- Faculty of Media Arts & Society
Southampton Solent University
East Park Terrace
Southampton
Hampshire
SO14 0YN - +44 (0)23 8031 9000
- Music, Geography, Popular Music, Copyright, Event Management, Events management, and 23 moreMusic Industry, Festivals and music, Live Music, Music Business, Progressive rock, Music festivals, Music promotion, Event sponsorship, Music Piracy, Bootlegging, Festival Sponsorship, Digitization and Music Industry, Culture, Media Studies, Technology, Social Media, New Media, Popular Culture, Internet Studies, Fan Cultures, Fandom, Digital Media, and Music and Mediaedit
- My current research interests include music festivals and live music; music business, management, distribution and ma... moreMy current research interests include music festivals and live music; music business, management, distribution and marketing; music histories; music cities; and music consumption/fandom. I am co-author of Understanding the Music Industries (Sage) and Music Management, Marketing and PR (Sage). I am sole author of Music Festivals in the UK: Beyond the Carnivalesque (Routledge), and co-editor of Researching Live Music: Gigs, Tours, Concerts and Festivals (Routledge) and Media Narratives in Popular Music (Bloomsbury Academic). I have guest edited special issues of the journals Rock Music Studies and Arts and the Market.
I am currently supervising five PhDs on the topics of: music festival audiences and performers; the language of Smash Hits magazine; progressive rock, romanticism and audience reception; the rise of rave culture in East Anglia 1987-95; and popular science communication and the media.edit
Alongside every successful artist, there’s a team. This book is your guide to the study and practice of music management and the fast-moving music business of the 21st century. Featuring exclusive interviews with industry experts and... more
Alongside every successful artist, there’s a team.
This book is your guide to the study and practice of music management and the fast-moving music business of the 21st century.
Featuring exclusive interviews with industry experts and discussions of well-known artists, it covers key areas such as artist development, branding, the live music sector, fan engagement, and contracts and copyright.
It also explores urgent issues of diversity and well-being, alongside ongoing digital developments such as streaming income and algorithmic recommendation.
Balancing the creative and the commercial, it is essential reading for students of music management, music business, and music promotion – and anybody looking to build their career in the music industries.
This book is your guide to the study and practice of music management and the fast-moving music business of the 21st century.
Featuring exclusive interviews with industry experts and discussions of well-known artists, it covers key areas such as artist development, branding, the live music sector, fan engagement, and contracts and copyright.
It also explores urgent issues of diversity and well-being, alongside ongoing digital developments such as streaming income and algorithmic recommendation.
Balancing the creative and the commercial, it is essential reading for students of music management, music business, and music promotion – and anybody looking to build their career in the music industries.
Research Interests:
The historical significance of music-makers, music scenes, and music genres has long been mediated through academic and popular press publications such as magazines, films, and television documentaries. Media Narratives in Popular Music... more
The historical significance of music-makers, music scenes, and music genres has long been mediated through academic and popular press publications such as magazines, films, and television documentaries. Media Narratives in Popular Music examines these various publications and questions how and why they are constructed. It considers the typically linear narratives that are based on simplifications, exaggerations, and omissions and the histories they construct - an approach that leads to totalizing “official” histories that reduce otherwise messy narratives to one-dimensional interpretations of a heroic and celebratory nature. This book questions the basis on which these mediated histories are constructed, highlights other, hidden, histories that have otherwise been neglected, and explores a range of topics including consumerism, the production pressure behind documentaries, punk fanzines, Rolling Stones covers, and more.
Research Interests:
The outdoor music festival market has developed and commercialised significantly since the mid-1990s and is now a mainstream part of the British summertime leisure experience. The overall number of outdoor music festivals staged in the... more
The outdoor music festival market has developed and commercialised significantly
since the mid-1990s and is now a mainstream part of the British summertime
leisure experience. The overall number of outdoor music festivals
staged in the UK doubled between 2005 and 2011 to reach a peak of over 500
events. UK Music (2016) estimates that the sector attracts over 3.7 million
attendances each year, and that music tourism as a whole sustains nearly
40,000 full time jobs.
Music Festivals in the UK is the first extended investigation
into this commercialised rock and pop festival sector and examines events
of all sizes: from mega-events such as Glastonbury Festival, V Festival and
the Reading and Leeds Festivals to ‘boutique’ events with maximum attendances
as small as 250. In the past, research into festivals has typically focused
either on their carnivalesque heritage or on developing managerial tools for
the field of Events Management. Anderton moves beyond such perspectives
to propose new ways of understanding and theorising the cultural, social and
geographic importance of outdoor music festivals. He argues that changes
in the sector since the mid-1990s – such as professionalisation, corporatisation,
mediatisation, regulatory control, and sponsorship/branding – should
not necessarily be regarded as a process of transgressive ’alternative culture’
being co-opted by commercial concerns; instead, such changes represent a
reconfiguration of the sector in line with changes in society, and a broadening
of the forms and meanings that may be associated with outdoor music events.
since the mid-1990s and is now a mainstream part of the British summertime
leisure experience. The overall number of outdoor music festivals
staged in the UK doubled between 2005 and 2011 to reach a peak of over 500
events. UK Music (2016) estimates that the sector attracts over 3.7 million
attendances each year, and that music tourism as a whole sustains nearly
40,000 full time jobs.
Music Festivals in the UK is the first extended investigation
into this commercialised rock and pop festival sector and examines events
of all sizes: from mega-events such as Glastonbury Festival, V Festival and
the Reading and Leeds Festivals to ‘boutique’ events with maximum attendances
as small as 250. In the past, research into festivals has typically focused
either on their carnivalesque heritage or on developing managerial tools for
the field of Events Management. Anderton moves beyond such perspectives
to propose new ways of understanding and theorising the cultural, social and
geographic importance of outdoor music festivals. He argues that changes
in the sector since the mid-1990s – such as professionalisation, corporatisation,
mediatisation, regulatory control, and sponsorship/branding – should
not necessarily be regarded as a process of transgressive ’alternative culture’
being co-opted by commercial concerns; instead, such changes represent a
reconfiguration of the sector in line with changes in society, and a broadening
of the forms and meanings that may be associated with outdoor music events.
Research Interests:
This article argues that we should adapt our understanding of genre, style, and idiolect to encompass the personal and collective idiolects associated with particular bands. Focusing on progressive rock as an example, it is proposed that... more
This article argues that we should adapt our understanding of genre, style, and idiolect to encompass the personal and collective idiolects associated with particular bands. Focusing on progressive rock as an example, it is proposed that the collective idiolect of a band may not only transcend style, as suggested by Allan F. Moore, but also genre: that progressive rock may usefully be regarded as an assemblage of collective idiolects. Moreover, it is argued that greater attention should be paid to the classificatory activities of progressive rock fans whose “lay discourses” forge connections between the different bands.
Research Interests:
Music festivals have a long and varied history, yet in the popular imagination outdoor pop and rock events in particular have become strongly associated with the romanticised imagery and ideals of the youth counterculture of the... more
Music festivals have a long and varied history, yet in the popular imagination outdoor pop and rock events in particular have become strongly associated with the romanticised imagery and ideals of the youth counterculture of the late-1960s. In this chapter, I explore the stereotypes associated with this romanticised heritage of festival culture, and with regard to political historian Michael Clarke’s (1982) discussion of sex, drugs, squalor and disorder, which he saw as key drivers of moral panic during the late-1960s and 1970s. These four areas are discussed in relation to 21st Century music festivals in the UK to demonstrate how the music festival experience has changed in response to the commercialisation, expansion, diversification and professionalisation of the sector since the mid-1990s. I question whether these changes serve to lessen youthful rebellion and to detract from the ‘traditional’ countercultural carnivalesque experience of the outdoor music festival.
Research Interests:
This chapter examines the narrative construction of two British music festival films – Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995) and Glastonbury Fayre (1972) – that have, perhaps surprisingly, received little prior attention... more
This chapter examines the narrative construction of two British music festival films – Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995) and Glastonbury Fayre (1972) – that have, perhaps surprisingly, received little prior attention within academia. These films portray the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival and the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre – events which were regarded at the time as British versions of the US Woodstock Festival. Glastonbury Fayre was released within a year of the event taking place, while legal disagreements regarding copyright meant that Message to Love was not edited and released until the 1990s. These films demonstrate narratives and techniques familiar from Woodstock – Three Days of Peace and Music (1970), and have helped to construct and reinforce what I have referred to as the ‘countercultural carnivalesque’ – a way of thinking about festival culture that is informed by a particular understanding of the youth counterculture of the late-1960s, and the role of music festivals as modern-day manifestations of the medieval carnival behaviors and ideas described by Mikhail Bakhtin. I critically examine the narratives and framing devices used in the films to demonstrate how and why representations of the countercultural carnivalesque differ between them.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This blog piece for the Live Music Exchange website examines the volatility of outdoor music festivals in the UK
Research Interests:
Music festivals may become intimately associated with the locations which host them. For a few days each year, these sites take on a life of their own, with their own accommodation, entertainments, social experience, retail opportunities... more
Music festivals may become intimately associated with the locations which host them. For a few days each year, these sites take on a life of their own, with their own accommodation, entertainments, social experience, retail opportunities and policing. They form temporary villages or towns that are constructed and annually re-constructed in their own image by festival organizers and attendees, and increasingly mediated through traditional and online media by organizers, sponsors, broadcasters and festivalgoers. Drawing primarily on British examples and theoretical developments presented in Music Festivals in the UK. Beyond the Carnivalesque (Anderton, 2019), this presentation examines the spaces and places of such events in terms of their ephemerality and continuity, and of the distinctions made by cultural geographers between space and place. It also introduces the new concepts of ‘cyclic place’ and ‘meta-sociality’ which emerged from the research and, it is argued, can be applied to a wide range of outdoor festivals.
Research Interests:
Introductory chapter to the book Researching Live Music: Gigs, Tours, Concerts and Festivals. London and New York: Routledge
Research Interests:
This chapter examines outdoor music festivals and their relationships with space and place. After a discussion of definitions and categorizations related to music festivals, the chapter explores theories of space and place including the... more
This chapter examines outdoor music festivals and their relationships with space and place. After a discussion of definitions and categorizations related to music festivals, the chapter explores theories of space and place including the concept of 'cyclic places'.
Research Interests:
Academic and journalistic accounts of ‘progressive rock’ construct it as a genre that emerged in the late 1960s, flourished commercially and artistically from 1972 to 1974 and sank into decline by the late 1970s due primarily to the... more
Academic and journalistic accounts of ‘progressive rock’ construct it as a genre that emerged in the late 1960s, flourished commercially and artistically from 1972 to 1974 and sank into decline by the late 1970s due primarily to the emergence of punk rock in 1976. Musicological, aesthetic and social descriptions of this genre of rock music are offered by a number of authors including Macan (1997), Stump (1997) and Martin (1998), yet this upsurge in academic and popular interest in the mid-late 1990s struggles with defining what, precisely, ‘progressive rock’ is. These studies rarely examine how the bands that they classify as ‘progressive rock’ were discussed in the press of the early 1970s yet, as Anderton & Atton (forthcoming) demonstrate, the assumptions which are made about genre definitions and history need to questioned much more. In this chapter, the British weekly music press of the early 1970s is examined (particularly Melody Maker which championed both progressive rock and punk rock) to show the somewhat ambivalent reception that the bands gained and to question the common myth that ‘punk killed prog’. It suggests that use of the term ‘progressive rock’ must be questioned in the early 1970s context, and that signs of press condemnation and dissatisfaction pre-date punk’s ‘year zero’ by three or four years. The chapter is complementary to that which follows and together these two chapters suggest an alternative way of looking at the history of, and relationship between, progressive rock and punk rock in the 1970s.
