goldmine expanded its operations to included price guides, which remain a substantial part of magazine publisher Krause’s catalogue. Its 25th Anniversary issue (Issue 501, 8 October 1999) indicated the scope of Goldmine around that time. Now edited by Greg Loescher, the large A4 format and 184 page magazine covered an impressive range of editorial content and advertising. Now regular columns were ‘Please Mr. Postman’ (letters to the editor), Grapevine (a news digest), Record Show listings, a Store Directory, New Releases, and Reissues. Advertising makes up the bulk of the content, with a range of categories. Unit Space advertisements are the most extensive; these are supplied camera ready and often reduced to fit the available space. The resulting small print, often hand annotated, make readers’ perusal of them for possible additions to one’s collection difficult, but a ritualistic part of the effort put into the search. Also substantial (13pp. in this issue) is the Collectors’ Showcase section – boxed advertisements that are typeset by Goldmine. A feature article on Stevie Wonder was typical of the in-depth research-based treatment accorded cover artists (pp.14–20; 28; author Craig Wenner; Tim Neely, the magazine’s Research Director and Price Guide editor, supplies a discography of Wonder’s US releases). By this point, the magazine also had a web site.

Goldmine is still published by Krause (based in Iola, Wisconsin), a leading publisher of leisure, hobby, and collector periodicals and books. It covers ‘collectible records, CDs, and music memorabilia covering rock & roll, blues, country, folk, and jazz.’ (The web site provides an introduction to the magazine’s coverage and associated activities.) It is available as a hard copy and as a digital download. The magazine has continued with much the same mix of columns, features and advertising material The July 2015 issue features an interview with Ringo Star; features on John Lydon and Richie Furay; a retrospective ‘spotlight’ on Paul Revere and the Raiders; and the usual obituaries, record fairs and show listings, and reviews.

It remains the dominant North American record collecting publication and its claim to be ‘the world’s largest marketplace for collectible records’ is challenged only by the UK-based Record Collector.

Reference

Tamarkin, Jeff (2004) ‘Former Goldmine Head Honcho’s Reminiscence’, Goldmine, 1 October, p.18.

Web site

www.goldminemag.com

Case study 11: Memorabilia

Memorabilia can be defined as cultural artefacts not to be forgotten – that is, memorable – and accordingly regarded as worthy of preservation and collection. There are a large range of music collectables: various records, including promotional copies and gold discs; musical instruments; autographs; tour programmes; posters; tour jackets and concert tickets and t-shirts, plus novelty toys and a whole range of ephemera marketed around groups such as the Beatles and the Monkees in the 1960s, Kiss in the 1980s, the Spice Girls in the 1990s, and more recently One Direction. The motivations for collecting memorabilia include investment, cultural preservation, nostalgia, and the desire to acquire cultural capital and status through owning top-selling items.

By the late 1980s, rock and pop memorabilia had become a rapidly growing field of collecting. The first such auction, held in London in 1981, included John Lennon’s upright Steinway piano. As major auction houses included such items, this field of collecting gained credibility and respectability, and prices began to rise. In 1988 a John Entwistle (the Who’s bass player) guitar, used on the group’s BBC Top of the Pops appearances in the early 1970s, fetched £15,000. Later, tapes of very early Rolling Stones’ and Beatles’ ‘performances’, and instruments such as the guitar used by Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, realized then record prices. The majority of early interest was in items related to the Beatles and Elvis Presley, but other artists soon attracted interest, especially those from the 1950s and the 1960s, while the death of a prominent artist lends great appeal to collectability (as occurred with Michael Jackson memorabilia in 2009–10).

The appeal of memorabilia is based on the romantic aura of musical artifacts, especially when these offer the owner a tangible connection with the original artist, while some objects also have considerable historical significance. Collectors will supplement their recordings with related memorabilia, which at times become a significant part of their collection. A profile of Tony Prince refers to his ‘massive collection of memorabilia’, with ‘hundreds upon hundreds of objects’ throughout his house, including models, badges, mugs, and photo albums. Prince says how ‘buying Elvis Presley’s radio which he had before he was famous was an enormous thrill. The radio that he heard the records on which influenced his own music in later life has to be something truly important, right? I got that for 1500 quid at auction’ (Record Collector, June 2004: The Collector. Prince had been a leading DJ during the 1960s and 1970s, including spending 13 years with Radio Luxembourg.)