Research Interests:
Introduction to the book Media Narratives in Popular Music (BLoomsbury Academic, 2022)
Research Interests:
Introduction to the special issue: contemporary issues in live music
Research Interests:
This chapter adds to a growing subfield of music festival studies by examining the business practices and cultures of the commercial outdoor sector, with a particular focus on rock, pop and dance music events. The events of this sector... more
This chapter adds to a growing subfield of music festival studies by examining the business practices and cultures of the commercial outdoor sector, with a particular focus on rock, pop and dance music events. The events of this sector require substantial financial and other capital in order to be staged and achieve success, yet the market is highly volatile, with relatively few festivals managing to attain longevity. It is argued that these events must balance their commercial needs with the socio-cultural expectations of their audiences for hedonistic, carnivalesque experiences that draw on countercultural understanding of festival culture (the countercultural carnivalesque). This balancing act has come into increased focus as corporate promoters, brand sponsors and venture capitalists have sought to dominate the market in the neoliberal era of late capitalism. The chapter examines the riskiness and volatility of the sector before examining contemporary economic strategies for risk management and audience development, and critiques of these corporatizing and mainstreaming processes.
Research Interests:
In this chapter I examine some of the innovative responses to the lockdown that emerged in the early months of the pandemic, with a focus on socially-distanced events, the development of the livestreaming and virtual reality (VR) sector,... more
In this chapter I examine some of the innovative responses to the lockdown that emerged in the early months of the pandemic, with a focus on socially-distanced events, the development of the livestreaming and virtual reality (VR) sector, and the growth of illegal raves . I argue that the latter presage a return in fortunes for the outdoor music festival sector once the Covid-19 restrictions on mass gatherings are over, and place my analysis in relation to what I term “cyclic sociality”, an extension of my prior work into the outdoor music festival sector (Anderton 2019). I also discuss the potential for livestreaming to mature into a parallel industry that is complementary to the venue and event-based live music sector.
Research Interests:
This article examines the narrative construction of two British music festival films, Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995) and Glastonbury Fayre (1972): films which demonstrate narratives and techniques familiar from... more
This article examines the narrative construction of two British music
festival films, Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995)
and Glastonbury Fayre (1972): films which demonstrate narratives
and techniques familiar from Woodstock – Three Days of Peace and
Music (1970). I argue that these films, which portray the 1970 Isle of
Wight Festival and the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre, have helped to
construct and reinforce what I refer to as the “countercultural
carnivalesque” – a way of thinking about festival culture that is
informed by a particular understanding of the youth counterculture
of the late-1960s.
festival films, Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995)
and Glastonbury Fayre (1972): films which demonstrate narratives
and techniques familiar from Woodstock – Three Days of Peace and
Music (1970). I argue that these films, which portray the 1970 Isle of
Wight Festival and the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre, have helped to
construct and reinforce what I refer to as the “countercultural
carnivalesque” – a way of thinking about festival culture that is
informed by a particular understanding of the youth counterculture
of the late-1960s.
Research Interests:
The upsurge of academic interest in the genre known as progressive rock has take little account of how discourses surrounding the term were deployed in popular culture in the past, especially within the music press. To address this, we... more
The upsurge of academic interest in the genre known as progressive rock has take little account of how discourses surrounding the term were deployed in popular culture in the past, especially within the music press. To address this, we analyze three British weekly music papers of the 1960s and 1970s: Melody Maker, New Musical Express and Sounds. We find relatively little consensus regarding the use and meaning of the term 'progressive' in these papers, though its most common uses are to signify musical quality and to indicate a move away from the 'underground' scene of the late 1960s.
Research Interests:
This introductory article gives a brief overview of progressive rock studies as a field
Research Interests:
Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it directly to consumers. The traditional economic relations and... more
Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it directly to consumers. The traditional economic relations and structures of the recording and copyright industries may largely be bypassed through processes of disintermediation, and musicians have much greater control over their own recorded works than is typically afforded by the commercial recording companies. Many musicians have adopted alternative strategies for making their music available to the public, and it is on one broad subset of these musicians that this paper will focus. These musicians make their music available for free download/streaming through sites such as Bandcamp, Free Music Archive and the Internet Archive, or directly through their own websites. In some cases the music is released through collective netlabels and Creative Commons licenses, while in others copyright is retained and the music is made available on a “name your price” basis with no minimum amount specified. This article will examine such practices in terms of theories of gifting, and in relation to Jacques Attali’s notion of the age or mode of composition.
Research Interests:
This article examines the fan practice of record collecting (Shuker, 2010) as it has translated into the digital environment of the Internet, and begins to address one of several questions posed by Mark Duffett in Understanding Fandom:... more
This article examines the fan practice of record collecting (Shuker, 2010) as it has translated into the digital environment of the Internet, and begins to address one of several questions posed by Mark Duffett in Understanding Fandom: ‘to what extent is collecting premised on the ownership of the collected items or their rarity value’ (2013: 179). Drawing on research into a range of music blogs, message boards and fan groupings, the article suggests that we may identify a shift from ‘record collecting’ towards ‘music collecting’, and that this shift might be conceptualised as a move from ‘secondary involvement’ (Shuker, 2010: 168) to ‘tertiary involvement’. Secondary involvement involves a typically systematic approach to acquiring and collecting material culture, such as out-of-print (OOP), rare or private press vinyl releases, whereas ‘tertiary involvement’ involves the collection and accumulation of the music encoded within that material culture, in the form of digital data file formats such as MP3 and FLAC. The music investigated in this article is that encoded in what Will Straw (2000) has called ‘obsolete objects’ – artefacts that persist long after their commercial life cycle and economic value is over; and that encoded in unofficially released recordings of live performances, whether in the form of commercially produced bootlegs (Marshall, 2005) or as not-for-profit bootlegs which are sourced, edited, remastered and packaged by fans (Anderton, 2006). Those involved in creating, distributing (via cyberlockers, torrents, direct download links or YouTube uploads) and/or collecting these music files are characterised as active and informal cultural intermediaries who curate, organise, archive, discuss, circulate and promote recordings and information, hence act as ‘expert filters’ online (Baym & Burnett, 2009). Their activities also raise interesting questions about cultural memory, the provision of ‘free labour’ (Terranova, 2004), and the contested nature of copyright, each of is investigated within the article.
References cited:
Anderton, C. (2006) ‘Beating the bootleggers: Fan creativity, ‘lossless’ audio trading, and commercial opportunities.’ In M.D. Ayers (ed.), Cybersounds. Essays on Virtual Music Culture. New York: Peter Lang.
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Duffett, M. (2013) Understanding Fandom: an introduction to the study of media fan culture. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Marshall, L. (2005) Bootlegging. Romanticism and Copyright in the Music Industry. London: Sage.
Shuker, R. (2010) Wax Trash and Vinyl Treasures: Record Collecting as a Social Practice. Farnham, Surrey & Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Straw, W. (2000) ‘Exhausted commodities: the material culture of music’, Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 25, Issue 1. Available at: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1148/1067 (last accessed 22/11/15).
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
References cited:
Anderton, C. (2006) ‘Beating the bootleggers: Fan creativity, ‘lossless’ audio trading, and commercial opportunities.’ In M.D. Ayers (ed.), Cybersounds. Essays on Virtual Music Culture. New York: Peter Lang.
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Duffett, M. (2013) Understanding Fandom: an introduction to the study of media fan culture. New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Marshall, L. (2005) Bootlegging. Romanticism and Copyright in the Music Industry. London: Sage.
Shuker, R. (2010) Wax Trash and Vinyl Treasures: Record Collecting as a Social Practice. Farnham, Surrey & Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Straw, W. (2000) ‘Exhausted commodities: the material culture of music’, Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 25, Issue 1. Available at: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1148/1067 (last accessed 22/11/15).
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
Research Interests:
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. Extant histories and media coverage suggest that by the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful... more
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. Extant histories and media coverage suggest that by the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful acts had either broken up, run out of steam, or begun to adopt a more mainstream, radio-friendly style. However, ‘progressive’ rock enjoyed a nascent revival in the early 1980s that had continuities with the 1970s, yet developed in its own particular ways. This chapter explores the history and media of the early 1980s progressive revival, and questions the use of the term ‘neo-progressive’ (now typically used to refer to this period of music and to a network of styles that supposedly developed from it). It considers both how bands sought to gain broader popularity/record deals, and how they were supported in their endeavours by trans-local scenes and specific infrastructures and individuals. The paper concludes by suggesting various reasons for the failure of the ‘progressive revival’ to gain traction at that time, though certain bands managed to persevere through fan support, and others later reformed after varying periods of inactivity. Indeed, some of these bands have careers that are considerably longer than those achieved by many of the first wave of progressive bands in the 1970s.
Research Interests:
This chapter explores the relationship between outdoor rock and pop music festivals and the sponsorship of commercial brands. Drawing on the UK market, it discusses the increasing importance of sponsorship deals to many festival... more
This chapter explores the relationship between outdoor rock and pop music festivals and the sponsorship of commercial brands. Drawing on the UK market, it discusses the increasing importance of sponsorship deals to many festival organisers and defines, historicises and explores various forms of sponsorship activity in terms of leveraging and activation. Three main strategies are then suggested through which festival organisers deal (or not) with commercial sponsors. It also draws on the notion of the ‘countercultural carnivalesque’ to examine why sponsorship and branding at outdoor rock and pop music festivals may be viewed with suspicion by some festival organisers, commentators and audiences, and then draws briefly on postmodern arguments to help understand why sponsorship deals have become accepted by other types of audience.
Research Interests:
The last ten years has seen a significant expansion of the British music festival scene, with many hundreds of events now held every year. Of these, more than a quarter are held on rural greenfield sites which offer an escape from urban... more
The last ten years has seen a significant expansion of the British music festival scene, with many hundreds of events now held every year. Of these, more than a quarter are held on rural greenfield sites which offer an escape from urban life and stresses, and the ephemeral appropriation of space and nature. A number of existing theoretical approaches to understanding the material and symbolic construction and reconstruction of such festivals are examined and critiqued in this chapter. These include Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the carnivalesque and Victor Turner’s conception of the liminal and liminoid. The author then draws on Rob Shields’ theory of social spatialization to propose the concept of ‘cyclic places’ which are characterised by a sense of uniqueness and structured through processes of continuity and change. Case study material will be drawn from a study of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention: a mid-scale festival in rural Oxfordshire run by the English folk-rock pioneers Fairport Convention.
This paper examines the cultural heritage of outdoor rock and pop music festivals in Britain since the mid-1960s, and relates it to developments in, and critiques of, corporate sponsorship in the contemporary music festival sector.... more
This paper examines the cultural heritage of outdoor rock and pop music festivals in Britain since the mid-1960s, and relates it to developments in, and critiques of, corporate sponsorship in the contemporary music festival sector.
Findings – Outdoor rock and pop music festivals were dominated by the ideologies of a ‘countercultural carnivalesque’ from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s. In the 1990s, changes in legislation began a process of professionalization, corporatization, and a reliance on brand sponsorships. Two broad trajectories are identified within the contemporary sector: one is strongly rooted in the heritage of the countercultural carnivalesque, while the other is more overtly commercial.
Findings – Outdoor rock and pop music festivals were dominated by the ideologies of a ‘countercultural carnivalesque’ from the late 1960s until the mid-1990s. In the 1990s, changes in legislation began a process of professionalization, corporatization, and a reliance on brand sponsorships. Two broad trajectories are identified within the contemporary sector: one is strongly rooted in the heritage of the countercultural carnivalesque, while the other is more overtly commercial.
Research Interests:
There has been a marked resurgence of interest in progressive rock music both commercially and critically, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. Despite this, there has been a... more
There has been a marked resurgence of interest in progressive rock music both commercially and critically, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. Despite this, there has been a tendency to define progressive rock through a ‘symphonic orthodoxy’ which preferences a limited, albeit highly successful, number of British groups operating in a relatively narrow sonic landscape. This article questions that orthodoxy by drawing on the lay definitions and understandings of fans to extend the definitions and geographies of progressive rock, and to characterise it as a European meta-genre. It examines the meta-genre’s formative years at the beginning of the 1970s, and argues that progressive rock was inspired by the explorations of a European youth counterculture whose music was influenced by local socio-political and economic contexts, as well as by the music and attitudes of the American counterculture and of European Romanticism.
Research Interests:
This chapter reconsiders the historiography of progressive rock - a genre regularly presented as distinctively British. Using the "lay discourses" of fans, the variety and geographies of progressive rock are investigated, including a case... more
This chapter reconsiders the historiography of progressive rock - a genre regularly presented as distinctively British. Using the "lay discourses" of fans, the variety and geographies of progressive rock are investigated, including a case study of 1970s Italian progressive rock. Italy has been chosen as an example because of Bill Martin’s suggestion that bands such as Premiata Forneria Marconi had seemed to have emerged ‘full grown from the head of Jupiter’ (Martin, 1998: 210). It explores the musical and social influences and early history of Italian progressive rock, and calls for European contributions to progressive rock to be explored more fully.
Research Interests:
The V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first large-scale outdoor rock and pop music festival in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury and... more
The V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first large-scale outdoor rock and pop music festival in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury and Reading Festivals, it struggled to create a distinctive identity or gain critical acceptance, especially among the more radical or countercultural of festival-goers and press. Managed by a consortium of highly successful concert promoters, it actively embraces commercialism, sponsorship deals, and a forward-thinking ethos of quality and customer service. However, rather than escaping the countercultural and carnivalseque imagery and meanings historically associated with outdoor rock and pop music festivals it has, to varying degrees, commodified, modernized, or subverted them. In the process, it has gained considerable popularity among festival-goers and secured the plaudits of music industry professionals. The event is at the forefront of initiatives regarding festival policing and safety, and offers a role model for the many new commercial events that are established each year. This article considers how the concept of the countercultural carnivalesque has been used in relation to large-scale outdoor music festivals, before examining the V Festival through a cultural economic focus. It demonstrates how the beliefs and backgrounds of its organizers have influenced the management and image of the event, and how it has helped to transform the large-scale outdoor music festival market more generally.
Research Interests:
The British music festival market is remarkable in its size, breadth and longevity. In recent years, a considerable growth has been seen in the numbers of greenfield music festivals: those rock, pop and folk music events which are held... more
The British music festival market is remarkable in its size, breadth and longevity. In recent years, a considerable growth has been seen in the numbers of greenfield music festivals: those rock, pop and folk music events which are held outdoors, across a weekend, and offer on-site camping accommodation. These represent the annual (re)construction of a temporary ‘village’, and may accommodate anywhere from a few thousands to tens of thousands of festival-goers. They offer excellent promotional opportunities for their organisers, sponsors and hosts, and have become important leisure and tourist resources at the local, regional and national level. At the same time, they have significant social, cultural and aesthetic roles to play, in that they showcase new musical talent, and allow festival-goers to gain ‘authentic’ experiences of music and sociality. However, despite their social, cultural and economic significance, there is a notable dearth of academic work critically examining greenfield music festivals, or theorising the relationships of these events to their host locations. This lack is addressed here by reconsidering music festival histories and expectations, and by examining the organisation, mediation and reception of three greenfield music events - the Cambridge Folk Festival, the Cropredy Festival and the V Festival - through a cultural economy approach. In light of the research findings, stereotypical understandings of greenfield music festival places and histories as carnivalesque and countercultural are critiqued, and the roles of other festival histories and meanings discussed. Three novel theoretical concepts are then introduced: ‘Cyclic place’ moves beyond the ideas of the carnivalesque and liminality to suggest a new way of thinking about music festival spatialities; ‘Meta-sociality’ helps to overcome the limitations of neo-tribal ideas in respect of music festival socialities; and ‘Specialness’ addresses questions of festival loyalty and belonging. Taken together, these help to explain how greenfield music festivals come to be annually (re)constructed in their own images, and why they remain such an enduring element of British cultural life.
Research Interests:
The popular recording industry has traditionally followed a mass-market productivist model which treats music fans as passive, rather than active, consumers. As a result, there has been a failure to understand or meet the demands of fans... more
The popular recording industry has traditionally followed a mass-market productivist model which treats music fans as passive, rather than active, consumers. As a result, there has been a failure to understand or meet the demands of fans for live and archive (unreleased studio) material, or an inability or unwillingness to satisfy them. In the past, this shortfall of live concert recordings and archive material has been filled by a combination of commercial bootlegging and non-commercial trading. Music industry trade associations regard both of these as forms of audio piracy; as a challenge to the commodification of popular music and the exploitation of copyrights. They demonize all forms of trading activity and the music fans who engage in them – even though some artists authorize and support non-commercial trading.
This chapter discusses notions of the passive/active audience, and provides a history of not-for-profit audio trading and the distribution systems used. It also investigates the motivations and moralities of non-commercial traders, prior to exploring the various promotional and commercial opportunities of a more service-oriented approach to satisfying the needs of music consumers and fans.
This chapter discusses notions of the passive/active audience, and provides a history of not-for-profit audio trading and the distribution systems used. It also investigates the motivations and moralities of non-commercial traders, prior to exploring the various promotional and commercial opportunities of a more service-oriented approach to satisfying the needs of music consumers and fans.
Research Interests:
In this presentation I will focus on an aspect of Web3 technology known as Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs). These digital assets offer a potentially rich source of revenue for events that are facing higher production costs and increased... more
In this presentation I will focus on an aspect of Web3 technology known as Non-Fungible Tokens (or NFTs). These digital assets offer a potentially rich source of revenue for events that are facing higher production costs and increased competition as festival promoters and artists alike try to claw back some of the lost revenue that they suffered during the pandemic. They also offer opportunities in relation to combatting secondary ticketing and
Research Interests:
Academic and journalistic accounts of ‘progressive rock’ typically construct it as a British genre that emerged in the late 1960s, flourished commercially and artistically from 1972 to 1974 and sank into decline by the late 1970s due... more
Academic and journalistic accounts of ‘progressive rock’ typically construct it as a British genre that emerged in the late 1960s, flourished commercially and artistically from 1972 to 1974 and sank into decline by the late 1970s due primarily (in Britain) to the emergence of punk rock in 1976 (Macan, 1997; Stump, 1997; Martin, 1998). These studies tend to focus on recorded artefacts, hence rarely examine how the bands that they classify as ‘progressive rock’ were discussed in the contemporary British press of the era. Of particular interest to this presentation is the weekly magazine Melody Maker, which had consistently championed ‘progressive’ music since the late 1960s, though it also covered a variety of other musical styles. An analysis of the magazine will be offered that focuses on the years 1971 to 1976 in order to examine the common myth that ‘punk killed prog’. It suggests that the use of the term ‘progressive rock’ must itself be questioned in an early 1970s context, and that signs of press condemnation and dissatisfaction pre-date the emergence of British punk. It also casts light on other factors covered by the magazine which may also have influenced the potential success or otherwise of ‘progressive’ rock bands during this period, including changes both in British radio programming policies and the university/college gigging circuit.
Research Interests:
In this presentation I will argue that while progressive rock may be regarded and discussed as a genre, meta-genre, style or network of styles (as often seen in academic and journalistic work and in fan discussion), we might also examine... more
In this presentation I will argue that while progressive rock may be regarded and discussed as a genre, meta-genre, style or network of styles (as often seen in academic and journalistic work and in fan discussion), we might also examine the development of progressive rock at a more granular level by adopting and adapting the notion of musical idiolect. I draw on the work (in literary theory) of John Frow (2005) and John Rieder (2010) in understanding genre “as a form of symbolic action” (Frow 2005: 2) wherein the “types” (Fabbri 2012: 180) of music that are defined and discussed as progressive rock do not form “a set of texts” but are instead “a way of using texts and drawing relationships among them” (Rieder 2010: 193). I argue that our understanding and use of the term progressive rock should be regarded as occurring within a “genre field” (drawing loosely on the work of Pierre Bourdieu) in which genre, style and idiolect are mutable forms that change over time and in relation to geographical, historical and promotional industry factors (Rieder 2010) and to the various “communities of practice” (Bowker and Starr 1999) within which those definitions and understandings develop. I suggest that musical idiolects (both “personal” and “collective”) should lie at the heart of our analysis of these discussions, alongside processes of “enrolment” (Latour 1999) that include a “retrofitting” of the past (ibid.).
Research Interests:
This presentation examines the global proliferation of ‘progressive’ rock music, with a particular focus on interrogating the shifting definitions, uses and stereotypes associated with the term ‘progressive’ in both popular and academic... more
This presentation examines the global proliferation of ‘progressive’ rock music, with a particular focus on interrogating the shifting definitions, uses and stereotypes associated with the term ‘progressive’ in both popular and academic accounts. It will question the emphasis on musicological complexity and Anglocentricity typically found in the work of Edward Macan (1997, 2006), Bill Martin (1996, 1998), Paul Stump (2010), Hegarty & Halliwell (2011) and others, and extend the notion of progressive rock as a ‘meta-genre’ (Anderton, 2010) into a global context. In doing so, it cleaves to the broader and more inclusive understanding of progressive rock seen within contemporary online fan-curated websites, and within the British music press of the early 1970s (Anderton, 2010; Anderton & Atton, forthcoming). There are also some parallels with Chris Cutler’s (1991) notion of progression, which criticises the ‘giganticism’ of the most successful progressive rock artists of the 1970s whilst also valorising what he refers to as ‘the folk aspect of music making.’ This is, for Cutler, complemented by an exploration into the potential of the recording studio and electric and electronic instruments for the creation of new musical works – something which is shared with the other authors noted above, though not necessarily in terms of musical complexity – and the issue of autonomy or independence from the mainstream recording industry – factors which are of relevance to the global history of progressive rock.
Research Interests:
This presentation examines the potential influence of Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music (1970) on the narrative choices and editing of Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995). The latter film purports to capture the... more
This presentation examines the potential influence of Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music (1970) on the narrative choices and editing of Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995). The latter film purports to capture the atmosphere and story of the third Isle of Wight Festival, held in 1970, which was regarded at the time as Britain’s answer to, or mirror of, the US Woodstock festival of 1969. The event featured many of the same artists that had performed at Woodstock the previous year and like that event, attracted many more people than had bought tickets, leading to battles with security forces and the event being declared ‘free’ after the fences were breached. Legal disagreements regarding copyright meant that the film was not edited and released until the 1990s. During the intervening years, festival culture became increasingly stereotyped and mythologised through narratives centred on a ‘countercultural carnivalesque’ understanding of festival history (Anderton, 2008, 2019) developed in part, through the Woodstock film. The editorial choices and narratives underpinning Message to Love are therefore interesting to examine, as they negotiate the countercultural carnivalesque stereotypes and both draw on, and differ from, those of Woodstock.
Research Interests:
This was an invited guest talk in which I discussed the history of British music festivals in terms of moral panics and commercialisation.
Research Interests:
Music festivals may become intimately associated with the locations which host them. For a few days each year, these sites take on a life of their own, with their own accommodation, entertainments, social experience, retail opportunities... more
Music festivals may become intimately associated with the locations which host them. For a few days each year, these sites take on a life of their own, with their own accommodation, entertainments, social experience, retail opportunities and policing. They form temporary villages or towns that are constructed and annually re-constructed in their own image by festival organizers and attendees, and increasingly mediated through traditional and online media by organizers, sponsors, broadcasters and festivalgoers. Drawing primarily on British examples and theoretical developments presented in Music Festivals in the UK. Beyond the Carnivalesque (Anderton, 2019), this presentation examines the spaces and places of such events in terms of their ephemerality and continuity, and of the distinctions made by cultural geographers between space and place. It also introduces the new concepts of ‘cyclic place’ and ‘meta-sociality’ which emerged from the research and, it is argued, can be applied to a wide range of outdoor festivals.