A number of books, many heavily illustrated, have documented the increased visibility of music memorabilia and the scope of collecting it (Dogget and Hodgson, 2003). A comparison of Marsh (2013) and the book’s first edition in 1999, show a steady increase in values for 1960s’ music memorabilia, especially Beatles related items.

Though music memorabilia from the 1960s continues to dominate the market, later periods and musical genre have begun to attract greater interest. A leading example is punk. In an overview of the scope and likely value of a range of collectable items, Tim Naylor observes that prices for punk memorabilia have risen rapidly in recent years: ‘The punk youthquake generated a huge amount of material that today exists as ephemera and memorabilia – arguably more than any other scene before or since. The wider availability of photocopiers in the mid-1970s, alongside the advent of affordable printing in shops on the high street, opened a world of possibilities to bands, promoters, fanzine writers and designers – posters, magazines, badges, flyers and cheaply designed T-shirts flooded out’ (Naylor, 2014).

Leading auction houses in London and New York (including Phillips, Christies, Bonhams) continue to conduct high profile regular sales. In addition to interest from private collectors, the emergence of ‘rock museums’ such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Experience Music Project and the international Hard Rock Café, have stimulated the market.

This case study draws in part from Roy Shuker (2010) Wax Trash and Vinyl Treasures: Record Collecting as a Social Practice, Farnham and Burlington: Ashgate

References

Dogget, P. and Hodgson, S. (2003) Christie’s Rock and Pop Memorabilia, New York: Billboard Books.

Marsh, Madeleine (2013) Miller’s Collecting the 1960s, London: Octopus, pp. 118–127.

Naylor, Tim (2014) ‘Collecting Punk Memorabilia’, Record Collector, October, pp. 62–73.

Case study 12: Dunedin Sound

The following study addresses the continued influence of the Dunedin Sound and the Flying Nun record label (see Case study with chapter 1), as well as illustrating the range of music making within a local music scene. It originally appeared, in slightly different form, as a book review in Perfect Beat.

Dan Bendrups and Graeme Downes (eds) (2011) Dunedin Soundings. Place and Performance, Dunedin: Otago University Press.

The clever title of this attractively produced edited book uses the iconic status of the ‘Dunedin Sound’ of the 1980s, associated primarily with the Flying Nun record label, to situate an examination of contemporary music making in Dunedin. As co-editor Dan Bendrups puts it: ‘While the Dunedin Sound may have little direct relationship to the artistic output of the performers and composers included in this book, it nevertheless permeates popular thought and academic discourse around music in New Zealand, and contemporary Dunedin musicians work within or around its shadow in many respects’ (10).

He goes on to provides a succinct summary of academic and populist literature on the Dunedin Sound, which demonstrates that the bands involved were part of a coherent scene based on live performances and were frequently supportive of each other’s work, while often drawing inspiration from it.

The link between past and present is the interface between composition and recording and practice and performance. The book’s touchstone and emphasis is that performance and composition actually constitute a process of research; a claim that is theoretically grounded in the first two chapters. Suzanne Little’s survey of practice and performance in the arts is at times heavy going, as the broad scope of the subject to a degree defeats her purpose. However, the extensive footnotes she provides document key texts and resources, enabling those looking for fuller discussions to follow up the topic. A different take is provided by John Drummond’s personal account of grappling with the merging of the creative artist as research practitioner, in which he amusingly makes a case for being able to describe ‘art’ using a scientific framework.