Research Interests:
This presentation examines the use of the term ‘progressive’ in the British music press of the early 1970s, with a particular focus on how journalists, artists and readers applied and understood the term, and how their use of the term... more
This presentation examines the use of the term ‘progressive’ in the British music press of the early 1970s, with a particular focus on how journalists, artists and readers applied and understood the term, and how their use of the term changed over time. The primary source material is the weekly music magazine Melody Maker, though the analysis will also be supported by examination of other contemporaneous publications. In the early 1970s Melody Maker initially supported the music and musicians now typically characterised as ‘progressive rock’, though changes in personnel and the industry at large had somewhat shifted the magazine’s focus by the mid-1970s. This presentation tracks this shift and in the process identifies a wide range of discourses and uses associated with the term ‘progressive’. We suggest that a coherent and broadly accepted musical genre of ‘progressive rock’ is difficult to recognise at this time – at least in the sense implied by academic and fan histories of the genre that have been published since the early 1990s (Anderton, 2010) – though the term was used in Melody Maker in a largely adjectival fashion and in a variety of contexts. A parallel can be identified with Weinstein’s (2014) study of the term ‘heavy metal’, which found that that term was employed in a similarly diffuse manner during the early 1970s. Our research findings also shed light on the shift from ‘pop’ to ‘rock’ and call into question the claim that punk rock was responsible for the demise of progressive rock in the mid-1970s.
Research Interests:
Over the past twenty years, the outdoor rock, pop and dance music festival market of the UK has become increasingly commercial and professional in its organisation, and transformed into an economically significant leisure and tourist... more
Over the past twenty years, the outdoor rock, pop and dance music festival market of the UK has become increasingly commercial and professional in its organisation, and transformed into an economically significant leisure and tourist resource (UK Music 2016). In so doing, questions are raised regarding the ‘true meaning’ of festivals and the varied ways in which contemporary events make use of the sector’s countercultural and rural heritage. For instance, a tension exists between the commercialisation or mainstreaming of popular music culture and the once prevailing understanding of music festivals as spaces of countercultural critique and alternative models of living in the countryside (for instance, see McKay, 2000; Hetherington, 2001; Bennett, 2004; Worthington, 2004, Anderton, 2008, 2011). This presentation explores the multiple ways that heritage discourses may be applied to the contemporary outdoor music festival market and focuses on the important role that the British rural idyll plays in conceptualising and framing festivals as spaces (or otherwise) for the public performance of music and lifestyle politics.
Research Interests:
Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it to the public for a relatively minimal financial outlay. The... more
Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it to the public for a relatively minimal financial outlay. The traditional economic relations and structures of the recording and copyright industries may largely be bypassed through processes of disintermediation, and musicians have much greater control over their own recorded works than is typically afforded by the commercial recording companies. Many musicians have adopted alternative strategies for making their music available to the public, and it is one broad subset of these musicians that this paper will focus on. These musicians make their music available for free download/streaming through sites such as Bandcamp, Free Music Archive and the Internet Archive, or directly through their own websites. In some cases, the music is released through collective Netlabels and Creative Commons licences, while at other times, copyright is retained and the music is made available on a ‘name your price’ basis with no minimum amount specified. This article will use Jacques Attali’s notion of the ‘Age of Composition’ as a starting point for considering the strategies of these musicians and their relationships with traditional models of music making and distribution.
Research Interests:
Corporate sponsorship, experiential marketing and event branding have all grown in importance for outdoor music festivals since the early-mid 1990s (especially the mid- to large-scale sector). Indeed, they may be essential to the... more
Corporate sponsorship, experiential marketing and event branding have all grown in importance for outdoor music festivals since the early-mid 1990s (especially the mid- to large-scale sector). Indeed, they may be essential to the commercial and aesthetic image, success and longevity of specific events, and an important source of financial and marketing support. Over time, the onsite and online marketing activities of corporate sponsors have become increasingly creative and sophisticated, and aimed at forging a strong sense of brand ‘fit’ that will engage festivalgoers in participatory interaction before, during and after an event. This presentation will examine the development of experiential marketing campaigns at festivals and will question ‘traditional’ notions of music festivals as spaces of countercultural critique, utopian freedom and alternative ideologies – notions which are often mobilised in the ‘boutique’ festival sector. It suggests that creative marketing agencies and their brand clients are working in a playful or ludic manner with the countercultural history of festivals, and using the imagery, ideologies and stereotypes associated with festivals to create branded environments which offer ‘events within events’. These branded environments connect with the changing demographics and psychographics of contemporary music festivals, and demonstrate that the influence of the boutique sector has been felt within the mid-to-large sector.
Research Interests:
I have been invited by Professor George McKay to be a panel discussant at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. This panel is part of the Impact of Festival project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Connected Communities... more
I have been invited by Professor George McKay to be a panel discussant at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival. This panel is part of the Impact of Festival project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's Connected Communities programme and in collaboration with the EFG London Jazz Festival. The event will feature researchers and festival directors talking about jazz and festivals (and jazz festivals), and will see the launch of a new report about the impact of festivals.
Research Interests:
This presentation examines how music fans have been active in archiving and distributing the audio content (and sometimes imagery and information about) ‘obsolete objects’ (Straw, 2000) such as ‘private press’ vinyl and cassette releases... more
This presentation examines how music fans have been active in archiving and distributing the audio content (and sometimes imagery and information about) ‘obsolete objects’ (Straw, 2000) such as ‘private press’ vinyl and cassette releases produced under do-it-yourself/release-it-yourself conditions (Reynolds, 2005: 92), and rare, out-of-print (OOP) or otherwise hard to find recordings. Fans are characterised as cultural intermediaries who work as ‘expert filters’ (Baym & Burnett, 2009) to source, sort, and distribute music which has either been neglected by the mainstream recorded music industries (i.e. unavailable to purchase or to stream legally) or was only available in very limited form (for instance, though mail order from the artist) when originally released. Their activities are typically carried out through internet blogs and discussion groups where digitised versions of recordings are informally distributed through direct downloads or the use of cyberlockers and torrent sites – sometimes with additional information and scans of cover artwork. These activities raise questions about the ways in which music fans engage with sonic archaeology (the discovery and making available of ‘lost’ cultural artefacts), as well as questions about cultural memory and archivism, the contested terrain of online copyright, and the provision of ‘free labour’ (Terranova, 2004) by the fans involved.
References cited:
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Reynolds, S. (2005) Rip it Up and Start Again. Post-punk 1978-1984. London: Faber and Faber.
Straw, W. (2000) ‘Exhausted commodities: the material culture of music’, Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 25, Issue 1. Available at: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1148/1067 (last accessed 22/11/15).
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
References cited:
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Reynolds, S. (2005) Rip it Up and Start Again. Post-punk 1978-1984. London: Faber and Faber.
Straw, W. (2000) ‘Exhausted commodities: the material culture of music’, Canadian Journal of Communication, Vol. 25, Issue 1. Available at: http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/1148/1067 (last accessed 22/11/15).
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
Research Interests:
This presentation examines the role of music fans as cultural intermediaries who are active in the curation, archiving and promotion of progressive rock music. Fans not only work with the official products of the music industries, but... more
This presentation examines the role of music fans as cultural intermediaries who are active in the curation, archiving and promotion of progressive rock music. Fans not only work with the official products of the music industries, but also create, organise, discuss and circulate their own materials/information. In each case, fans act as ‘expert filters’ (Baym & Burnett, 2009) to source, sort, and upload/distribute music which has either been ‘forgotten’ by the mainstream recorded music industries (i.e. unavailable to purchase or to stream legally), or which has never otherwise been made officially available to the public by the bands or their representatives. The latter relates to live concert recordings (also known as ROIO, or ‘records of illegitimate origin’) which are sourced, edited, remastered and packaged by fans as not-for-profit bootlegs (Anderton, 2006). The former includes a range of internet blogs that publish links to music downloads via cyberlockers or video streaming sites. The blogs to be discussed in this paper typically focus on rare, private press or OOP (out-of-print) recordings, and may be themed (though not exclusively) around specific musical sub-genres or eras, or on music produced within specific countries. These activities raise interesting questions about cultural memory and archivism; the provision of ‘free labour’ (Terranova, 2004) by fans; and the contested terrain of online copyright.
References cited:
Anderton, C. (2006) ‘Beating the bootleggers: Fan creativity, ‘lossless’ audio trading, and commercial opportunities.’ In M.D. Ayers (ed.), Cybersounds. Essays on Virtual Music Culture. New York: Peter Lang.
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
References cited:
Anderton, C. (2006) ‘Beating the bootleggers: Fan creativity, ‘lossless’ audio trading, and commercial opportunities.’ In M.D. Ayers (ed.), Cybersounds. Essays on Virtual Music Culture. New York: Peter Lang.
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
Research Interests:
Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographer conference event at University of Exeter, September 2015. The post-Millennial expansion of music festivals in the UK has been accompanied by a marked upsurge in sponsorship... more
Royal Geographical Society - Institute of British Geographer conference event at University of Exeter, September 2015.
The post-Millennial expansion of music festivals in the UK has been accompanied by a marked upsurge in sponsorship and branding activities (Anderton 2009). These sponsorship and branding activities provide the necessary financial and marketing support required by many events in order to survive in an increasingly competitive and saturated market, but they also raise questions regarding the ‘true meaning’ of festivals. In particular, there is a tension between a once prevailing understanding of music festivals as spaces of countercultural critique and alternative models of living in the country, and their contemporary position as important leisure and tourist resources that are positively mediated through radio, television, magazines and the internet (Anderton 2011). This tension is perhaps felt most keenly at rock and pop music festivals held in rural locations, where historical associations with the hippie counterculture and New Age Travellers of the 1970s and 1980s have created long-lasting social, cultural and political stereotypes and ideologies. The post-Millennial period has also seen the growth of small ‘boutique’ music festivals which often serve niche markets and tie into those social, cultural and political stereotypes and ideologies in various ways. This paper will examine how music festivals and sponsors of various sizes have created branded rural landscapes that not only communicate and negotiate ideologies related to the hippie counterculture, but also link into changing imaginaries of the rural.
References cited:
Anderton, Chris. 2009. ‘Commercializing the carnivalesque: the V Festival and image/risk management.’ Event Management. 12(1): 39-51.
Anderton, Chris. 2011. ‘Music festival sponsorship: between commerce and carnival.’ Arts Marketing. 1(2): 145-158.
The post-Millennial expansion of music festivals in the UK has been accompanied by a marked upsurge in sponsorship and branding activities (Anderton 2009). These sponsorship and branding activities provide the necessary financial and marketing support required by many events in order to survive in an increasingly competitive and saturated market, but they also raise questions regarding the ‘true meaning’ of festivals. In particular, there is a tension between a once prevailing understanding of music festivals as spaces of countercultural critique and alternative models of living in the country, and their contemporary position as important leisure and tourist resources that are positively mediated through radio, television, magazines and the internet (Anderton 2011). This tension is perhaps felt most keenly at rock and pop music festivals held in rural locations, where historical associations with the hippie counterculture and New Age Travellers of the 1970s and 1980s have created long-lasting social, cultural and political stereotypes and ideologies. The post-Millennial period has also seen the growth of small ‘boutique’ music festivals which often serve niche markets and tie into those social, cultural and political stereotypes and ideologies in various ways. This paper will examine how music festivals and sponsors of various sizes have created branded rural landscapes that not only communicate and negotiate ideologies related to the hippie counterculture, but also link into changing imaginaries of the rural.
References cited:
Anderton, Chris. 2009. ‘Commercializing the carnivalesque: the V Festival and image/risk management.’ Event Management. 12(1): 39-51.
Anderton, Chris. 2011. ‘Music festival sponsorship: between commerce and carnival.’ Arts Marketing. 1(2): 145-158.