The middle section of the book covers ‘Music, Communication and Community’, providing an interesting and insightful series of case studies and personal reflections. Graeme Downes thoughtfully considers the song writing process in the Verlaines’ album Corporate Moronic (2009), revealing both his compositional techniques and shifting thematic lyrical concerns. Dunedin’s Puspawarna Gamelan ensemble, originating in Java and now based at Otago University, exemplifies the manner in which a musical cross fertilisation can fruitfully occur within a community. Shelley Brunt and Henry Johnson neatly document this as a process of trans-cultural engagement in community education and performance. A chapter on local jazz-fusion ensemble Subject2Change follows the shift in their repertoire from stylistic pastiche to a free improvisation aesthetic. Group members Dan Bendrups and Robert G. H. Burns examine the productive tensions present in relation to the immediate Dunedin context, with both opportunities and constraints, and wider trends in local and national jazz. ‘Remix culture’ is becoming an increasingly prominent part of the creation and dissemination of popular music, and John Egenes is a passionate advocate for the possibilities involved. Here he traces his own creative journey embracing working with like-minded fellow musicians in on-line networks, to produce both collaborative recordings and the possibility of future remixed versions of these recordings being placed on the Internet. Multi-instrumentalist and composer Trevor Coleman gives an engaging personal life story of his involvement in various forms of composition and performance, most notably film music and work with the Natural History New Zealand film productions. Moving back and forth between Dunedin and international locales, Coleman shows how he has been able to draw on knowledge and skills learned overseas and use these to inform local work.

The final section of the book consists of five chapters situated around issues of local identity, history and involvement in the New Zealand music industry. Anthony Ritchie provides a close textual analysis if his compositions in relation to themes shared with New Zealand poetry, primarily the representation of death. Peter Adams describes the unusual and innovative combination present in his composition for violin and brass band, ‘Concerta Burlesca’, showing how textural features in his work are aligned to broader discourses in New Zealand music. John Drummond considers his opera Lanarch, a tragedy based on the life and suicide of prominent 19th century local-businessman and politician William Lanarch. These three chapters instructively demonstrate the manner in which innovation can develop from making music respond to place.

The final two chapters engage with issues of musical production. Singer and vocal teacher Judy Bellingham provides a case study of the production of the DVD Songs of Old Dunedin. What sets this discussion apart from similar case studies, and makes it particularly informative (for me) is her emphasis on the role of entrepreneurship in the process. Local band and venue manager Scott Muir discusses his efforts to facilitate local music. A major initiative has been through his involvement in the creation of Dunedinmusic.com, aimed at generating broader interest. He sees this as an extension of the music community he experienced in the 1980s in Dunedin, but one that is more inclusive and less genre based.

A helpful feature of the book is the availability of many of the musical works discussed (and listed in an appendix: About the music) being stored on line and available through a permanent URL: http://www.otago.ac.nz/music/media A quick visit will whet the appetite for more information.

Dunedin Soundings is a very useful addition to the expanding but still limited academic literature on New Zealand popular music. While acknowledging the links to earlier music scenes and sounds, it moves us past the usual fixation on the historical ‘Dunedin Sound’ to a fascinating contemporary mosaic of local musical styles and sounds, and their composers and performers.

Case Study 13: Bruce Springsteen

Bruce Springsteen: Authenticity and music as cultural politics

Bruce Springsteen is an example of a performer who enjoys both star and auteur status, widely regarded as an articulate, committed artist, who is an outstanding songwriter and performer. Initially something of a cult figure, by 1985, with the huge success of his album Born in the USA (1984), ‘the Boss’ as he is known to his fans had become the most successful white rock star since Elvis. Here, I want to briefly indicate the significance of Bruce Springsteen as a political artist, in the broader sense of the term ‘political’.

At a general level, Springsteen’s success and standing in ‘rock culture’ is founded on authenticity: ‘If you want an artist whose work, both on record and onstage, compels a compassionate understanding of people’s lives – their emotions and imaginings, their jobs and their play – you have nowhere to go to in the realm of rock & roll but to Bruce Springsteen’ (DeCurtis, 1992: 619).