Research Interests:
This presentation will focus on the branding and sponsorship of music festivals in the UK and is based on my chapter in George McKay (ed) (2015) The Pop Festival (Bloomsbury). The event is called: BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend: popular... more
This presentation will focus on the branding and sponsorship of music festivals in the UK and is based on my chapter in George McKay (ed) (2015) The Pop Festival (Bloomsbury).
The event is called:
BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend: popular music, festival, media - A one-day symposium
The event is called:
BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend: popular music, festival, media - A one-day symposium
Research Interests:
In this presentation, music fans are characterised as cultural intermediaries who have important roles to play within popular music culture. They are active not only in curating, collecting and archiving the material culture produced and... more
In this presentation, music fans are characterised as cultural intermediaries who have important roles to play within popular music culture. They are active not only in curating, collecting and archiving the material culture produced and circulated by the music industries, but also in creating, organising, discussing and circulating their own materials/information. The development of online networks of communication, storage and distribution has allowed more fans to engage in these practices, but has also led to conflicts regarding copyright and ownership, and to the apparent co-opting of fan networks, products and free labour for the commercial gain of the music industries. This talk will discuss two forms of fan-led cultural production. Firstly, there is the not-for-profit trading of live concert recordings, including remaster projects and pseudo- record labels created by fans and fan networks. These curate, collect and distribute recordings of live performances that would not otherwise be available through ‘traditional’ commercial record company sources, and so build alternative canons and histories for artists. Secondly, there are blogging sites that curate rare, private press and OOP (out of print) recordings that are otherwise impossible to find from legitimate streaming and download sites, or from primary retail sources (though some may appear as ‘second-hand’ copies in online marketplaces such as Musicstack, Eil, eBay, Gemm and so on). The blogging sites to be discussed not only discuss the music, but offer cyberlocker download links in order to facilitate free distribution of the recordings they present. In both types of cultural production, fans are providing forms of free labour (material, immaterial and affective), whilst also highlighting, negotiating or sidestepping a variety of issues related to ownership and copyright that will detailed and discussed in the talk.
Research Interests:
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. By the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful acts had run out of steam, broken up, or begun to... more
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. By the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful acts had run out of steam, broken up, or begun to adopt a more mainstream, radio-friendly style. However, ‘progressive’ rock enjoyed a nascent revival in the early 1980s that had continuities with the 1970s, yet developed and declined in its own particular ways. The most successful band of the revival was undoubtedly Marillion, whose initial recordings betray a debt to Gabriel-era Genesis of the mid-1970s, while other bands also drew on mid-1970s Pink Floyd, Camel and so on (in addition to a variety of other influences). Sheinbaum (2008) notes that it may be appropriate, therefore, to consider the ‘progressive’ rock music of the early 1980s UK through Adorno’s discourse of ‘late style’, where conventional formulae and contemporary commercial tendencies are utilised in order to interact with the changing musical and industrial culture of the era. This is the starting point for this paper, which examines the ‘genre world’ (Frith 1996) of the ‘progressive revival’. It explores contemporary developments and media of the period, questions the use of the term ‘neo-progressive’ (now typically used to refer to this period of music and a network of styles that supposedly developed from it), and considers both how bands sought to gain broader popularity/record deals, and how they were supported in their endeavours to do so by trans-local scenes and specific infrastructures and individuals. The paper concludes by suggesting various reasons for the failure of the ‘progressive revival’ to gain traction at that time, though certain bands managed to persevere through fan support, and others later reformed after varying periods of inactivity. Indeed, some of these bands have careers that are considerably longer than those achieved by many of the first wave of progressive bands in the 1970s.
References cited:
Frith, Simon (1996) Performing Rites. On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sheinbaum, John J. (2008) ‘Periods in progressive rock and the problem of authenticity,’ Current Musicology 85: 29-51
References cited:
Frith, Simon (1996) Performing Rites. On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Sheinbaum, John J. (2008) ‘Periods in progressive rock and the problem of authenticity,’ Current Musicology 85: 29-51
Research Interests:
This presentation proposes the notion of the pseudo- record label, defined as a (typically, though not always) not-for-profit participatory network of creative fans that produce cultural artefacts such as live concert bootlegs (also known... more
This presentation proposes the notion of the pseudo- record label, defined as a (typically, though not always) not-for-profit participatory network of creative fans that produce cultural artefacts such as live concert bootlegs (also known as Recordings of Illegitimate Origin or ROIO) for distribution to other fans within the network. These pseudo- record labels take on some of the functions of a traditional record label. For instance, they act as ‘expert filters’ (Baym & Burnett 2009) to source, sort, edit and remaster concert recordings in search of the most complete, representative and/or best quality audio available. They create artwork for the recordings in order to produce a complete package, and also arrange various methods of distribution and marketing to fans within their networks. In the process they build a sense of security and trust in a collaboratively-produced yet non-official brand that is used to curate an alternative live archive of particular artists. The processes involved in creating and distributing these recordings promotes continued interest and discussion amongst fans, and may therefore be advantageous to the artists around whom these pseudo- record labels are created. Examples of such labels will be explored in this presentation, which also addresses questions and issues surrounding ownership and copyright, and the arguments surrounding ‘free labour’ (Terranova 2004).
References cited:
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
References cited:
Baym N. and Burnett, R. (2009) ‘Amateur experts: international fan labour in Swedish independent music’, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol, 12(5): 433-449.
Terranova, T. (2004) Network Culture. Politics for the information age. London: Pluto Press.
Research Interests:
The outdoor or Greenfield music festival sector of the live music industries has expanded considerably in both numerical and economic terms over the past decade. The sector is highly volatile and inherently risky since these events are at... more
The outdoor or Greenfield music festival sector of the live music industries has expanded considerably in both numerical and economic terms over the past decade. The sector is highly volatile and inherently risky since these events are at the mercy of the British weather, and are often reliant on gate receipts which are collected long after substantial initial investments have been made in securing bands and constructing the festival site. In addition, local authority licensing terms and the increasing costs of policing, security and insurance place considerable financial pressure upon festival promoters (many of which are small independents or volunteer-run). Corporate sponsorship has become an important way to offset these risks and meet set-up costs. However, sponsors and promoters must negotiate a fine balance between commercial motivations and a cultural heritage of outdoor rock and pop events associated with youth rebellion, anti-commercial attitudes and countercultural politics. This presentation will offer a discussion of these pressures in relation to Romanticism, ‘selling out’ and recuperation.
There has been a marked resurgence of academic, media and commercial interest in progressive rock music over the last fifteen years, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. However,... more
There has been a marked resurgence of academic, media and commercial interest in progressive rock music over the last fifteen years, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. However, much of this work has discussed progressive rock through a ‘symphonic orthodoxy’ which preferences a limited, though commercially successful, range of British groups which operated in a relatively narrow sonic landscape during the early to mid-1970s. This presentation questions that orthodoxy by drawing on the lay definitions and understandings of fans to extend the scope of progressive rock both musically and geographically. It focuses on the formative years of progressive rock at the beginning of the 1970s, and argues that progressive rock was inspired by the explorations of a European youth counterculture whose music was influenced by local socio-political and economic contexts, as well as by the music and attitudes of the American counterculture and of European Romanticism.
Academic and popular accounts of, and interest in, progressive rock have seen an up-turn in interest over the past decade; yet this has largely (though by no means exclusively) focused on the commercial heyday of its British proponents in... more
Academic and popular accounts of, and interest in, progressive rock have seen an up-turn in interest over the past decade; yet this has largely (though by no means exclusively) focused on the commercial heyday of its British proponents in the early- to mid-1970s. In many accounts the emergence of punk-rock in the mid-1970s is characterized as delivering a final death blow to the overblown pretentiousness of progressive rock, following which it falls into free-fall decline. Progressive rock’s persistence as an underground form supported by dedicated fanzines, magazines, websites, record companies and festivals is given some consideration, especially in more recent publications, but developments in the late 1970s and 1980s tend not to be examined in any great detail. This presentation draws on the example of British neo-progressive rock in order to examine the survival and transformation of progressive rock in the late-1970s and 1980s. In doing so it questions common notions of ‘progression’ and 'progressiveness'.
In the early twentieth century, Vaughan Cornish and others developed an aural aesthetic for English town and country planning which categorized sounds as ‘in place’ or ‘out of place’. Implicit to this was a moral geography and... more
In the early twentieth century, Vaughan Cornish and others developed an aural aesthetic for English town and country planning which categorized sounds as ‘in place’ or ‘out of place’. Implicit to this was a moral geography and idealisation of rural landscapes and Englishness which deemed loud music to be out of place in the countryside. Debates over the appropriateness of popular music in rural environments have continued, with a particular emphasis placed on open-air festivals and raves which have attracted local fears and distrust. However, it may be argued that some events, such as Fairport Convention’s annual event at Cropredy in Oxfordshire, are now an integral part of the cultural identity and contemporary rural economy of their host locations. In the process, such events have helped to reposition both ‘traditional’ ideas of the rural idyll and its concomitant Englishness.
In histories of rock and popular music, progressive rock is usually regarded as a distinctly British musical genre which emerged in the late 1960s, flourished in the early 1970s, and was rendered irrelevant by punk rock in the mid- to... more
In histories of rock and popular music, progressive rock is usually regarded as a distinctly British musical genre which emerged in the late 1960s, flourished in the early 1970s, and was rendered irrelevant by punk rock in the mid- to late-1970s. Descriptive classifications are often used to define the genre, using criteria that paradoxically narrow the scope of the music whilst also attempting to encompass its diversity. Kevin Holm-Hudson’s (2002) edited collection eschews the more totalising aspects of such histories by adopting close readings of songs and lyrics, yet the contributors continue to focus their attention on the most successful and high profile groups of 1970s Britain. There is relatively little sense that progressive rock persisted through the 1980s and beyond, or that there has been a resurgence of interest amongst fans in recent years. In addition, the European contribution to progressive rock remains largely sidetracked. Where discussed, European bands are often dealt with rather cursorily, dismissed as imitative or, as with Bill Martin’s commentary on the Italian progressive rock scene, deemed to have emerged ‘full grown from the head of Jupiter’ (Martin, 1998: 210). This paper questions and critiques the existing histories of progressive rock, and adopts definitions drawn from the lay discourses of progressive rock fans. It also calls for European contributions to progressive rock to be explored more fully, in order to understand the cultural role of this music in its spatial and temporal contexts.
Research Interests:
The Virgin-sponsored V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first major greenfield event in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury Festival and... more
The Virgin-sponsored V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first major greenfield event in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury Festival and Carling Weekends, the event has struggled in the past to create a distinctive identity or to gain critical acceptance (especially amongst the more radical or countercultural of festival-goers and press). Managed by a consortium of highly successful concert promoters, it actively embraces commercialism, sponsorship deals and a forward-thinking ethos of quality and customer service. However, rather than escaping the countercultural and carnivalseque imagery and meanings historically associated with the greenfield rock music festival circuit, it has – to varying degrees - commodified, modernised or subverted them. In the process, it has gained considerable popularity amongst festival-goers and secured the plaudits of music industry professionals. The event is at the forefront of initiatives regarding festival policing and safety, and offers a role model for the many new commercial events that are established each year. This paper examines the management and marketing of the V Festival through a cultural economic focus - demonstrating how the beliefs and backgrounds of its organisers have influenced its organisation and image, and how these have helped to transform the greenfield music festival market. It then goes on to reflect on how the concept of the carnivalesque has been used in relation to greenfield music festivals more generally, and considers how it has become commodified, commercialised and sanitised in the management of the V Festival and cultural policy in general.
Research Interests:
The tenth edition of Solent University's SMILEfest Conference was held in March 2018, featuring a range of guest speakers and live events curated by students and staff within the BA Hons Music Promotion, BA Hons Music Management and BA... more
The tenth edition of Solent University's SMILEfest Conference was held in March 2018, featuring a range of guest speakers and live events curated by students and staff within the BA Hons Music Promotion, BA Hons Music Management and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism degree courses.
Guests included:
Alan McGee
Jon Stewart
Sarah Hall
Shadow Child
Julian Deane
Nick Halkes
Sabine G. Jones
Eckoes
Jagz Kooner
Joe Frankland
Emma McGann
Nina Condron
Guests included:
Alan McGee
Jon Stewart
Sarah Hall
Shadow Child
Julian Deane
Nick Halkes
Sabine G. Jones
Eckoes
Jagz Kooner
Joe Frankland
Emma McGann
Nina Condron
Research Interests:
SMILEfest is an annual, student-managed conference and live music event held annually in the city of Southampton and at Southampton Solent University each March. The 2016 conference event featured the following guest speakers: Angie... more
SMILEfest is an annual, student-managed conference and live music event held annually in the city of Southampton and at Southampton Solent University each March.
The 2016 conference event featured the following guest speakers:
Angie Somerside (Marketing Director, Epic Records)
Dannii Evans (artist manager and promoter)
Sarah Robertson (Head of Marketing at Colston Hall)
Sarah Howells (singer with Paper Aeroplanes)
Joel De'ath (Label Manager, Sony Records)
Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols/ Rich Kids/ The International Swingers)
Pennie Smith (legendary photographer)
Rachel Aggs (singer and guitarist with Shopping)
Nick Soulsby (author of Cobain on Cobain: interviews and encounters)
Neil Kulkarni (author of The Periodic Table of Hip Hop)
Matt Harvey (Paperhouse Music & Entertainment Management)
Neil Simpson (Artist manager at ATC Management)
Sophie Harris (Time Out NY)
Members of the bands Creeper & Bury Tomorrow
James McMahon (editor of Kerrang! magazine)
Richard Barbieri (keyboard./synthesizer player of of Japan, Porcupine Tree)
Anthony Reynolds (music journalist and biographer of the band Japan)
The live concert/clun night strand of SMILEfest 2016 featured over 20 events across a dozen venues, which were primarily organised and promoted by students on the BA Hons Music Promotion course.
The 2016 conference event featured the following guest speakers:
Angie Somerside (Marketing Director, Epic Records)
Dannii Evans (artist manager and promoter)
Sarah Robertson (Head of Marketing at Colston Hall)
Sarah Howells (singer with Paper Aeroplanes)
Joel De'ath (Label Manager, Sony Records)
Glen Matlock (Sex Pistols/ Rich Kids/ The International Swingers)
Pennie Smith (legendary photographer)
Rachel Aggs (singer and guitarist with Shopping)
Nick Soulsby (author of Cobain on Cobain: interviews and encounters)
Neil Kulkarni (author of The Periodic Table of Hip Hop)
Matt Harvey (Paperhouse Music & Entertainment Management)
Neil Simpson (Artist manager at ATC Management)
Sophie Harris (Time Out NY)
Members of the bands Creeper & Bury Tomorrow
James McMahon (editor of Kerrang! magazine)
Richard Barbieri (keyboard./synthesizer player of of Japan, Porcupine Tree)
Anthony Reynolds (music journalist and biographer of the band Japan)
The live concert/clun night strand of SMILEfest 2016 featured over 20 events across a dozen venues, which were primarily organised and promoted by students on the BA Hons Music Promotion course.
SMILEfest 2015 (www.smilefest.co.uk) ran for over three weeks during March 2015 and was once again almost entirely organised, managed and delivered by Southampton Solent University students studying BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons... more
SMILEfest 2015 (www.smilefest.co.uk) ran for over three weeks during March 2015 and was once again almost entirely organised, managed and delivered by Southampton Solent University students studying BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism, with the support of Solent Music (www.solentmusic.com) and students studying on numerous other courses throughout the university.
Key statistics:
• 3 x conferences, including support from the BPI, PPL, PRS, Louder Than War, and Unconvention
• 19 x Guest speakers, including John Robb interviewing Viv Albertine of the Slits | Gary Powell of the Libertines | Danny Howard of Radio 1 | Laura Snapes of the NME | legendary drum 'n bass producer Fabio | Mike Smith, President of Virgin EMI | DJ and label owner Alex Banks | tour manager Tre Stead | Zoe Miller, Head of Press at Mute Records | band manager Tony Crean | Mark Lawrence of the Association for Electronic Music | international marketing manager Anya Strafford | Ben Murphy of DJ Mag
• 8 x Graduate guest speakers
• 53 x bands and 12 x DJs performed across 12 venues throughout the city of Southampton, including its underground vaults and Guildhall Square
• 150+ student employability and enterprise style assignments within L5 and L6 BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism linked directly to the organisation of SMILEfest (including event management, event promotion, magazine production, online PR, social media, website design and management)
• 10+ course collaborations, including Event Management, Illustration, Multimedia Journalism, Television Studio Production
Key statistics:
• 3 x conferences, including support from the BPI, PPL, PRS, Louder Than War, and Unconvention
• 19 x Guest speakers, including John Robb interviewing Viv Albertine of the Slits | Gary Powell of the Libertines | Danny Howard of Radio 1 | Laura Snapes of the NME | legendary drum 'n bass producer Fabio | Mike Smith, President of Virgin EMI | DJ and label owner Alex Banks | tour manager Tre Stead | Zoe Miller, Head of Press at Mute Records | band manager Tony Crean | Mark Lawrence of the Association for Electronic Music | international marketing manager Anya Strafford | Ben Murphy of DJ Mag
• 8 x Graduate guest speakers
• 53 x bands and 12 x DJs performed across 12 venues throughout the city of Southampton, including its underground vaults and Guildhall Square
• 150+ student employability and enterprise style assignments within L5 and L6 BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism linked directly to the organisation of SMILEfest (including event management, event promotion, magazine production, online PR, social media, website design and management)
• 10+ course collaborations, including Event Management, Illustration, Multimedia Journalism, Television Studio Production
Research Interests:
SMILEfest 2014 (www.smilefest.co.uk) encompassed over three weeks of March and was once again almost entirely organised, managed and delivered by Southampton Solent University students studying BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular... more
SMILEfest 2014 (www.smilefest.co.uk) encompassed over three weeks of March and was once again almost entirely organised, managed and delivered by Southampton Solent University students studying BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism, with the support of Solent Music (www.solentmusic.com) and students studying on numerous other courses throughout the university.
Key statistics:
• 18 live gigs/club nights taking place in 13 venues across the city - from shops and galleries to the 700 capacity Mo Club.
• 54 music performances (including Solent students, local artists and nationally touring acts such as King Charles)
• 27 music industries guest speakers including:
Marcus Russell (manager of Oasis) | Kate Head (PR for Taylor Swift) | Lauren Eva (stylist for Robbie Williams, Emeli Sande and others) | WIZ (video director for Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal and others) | Tom Sheehan (photographer) | James McMahon (Kerrang! editor) | James Endeacott (A&R man who signed the Libertines) | John Kennedy (XFM DJ) | Tom Davies (Secretly Canadian) | Anna Moulson (Melting Vinyl) | Ruth Barnes (Amazing Radio) | Nosheen Iqbal (journalist) | Laura Barton (journalist)
• 150+ student employability and enterprise style assignments within L5 and L6 BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism linked directly to the organisation (including event management, event promotion, magazine production, online PR, social media, website design and management)
Key statistics:
• 18 live gigs/club nights taking place in 13 venues across the city - from shops and galleries to the 700 capacity Mo Club.
• 54 music performances (including Solent students, local artists and nationally touring acts such as King Charles)
• 27 music industries guest speakers including:
Marcus Russell (manager of Oasis) | Kate Head (PR for Taylor Swift) | Lauren Eva (stylist for Robbie Williams, Emeli Sande and others) | WIZ (video director for Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal and others) | Tom Sheehan (photographer) | James McMahon (Kerrang! editor) | James Endeacott (A&R man who signed the Libertines) | John Kennedy (XFM DJ) | Tom Davies (Secretly Canadian) | Anna Moulson (Melting Vinyl) | Ruth Barnes (Amazing Radio) | Nosheen Iqbal (journalist) | Laura Barton (journalist)
• 150+ student employability and enterprise style assignments within L5 and L6 BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism linked directly to the organisation (including event management, event promotion, magazine production, online PR, social media, website design and management)
"Highlights of SMILE 2013 included: Guest talks from: * Steve Strange ('80s pop legend and style guru, interviewed by award winning music critic Simon Price) * Andy Copping (Vice president of Live Nation) * Mark Jones (Head... more
"Highlights of SMILE 2013 included:
Guest talks from:
* Steve Strange ('80s pop legend and style guru, interviewed by award winning music critic Simon Price)
* Andy Copping (Vice president of Live Nation)
* Mark Jones (Head honcho of era-defining Wall of Sound records and presenter of BBC6 Music's Back to the Phuture
* John Robb (Legendary singer of punk band Gold Blade, award winning journalist and the man who invented Brit Pop)
Our annual demo jury, featuring the best in new music produced by students at Southampton Solent University. On the panel this year: Paul Gallagher (Creation Records A&R), Carl Loben (artist manager and DJ), Tones (Head of Press at One Little Indian records) and Rich Walker (Head of Press at Beggars Group).
Live music curated and event managed by students on the BA Hons Music Promotion course at Southampton Solent University.
More than 10 venues and over a week of performances, culminating in a show at the Southampton Guildhall headlined by legendary rock band Reverend and the Makers, with support from rising stars Little Comets and Sean McGowan, and students from Southampton Solent University and the winners of our annual Solent Sound college competition.
Solent Showcase presents Vinyl Revival - an art exhibition of iconic album covers featuring the personal memories of staff and students.
The Solent Museum of Ephemeral Curiosities - an Art Fair curated by Southampton Solent University's School of Art & Design"
Guest talks from:
* Steve Strange ('80s pop legend and style guru, interviewed by award winning music critic Simon Price)
* Andy Copping (Vice president of Live Nation)
* Mark Jones (Head honcho of era-defining Wall of Sound records and presenter of BBC6 Music's Back to the Phuture
* John Robb (Legendary singer of punk band Gold Blade, award winning journalist and the man who invented Brit Pop)
Our annual demo jury, featuring the best in new music produced by students at Southampton Solent University. On the panel this year: Paul Gallagher (Creation Records A&R), Carl Loben (artist manager and DJ), Tones (Head of Press at One Little Indian records) and Rich Walker (Head of Press at Beggars Group).
Live music curated and event managed by students on the BA Hons Music Promotion course at Southampton Solent University.
More than 10 venues and over a week of performances, culminating in a show at the Southampton Guildhall headlined by legendary rock band Reverend and the Makers, with support from rising stars Little Comets and Sean McGowan, and students from Southampton Solent University and the winners of our annual Solent Sound college competition.
Solent Showcase presents Vinyl Revival - an art exhibition of iconic album covers featuring the personal memories of staff and students.