Springsteen has throughout his career used his position as a performer to support causes he shares. During his 1980s’ tours he promoted food banks and community groups, as well as frequently personally donating to these. He also supported the Vietnam Veterans of America, played at the 1979 No Nukes concert, and in 1988 headlined an Amnesty International Human Rights Tour; the last generated some 200,000 new members in the US alone for the organization dedicated to helping political prisoners. Though some saw the singer as helping to rejuvenate American populism, Springsteen firmly rejected President Reagan’s attempts to harness the star’s popularity to his 1984 re-election campaign. (See the discussion of ‘Born in the USA’, in Chapter 5: Musical texts.) More recently, he has supported the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama, who declared (in 2009) “While I’m the president, he’s the Boss”.

During the past 30 years, Springsteen’s songs have continued to paint lyrical images of America. The characters in his early albums were socially marginalized – drifters, hustlers and outlaws. His focus then moved to factory workers and mainstream working-class figures, but the spirit of the songs has remained the same. His work continues to run the gamut from nostalgia and melancholy to headlong idealism (see the contributions to Womack, Zolten, and Bernhard, eds. 2012).

References and further reading

Peter Ames Carlin (2012) Bruce, New York: Simon & Schuster. This well-researched, nearly 500 page study, was written with Springsteen’s cooperation.

Anthony DeCurtis (1992) The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, London: Plexis.

Clinton Heylin (2012) E STREET SHUFFLE. The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, London: Constable.

Kenneth Womack, Jerry Zolten, and Mark Bernhard (eds) (2012) Bruce Springsteen, Cultural Studies and the Runaway American Dream, Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate.

Listening

Born in the USA, Columbia, 1984.

The Rising, Columbia, 2002.

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Columbia, 2006.

Wrecking Ball, Columbia, 2012.

High Hopes, Columbia, 2014. This a collection of cover songs, out-takes, and reinterpretations of tracks from previous albums.

Web site

Official web site: www.brucespringsteen.net/

This contains extensive audio and video links.

Case study 14: Controversy – Chris Brown

As I write this, in October 2015, American singer Chris Brown is still awaiting immigration clearance to confirm his scheduled concert at Auckland’s Vector Arena on 18 December. In 2009 Brown attacked then girlfriend Rihanna in a sports car after the couple had left a pre-Grammy Awards party. Brown was convicted of assault and completed a sentence of five and a half years’ probation in March 2015.

His visit here (and also to Australia around the same time) has become the centre of a good deal of public discussion and controversy, especially within the Maori Party (which currently holds two seats in New Zealand’s Parliament, but has enjoyed more support in previous Parliaments; Maori make up some 15 per cent of the population). The Maori Party co-leader Marama Fox is at odds with her predecessor, Tariana Turia over the issue. Journalist Jo Moir outlined the arguments: ‘Maori Party leaders split on Chris Brown debate’ (Moir, 15 October, 2015, The Dominion Post).Fox backs those critics who argue that Brown’s domestic violence convictions should bar him from New Zealand. She told a TV current affairs programme that: ‘why should he be treated any different to any other person trying to come into New Zealand because of his celebrity’. The Dominion Post, the main Wellington paper, shared her view, in an ‘opinion piece’ (a shortened version is reproduced at the end of this case study; such pieces are uncredited, but, situated in the central section of the paper, are effectively an editorial).

Turia, on the other hand, called for Brown to be given the opportunity to convey an anti-violence message to the youth who wanted him to visit, noting that the usual channels for raising awareness of the issue of family violence did not often get through to youth. She said that she would write a letter of recommendation for the performer, because she believed he would speak of his past while in the country. Turia is well-known for her work over many years in trying to reduce domestic violence, which remains a serious problem in New Zealand, so her view carried some weight. Brown himself has tweeted that he is willing to raise awareness about domestic violence during his visits, and that “My life mistakes should be a wakeup call for everyone. Showing the world that mistakes don’t define you. Trying to prevent spousal abuse” (30 September 2015).

In spite of the immigration issue being unresolved, tickets for the concert are currently on sale.

The Dominion Post: Opinion. No special treatment for famous criminals

(15 October, 2015: A6).

Chris Brown shouldn’t be allowed to tour New Zealand. His 2009 assault on girlfriend Rihanna is too fresh and too horrible for him to expect to be treated like an innocent citizen.

The American musician has, however, shone a light on the murky and quixotic way our immigration laws treat celebrities with criminal convictions.

Brown’s brutal attack on his more famous girlfriend was widely condemned. New Zealand detests violence against women and it has the right to bar entry to foreign wife-beaters. If it lets them in just because they are celebrities, how can it avoid being called hypocritical?

Dame Tariana Turia and three other Maori women leaders say Brown is now a reformed character and could do some good by coming here. What better champion for the cause than a world-famous R&B/hip hop artist? He will get an audience that obscure old fogeys in New Zealand never could – or so the argument goes. 

The trouble is that Brown really doesn’t look as though he has changed his ways. It’s easy enough to send a couple of pious tweets, and he has. His “life mistakes should be a wake-up call for everyone”, he wrote. He could “raise awareness about domestic violence”.

These remarks would be more convincing if Brown also offered to donate a fittingly enormous sum to Women’s Refuge. They might persuade more people if he also offered to do a tour of marae and schools preaching against violence. It won’t really be enough to do a short “repentance” rap onstage and then depart with another heap of money.

Some say New Zealand is tough on black celebrity criminals, but not white. There is a case to be made. This year rock star Tommy Lee toured here with Motley Crue, despite his six-month jail sentence for battering his wife Pamela Anderson in 1998.

Case study 15: Policy – Liverpool

The textbook notes the importance of local popular music policy, mentioning the historical examples of studies of New York, Chicago, Sydney, and Melbourne. Space did not allow further treatment of this topic, so I have included an example here: Liverpool.

Liverpool has historically been widely associated with popular music in the UK and internationally through the impact of its bands, notably the Beatles in the 1960s. However, Liverpool bands traditionally left the city when they became successful. By the early 1980s, the city’s music industry was, according to an analysis by Sara Cohen, ‘extremely dilapidated’ (Cohen, 1991: 334). More generally, Liverpool’s economy was then in a depressed state; the city had steadily lost both jobs and population since the 1960s and unemployment was as high as 70–80 per cent in some areas.

Cohen places her discussion of popular music and urban regeneration in Liverpool through the 1980s in the context of the British debate over the contribution of the arts to such cultural policies. She observed that British cities and towns were ‘increasingly including the arts in their programmes of economic, physical and social regeneration, largely because the arts is one of the few areas that can still be supported (indirectly) from a mixture of European, Central and Local government funds’ (332). In Liverpool’s case, the problem was perceived as being not so much about the promotion of local musical talent, but ‘how to encourage successful local bands to stay in the city, how to improve the city’s music industry so that it can capitalise upon their earnings, and how to use popular music in other ways to regenerate the local economy’(334). The various music-related initiatives undertaken, largely generated by the local city council, included support for local music businesses and organizations involved in music education and training and community arts, along with local record labels, rehearsal space, and recording studios.

A 1987 report, commissioned by the council, proposed the establishment of a management and promotions company, City Beat, to identify, develop and market local talent, deal with legal and publishing matters on behalf of the artists involved, and encourage the development of a private sector music industry in Liverpool. The proposal drew criticism from those already offering such services and another report (Music City) was commissioned to examine existing services and resources and their development and the potential for partnerships between the council and other agencies. This work produced useful resources and knowledge on these aspects of the local music scene and a potential agenda for ongoing policy.

Later initiatives included the John Lennon Memorial concert staged in May 1991; the sale of a large chunk of the city centre to a London development company, Charterhouse, who proposed to create a cultural quarter or district, with a focus on music; and the setting up of the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, established and supported by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty and opened by the Queen in June 1996.

The discourse around these highlighted the tensions and conflicts that such cultural policies frequently engender, most notably local wariness towards developments imposed from outside, scepticism about the ability of the council to operate effectively with regard to the music industries, a potential split between high-status developments and activity at the grass roots level, and music industry scepticism about the role of training through formal educational institutions. Cohen demonstrates how these difficulties arose because the three key players involved – local government, education and the private sector – each had their own agenda and strategies regarding the arts and cultural industries. Nonetheless, the initiatives she describes did achieve some success and provided a basis to build on.