The Solent Museum of Ephemeral Curiosities - an Art Fair curated by Southampton Solent University's School of Art & Design"
Highlights of SMILE 2012: • SMILE music and media industry guests talks including: - Zoe Ball - Rob da Bank - Kerrang editor James McMahon in conversation with The Blackout - Producers (Trevor Horn, Lol Creme and others) - Colin... more
Highlights of SMILE 2012:
• SMILE music and media industry guests talks including:
- Zoe Ball
- Rob da Bank
- Kerrang editor James McMahon in conversation with The Blackout
- Producers (Trevor Horn, Lol Creme and others)
- Colin Lester
- Joe Christie
- Alabama 3 (including acoustic session)
• SMILE Fringe - a weekend of multi-venue music and arts events
• SMILE live in the city – gigs in pubs, clubs and more unusual venues throughout the week
• SMILE in the Square – a one-day outdoor music festival
• SMILE ‘in a day’ challenges – masterclasses, live briefs and high pressure employability challenges
• SMILE music and media industry guests talks including:
- Zoe Ball
- Rob da Bank
- Kerrang editor James McMahon in conversation with The Blackout
- Producers (Trevor Horn, Lol Creme and others)
- Colin Lester
- Joe Christie
- Alabama 3 (including acoustic session)
• SMILE Fringe - a weekend of multi-venue music and arts events
• SMILE live in the city – gigs in pubs, clubs and more unusual venues throughout the week
• SMILE in the Square – a one-day outdoor music festival
• SMILE ‘in a day’ challenges – masterclasses, live briefs and high pressure employability challenges
The third annual SMILE - Solent Music Industries Live Event - has expanded into a five-day urban festival featuring numerous artists, guest speakers from the music industries, and workshops led by industry professionals. Southampton... more
The third annual SMILE - Solent Music Industries Live Event - has expanded into a five-day urban festival featuring numerous artists, guest speakers from the music industries, and workshops led by industry professionals.
Southampton Solent University students on the BA (Hons) Music Promotion and BA (Hons) Popular Music Journalism degrees are coordinating the event with the support of the Popular Music Scheme staff (which incorporates record production, music performance, music journalism, music promotion, and urban & electronic music).
City centre live events are open to the public.
This year's Industry guests include: Pat Pope (rock photographer) | Mark Cann (Glastonbury Festival) | Karen Piper (digital marketing agency Radar Maker) | Alan McGee (legendary manager and label owner) | Jon McClure (of Reverend and the Makers) | The Crave (in performance) | Gallows (in conversation with James McMahon) | Colin Lester (artist management). There will also be a Demo Panel featuring Nick Halkes and a range of special guests.
Live performances during the week include: The Widowmaker | Fly, Frankie Fly! | Cardinals | Influx | The Lost Boys | Morning Parade | Get Dexter | Ivienna | Identity Thief | Caolin Clay | King of Hearts | Where's Janine? | The Survivors of Fortune City | The Laurel Collective | Alaskan Pipeline | Etao Shin | Arp Attack | Silent Five | No Falcons | Serenity | Nato | Jackie Paper | Anja McCloskey | Lonely Joe Parker | Slim Pickens | Venice Ahoy and more
For further details of previous events and of the activities, guests and performances in place for 2011, please go to the SMILEfest website, follow us on Twitter, or join the facebook group.
www.smilefest.co.uk
http://www.twitter.com/smilefest11
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smile-Fest-11/105156166221019
Southampton Solent University students on the BA (Hons) Music Promotion and BA (Hons) Popular Music Journalism degrees are coordinating the event with the support of the Popular Music Scheme staff (which incorporates record production, music performance, music journalism, music promotion, and urban & electronic music).
City centre live events are open to the public.
This year's Industry guests include: Pat Pope (rock photographer) | Mark Cann (Glastonbury Festival) | Karen Piper (digital marketing agency Radar Maker) | Alan McGee (legendary manager and label owner) | Jon McClure (of Reverend and the Makers) | The Crave (in performance) | Gallows (in conversation with James McMahon) | Colin Lester (artist management). There will also be a Demo Panel featuring Nick Halkes and a range of special guests.
Live performances during the week include: The Widowmaker | Fly, Frankie Fly! | Cardinals | Influx | The Lost Boys | Morning Parade | Get Dexter | Ivienna | Identity Thief | Caolin Clay | King of Hearts | Where's Janine? | The Survivors of Fortune City | The Laurel Collective | Alaskan Pipeline | Etao Shin | Arp Attack | Silent Five | No Falcons | Serenity | Nato | Jackie Paper | Anja McCloskey | Lonely Joe Parker | Slim Pickens | Venice Ahoy and more
For further details of previous events and of the activities, guests and performances in place for 2011, please go to the SMILEfest website, follow us on Twitter, or join the facebook group.
www.smilefest.co.uk
http://www.twitter.com/smilefest11
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smile-Fest-11/105156166221019
Research Interests:
In the early twentieth century, Vaughan Cornish and others developed an aural aesthetic for English town and country planning which categorized sounds as ‘in place’ or ‘out of place’. Implicit to this was a moral geography and... more
In the early twentieth century, Vaughan Cornish and others developed an aural aesthetic for English town and country planning which categorized sounds as ‘in place’ or ‘out of place’. Implicit to this was a moral geography and idealisation of rural landscapes and Englishness which deemed loud music to be out of place in the countryside. Debates over the appropriateness of popular music in rural environments have continued, with a particular emphasis placed on open-air festivals and raves which have attracted local fears and distrust. However, it may be argued that some events, such as Fairport Convention’s annual event at Cropredy in Oxfordshire, are now an integral part of the cultural identity and contemporary rural economy of their host locations. In the process, such events have helped to reposition both ‘traditional’ ideas of the rural idyll and its concomitant Englishness
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The last ten years has seen a significant expansion of the British music festival scene, with many hundreds of events now held every year. Of these, more than a quarter are held on rural greenfield sites which offer an escape from urban... more
The last ten years has seen a significant expansion of the British music festival scene, with many hundreds of events now held every year. Of these, more than a quarter are held on rural greenfield sites which offer an escape from urban life and stresses, and the ephemeral appropriation of space and nature. A number of existing theoretical approaches to understanding the material and symbolic construction and reconstruction of such festivals are examined and critiqued in this chapter. These include Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of the carnivalesque and Victor Turner’s conception of the liminal and liminoid. The author then draws on Rob Shields’ theory of social spatialization to propose the concept of ‘cyclic places’ which are characterised by a sense of uniqueness and structured through processes of continuity and change. Case study material will be drawn from a study of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention: a mid-scale festival in rural Oxfordshire run by the English folk-rock pioneers Fairp...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Virgin-sponsored V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first major greenfield event in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury Festival and... more
The Virgin-sponsored V Festival has been held since 1996, and was the first major greenfield event in Britain to be held at two sites simultaneously over one weekend. Developed as a mainstream alternative to the Glastonbury Festival and Carling Weekends, the event has struggled in the past to create a distinctive identity or to gain critical acceptance (especially amongst the more radical or countercultural of festival-goers and press). Managed by a consortium of highly successful concert promoters, it actively embraces commercialism, sponsorship deals and a forward-thinking ethos of quality and customer service. However, rather than escaping the countercultural and carnivalseque imagery and meanings historically associated with the greenfield rock music festival circuit, it has – to varying degrees - commodified, modernised or subverted them. In the process, it has gained considerable popularity amongst festival-goers and secured the plaudits of music industry professionals. The ev...
Research Interests:
There has been a marked resurgence of academic, media and commercial interest in progressive rock music over the last fifteen years, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. However,... more
There has been a marked resurgence of academic, media and commercial interest in progressive rock music over the last fifteen years, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. However, much of this work has discussed progressive rock through a ‘symphonic orthodoxy’ which preferences a limited, though commercially successful, range of British groups which operated in a relatively narrow sonic landscape during the early to mid-1970s. This presentation questions that orthodoxy by drawing on the lay definitions and understandings of fans to extend the scope of progressive rock both musically and geographically. It focuses on the formative years of progressive rock at the beginning of the 1970s, and argues that progressive rock was inspired by the explorations of a European youth counterculture whose music was influenced by local socio-political and economic contexts, as well as by the music and attitudes of the American counterculture ...
Research Interests:
There has been a marked resurgence of academic, media and commercial interest in progressive rock music over the last fifteen years, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. However,... more
There has been a marked resurgence of academic, media and commercial interest in progressive rock music over the last fifteen years, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. However, much of this work has discussed progressive rock through a ‘symphonic orthodoxy’ which preferences a limited, though commercially successful, range of British groups which operated in a relatively narrow sonic landscape during the early to mid-1970s. This presentation questions that orthodoxy by drawing on the lay definitions and understandings of fans to extend the scope of progressive rock both musically and geographically. It focuses on the formative years of progressive rock at the beginning of the 1970s, and argues that progressive rock was inspired by the explorations of a European youth counterculture whose music was influenced by local socio-political and economic contexts, as well as by the music and attitudes of the American counterculture ...
Research Interests:
Academic and popular accounts of, and interest in, progressive rock have seen an up-turn in interest over the past decade; yet this has largely (though by no means exclusively) focused on the commercial heyday of its British proponents in... more
Academic and popular accounts of, and interest in, progressive rock have seen an up-turn in interest over the past decade; yet this has largely (though by no means exclusively) focused on the commercial heyday of its British proponents in the early- to mid-1970s. In many accounts the emergence of punk-rock in the mid-1970s is characterized as delivering a final death blow to the overblown pretentiousness of progressive rock, following which it falls into free-fall decline. Progressive rock’s persistence as an underground form supported by dedicated fanzines, magazines, websites, record companies and festivals is given some consideration, especially in more recent publications, but developments in the late 1970s and 1980s tend not to be examined in any great detail. This presentation draws on the example of British neo-progressive rock in order to examine the survival and transformation of progressive rock in the late-1970s and 1980s. In doing so it questions common notions of ‘progr...
Research Interests:
Introduction to the book Media Narratives in Popular Music (BLoomsbury Academic, 2022)
Research Interests:
Music festivals may become intimately associated with the locations which host them. For a few days each year, these sites take on a life of their own, with their own accommodation, entertainments, social experience, retail opportunities... more
Music festivals may become intimately associated with the locations which host them. For a few days each year, these sites take on a life of their own, with their own accommodation, entertainments, social experience, retail opportunities and policing. They form temporary villages or towns that are constructed and annually re-constructed in their own image by festival organizers and attendees, and increasingly mediated through traditional and online media by organizers, sponsors, broadcasters and festivalgoers. Drawing primarily on British examples and theoretical developments presented in <i>Music Festivals in the UK. Beyond the Carnivalesque</i> (Anderton, 2019), this presentation examines the spaces and places of such events in terms of their ephemerality and continuity, and of the distinctions made by cultural geographers between <i>space</i> and <i>place</i>. It also introduces the new concepts of 'cyclic place' and 'meta-sociality...
Research Interests:
Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it directly to consumers. The traditional economic relations and... more
Technological developments in home recording and internet distribution mean that it is now easier than ever before for musicians both to create music and to distribute it directly to consumers. The traditional economic relations and structures of the recording and copyright industries may largely be bypassed through processes of disintermediation, and musicians have much greater control over their own recorded works than is typically afforded by the commercial recording companies. Many musicians have adopted alternative strategies for making their music available to the public, and it is on one broad subset of these musicians that this paper will focus.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The SMILE Festival was first held in 2009 as a single afternoon of guest speakers. Since 2011 it has included live music concerts and club nights, a music industries conference, and a range of special events and challenges which not only... more
The SMILE Festival was first held in 2009 as a single afternoon of guest speakers. Since 2011 it has included live music concerts and club nights, a music industries conference, and a range of special events and challenges which not only engage with the music industries, but with the broader media and entertainment industries . The organisation and management of the festival has to a large extent become embedded within the assessed curriculum of a range of units and courses, where it is driven by students and staff working together. Each year, the festival responds to the ideas of the students involved in the core activities of the festival (BA Hons Music Promotion and BA Hons Popular Music Journalism), plus suggestions from students studying on other courses. This allows the festival to innovate, grow, and address the needs and interests of the students, whilst also providing a platform for students to promote their music, media and other projects. The festival has forged collabora...
Research Interests:
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. Extant histories and media coverage suggest that by the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful... more
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. Extant histories and media coverage suggest that by the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful acts had either broken up, run out of steam, or begun to adopt a more mainstream, radio-friendly style. However, ‘progressive’ rock enjoyed a nascent revival in the early 1980s that had continuities with the 1970s, yet developed in its own particular ways. This chapter explores the history and media of the early 1980s progressive revival, and questions the use of the term ‘neo-progressive’ (now typically used to refer to this period of music and to a network of styles that supposedly developed from it). It considers both how bands sought to gain broader popularity/record deals, and how they were supported in their endeavours by trans-local scenes and specific infrastructures and individuals. The paper concludes by suggesting various reasons for the f...