In her later book-length study, extending the story up until 2005, Cohen argues that, historically, ‘in Liverpool de-industrialization encouraged efforts to connect popular music to the city, to categorize, claim and promote it as local culture, and to harness and mobilize it as a local resource’, although ‘those efforts exposed and generated particular tensions and urban inequalities’ (Cohen, 2007: 6; see also Leonard and Strachan, 2010).

In sum, Liverpool exemplifies the possibilities offered by local councils understanding and being responsive to the local and the significance of locality as a possible marketing strategy. The most recent indicator of Liverpool’s willingness to support popular music is the move of the British Music Experience from London to Liverpool, where it will reopen in Easter 2016.

References

Cohen, S. (1991) ‘Popular Music and Urban Regeneration: The Music Industries of Merseyside’, Cultural Studies, 5(3): 332–346.

Cohen, S. (2007) Decline, Renewal and the City in Popular Music Culture: Beyond the Beatles, Basingstoke, Hants: Ashgate.

Leonard, M. and Stachan, R. (eds) (2010) The Beat Goes On: Liverpool, Popular Music and the Changing City, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts: www.lipa.ac.uk/

Case study 16: David Bowie is

The David Bowie is exhibition was initially held at the V&A, the Victoria and Albert Museum, in London, where it ran from 23 March to 11 August 2013. The exhibition featured more than 300 objects selected from David Bowie’s personal archive, which contains over 75,000 objects, with his full cooperation. Included were original costumes; films, music videos, and their storyboards; original artworks; and Bowie’s handwritten lyrics and original album artwork.

I visited David Bowie is at the V&A during a short visit to London in June 2013, having identified it as a ‘must see’ while in the UK. I had only seen Bowie once in concert, during his 1983 Serious Moonlight tour to Australia and New Zealand, when his concert at Western Spring’s stadium in Auckland set an Australasian attendance record for a ticketed concert (74,480) that still stands. Although I did not consider myself a dedicated fan of the artist, I was conscious of Bowie’s status as an iconic figure in popular music: I owned several of his key albums, had seen a number of the films he had appeared in, as well as his music videos, and had read several biographies. In spite of these, I was not prepared for the breadth of his creative activities that was on display. Among many highpoints, I was especially impressed with several portraits Bowie painted during his ‘Berlin period’, notably one of a striking Iggy Pop. I finished up going twice, as there was simply too much – a sensory overload – to take in with a single visit.  

A feature of the exhibition was the immersive audio experience the V&A had developed with Sennheiser: immersive installations that transmitted the music and soundtrack whenever you approached particular screens and exhibits, making your tour of the exhibition a highly personalised one, rather than simply a linear progression. This technology accompanied the subsequent travelling exhibition.

David Bowie is was seen by 312,000 visitors while at the V&A. It has since been toured internationally, at the Ontario Art Gallery in Toronto (146,500 visitors); the Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo, Brazil (80,000 visitors); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (151,000 visitors); the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago (193,000 visitors, a record for the museum); and the Philharmonie de Paris, where it marked its one millionth visitor. From Paris it moved to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, Australia, where I again saw it, in October 2015. When it ends in Melbourne, on 1 November, it will go to the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands (where it will run from15 December 2015 to 15 March 2016).

The exhibition catalogue has been translated into five languages and had sold some 125,000 copies by mid-2015. A special edition, David Bowie is Personal Portfolio, Black Edition, will be published by the V&A in late 2015.The feature film of the exhibition, David Bowie is Happening Now (2014), written and directed by Hamish Hamilton, has been screened internationally and won a Silver Medal at the New York Film Festival. (You can view the trailer on YouTube.)

On the development of the Exhibition, with links to various aspects of it, see the V&A web site: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/about-the-exhibition/

Especially

V&A podcast: Curating Pop Music

Victoria Oakes, Curator of Theatre and Performance at the V&A, and co-developer with Geoff Marsh of the Bowie Exhibition, talks to music critic Paul Morley about the challenges and possibilities of presenting rock and pop music in a museum setting, using David Bowie is as an example.