Research Interests:
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. By the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful acts had run out of steam, broken up, or begun to... more
Progressive rock’s ‘golden age’ is typically defined as a decade beginning in the late 1960s and ending in the late 1970s. By the late 1970s progressive rock’s most visible and successful acts had run out of steam, broken up, or begun to adopt a more mainstream, radio-friendly style. However, ‘progressive’ rock enjoyed a nascent revival in the early 1980s that had continuities with the 1970s, yet developed and declined in its own particular ways. The most successful band of the revival was undoubtedly Marillion, whose initial recordings betray a debt to Gabriel-era Genesis of the mid-1970s, while other bands also drew on mid-1970s Pink Floyd, Camel and so on (in addition to a variety of other influences). Sheinbaum (2008) notes that it may be appropriate, therefore, to consider the ‘progressive’ rock music of the early 1980s UK through Adorno’s discourse of ‘late style’, where conventional formulae and contemporary commercial tendencies are utilised in order to interact with the cha...
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This presentation proposes the notion of the pseudo- record label, defined as a (typically, though not always) not-for-profit participatory network of creative fans that produce cultural artefacts such as live concert bootlegs (also known... more
This presentation proposes the notion of the pseudo- record label, defined as a (typically, though not always) not-for-profit participatory network of creative fans that produce cultural artefacts such as live concert bootlegs (also known as Recordings of Illegitimate Origin or ROIO) for distribution to other fans within the network. These pseudo- record labels take on some of the functions of a traditional record label. For instance, they act as ‘expert filters’ (Baym & Burnett 2009) to source, sort, edit and remaster concert recordings in search of the most complete, representative and/or best quality audio available. They create artwork for the recordings in order to produce a complete package, and also arrange various methods of distribution and marketing to fans within their networks. In the process they build a sense of security and trust in a collaboratively-produced yet non-official brand that is used to curate an alternative live archive of particular artists. The processes...
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This chapter adds to a growing subfield of music festival studies by examining the business practices and cultures of the commercial outdoor sector, with a particular focus on rock, pop, and dance music events. The events of this sector... more
This chapter adds to a growing subfield of music festival studies by examining the business practices and cultures of the commercial outdoor sector, with a particular focus on rock, pop, and dance music events. The events of this sector require substantial financial and other capital in order to be staged and achieve success, yet the market is highly volatile, with relatively few festivals managing to attain longevity. It is argued that these events must balance their commercial needs with the socio-cultural expectations of their audiences for hedonistic, carnivalesque experiences that draw on countercultural understanding of festival culture (the countercultural carnivalesque). This balancing act has come into increased focus as corporate promoters, brand sponsors, and venture capitalists have sought to dominate the market in the neoliberal era of late capitalism. The chapter examines the riskiness and volatility of the sector before examining contemporary economic strategies for r...
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This chapter explores the relationship between outdoor rock and pop music festivals and the sponsorship of commercial brands. Drawing on the UK market, it discusses the increasing importance of sponsorship deals to many festival... more
This chapter explores the relationship between outdoor rock and pop music festivals and the sponsorship of commercial brands. Drawing on the UK market, it discusses the increasing importance of sponsorship deals to many festival organisers and defines, historicises and explores various forms of sponsorship activity in terms of leveraging and activation. Three main strategies are then suggested through which festival organisers deal (or not) with commercial sponsors. It also draws on the notion of the ‘countercultural carnivalesque’ to examine why sponsorship and branding at outdoor rock and pop music festivals may be viewed with suspicion by some festival organisers, commentators and audiences, and then draws briefly on postmodern arguments to help understand why sponsorship deals have become accepted by other types of audience.
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This chapter reconsiders the historiography of progressive rock - a genre regularly presented as distinctively British. Using the "lay discourses" of fans, the variety and geographies of progressive rock are investigated,... more
This chapter reconsiders the historiography of progressive rock - a genre regularly presented as distinctively British. Using the "lay discourses" of fans, the variety and geographies of progressive rock are investigated, including a case study of 1970s Italian progressive rock. Italy has been chosen as an example because of Bill Martin’s suggestion that bands such as Premiata Forneria Marconi had seemed to have emerged ‘full grown from the head of Jupiter’ (Martin, 1998: 210). It explores the musical and social influences and early history of Italian progressive rock, and calls for European contributions to progressive rock to be explored more fully. .
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In histories of rock and popular music, progressive rock is usually regarded as a distinctly British musical genre which emerged in the late 1960s, flourished in the early 1970s, and was rendered irrelevant by punk rock in the mid- to... more
In histories of rock and popular music, progressive rock is usually regarded as a distinctly British musical genre which emerged in the late 1960s, flourished in the early 1970s, and was rendered irrelevant by punk rock in the mid- to late-1970s. Descriptive classifications are often used to define the genre, using criteria that paradoxically narrow the scope of the music whilst also attempting to encompass its diversity. Kevin Holm-Hudson’s (2002) edited collection eschews the more totalising aspects of such histories by adopting close readings of songs and lyrics, yet the contributors continue to focus their attention on the most successful and high profile groups of 1970s Britain. There is relatively little sense that progressive rock persisted through the 1980s and beyond, or that there has been a resurgence of interest amongst fans in recent years. In addition, the European contribution to progressive rock remains largely sidetracked. Where discussed, European bands are often dealt with rather cursorily, dismissed as imitative or, as with Bill Martin’s commentary on the Italian progressive rock scene, deemed to have emerged ‘full grown from the head of Jupiter’ (Martin, 1998: 210). This paper questions and critiques the existing histories of progressive rock, and adopts definitions drawn from the lay discourses of progressive rock fans. It also calls for European contributions to progressive rock to be explored more fully, in order to understand the cultural role of this music in its spatial and temporal contexts
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PurposeThis paper aims to examine the cultural heritage of outdoor rock and pop music festivals in Britain since the mid‐1960s, and relates it to developments in, and critiques of, corporate sponsorship in the contemporary music festival... more
PurposeThis paper aims to examine the cultural heritage of outdoor rock and pop music festivals in Britain since the mid‐1960s, and relates it to developments in, and critiques of, corporate sponsorship in the contemporary music festival sector.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses extant research materials to construct an account of British music festival history since the mid‐1960s. It then draws upon Bakhtin's concept of the carnivalesque and the literature on sponsorship, experiential marketing and branding, in order to understand critiques of corporate sponsorship and the changing nature of the sector.FindingsOutdoor rock and pop music festivals were dominated by the ideologies of a “countercultural carnivalesque” from the late 1960s until the mid‐1990s. In the 1990s, changes in legislation began a process of professionalization, corporatization, and a reliance on brand sponsorships. Two broad trajectories are identified within the contemporary sector: one is strongly r...
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There has been a marked resurgence of interest in progressive rock music both commercially and critically, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. Despite this, there has been a... more
There has been a marked resurgence of interest in progressive rock music both commercially and critically, with a number of articles and books now reassessing its styles, meanings, politics and appeal. Despite this, there has been a tendency to define progressive rock through a ‘symphonic orthodoxy’ which preferences a limited, albeit highly successful, number of British groups operating in a relatively narrow sonic landscape. This article questions that orthodoxy by drawing on the lay definitions and understandings of fans to extend the definitions and geographies of progressive rock, and to characterise it as a European meta-genre. It examines the meta-genre's formative years at the beginning of the 1970s, and argues that progressive rock was inspired by the explorations of a European youth counterculture whose music was influenced by local socio-political and economic contexts, as well as by the music and attitudes of the American counterculture and of European Romanticism.
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The historical significance of music-makers, music scenes, and music genres has long been mediated through academic and popular press publications such as magazines, films, and television documentaries. Media Narratives in Popular Music... more
The historical significance of music-makers, music scenes, and music genres has long been mediated through academic and popular press publications such as magazines, films, and television documentaries. Media Narratives in Popular Music examines these various publications and questions how and why they are constructed. It considers the typically linear narratives that are based on simplifications, exaggerations, and omissions and the histories they construct - an approach that leads to totalizing “official” histories that reduce otherwise messy narratives to one-dimensional interpretations of a heroic and celebratory nature. This book questions the basis on which these mediated histories are constructed, highlights other, hidden, histories that have otherwise been neglected, and explores a range of topics including consumerism, the production pressure behind documentaries, punk fanzines, Rolling Stones covers, and more.
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The popular recording industry has traditionally followed a mass-market productivist model which treats music fans as passive, rather than active, consumers. As a result, there has been a failure to understand or meet the demands of fans... more
The popular recording industry has traditionally followed a mass-market productivist model which treats music fans as passive, rather than active, consumers. As a result, there has been a failure to understand or meet the demands of fans for live and archive (unreleased studio) material, or an inability or unwillingness to satisfy them. In the past, this shortfall of live concert recordings and archive material has been filled by a combination of commercial bootlegging and non-commercial trading. Music industry trade associations regard both of these as forms of audio piracy; as a challenge to the commodification of popular music and the exploitation of copyrights. They demonize all forms of trading activity and the music fans who engage in them – even though some artists authorize and support non-commercial trading. This chapter discusses notions of the passive/active audience, and provides a history of not-for-profit audio trading and the distribution systems used. It also investigates the motivations and moralities of non-commercial traders, prior to exploring the various promotional and commercial opportunities of a more service-oriented approach to satisfying the needs of music consumers and fans.
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In this presentation, music fans are characterised as cultural intermediaries who have important roles to play within popular music culture. They are active not only in curating, collecting and archiving the material culture produced and... more
In this presentation, music fans are characterised as cultural intermediaries who have important roles to play within popular music culture. They are active not only in curating, collecting and archiving the material culture produced and circulated by the music industries, but also in creating, organising, discussing and circulating their own materials/information. The development of online networks of communication, storage and distribution has allowed more fans to engage in these practices, but has also led to conflicts regarding copyright and ownership, and to the apparent co-opting of fan networks, products and free labour for the commercial gain of the music industries. This talk will discuss two forms of fan-led cultural production. Firstly, there is the not-for-profit trading of live concert recordings, including remaster projects and pseudo- record labels created by fans and fan networks. These curate, collect and distribute recordings of live performances that would not oth...
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The post-Millennial expansion of music festivals in the UK has been accompanied by a marked upsurge in sponsorship and branding activities (Anderton 2009). These sponsorship and branding activities provide the necessary financial and... more
The post-Millennial expansion of music festivals in the UK has been accompanied by a marked upsurge in sponsorship and branding activities (Anderton 2009). These sponsorship and branding activities provide the necessary financial and marketing support required by many events in order to survive in an increasingly competitive and saturated market, but they also raise questions regarding the ‘true meaning’ of festivals. In particular, there is a tension between a once prevailing understanding of music festivals as spaces of countercultural critique and alternative models of living in the country, and their contemporary position as important leisure and tourist resources that are positively mediated through radio, television, magazines and the internet (Anderton 2011). This tension is perhaps felt most keenly at rock and pop music festivals held in rural locations, where historical associations with the hippie counterculture and New Age Travellers of the 1970s and 1980s have created lo...
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This presentation examines the role of music fans as cultural intermediaries who are active in the curation, archiving and promotion of progressive rock music. Fans not only work with the official products of the music industries, but... more
This presentation examines the role of music fans as cultural intermediaries who are active in the curation, archiving and promotion of progressive rock music. Fans not only work with the official products of the music industries, but also create, organise, discuss and circulate their own materials/information. In each case, fans act as ‘expert filters’ (Baym & Burnett, 2009) to source, sort, and upload/distribute music which has either been ‘forgotten’ by the mainstream recorded music industries (i.e. unavailable to purchase or to stream legally), or which has never otherwise been made officially available to the public by the bands or their representatives. The latter relates to live concert recordings (also known as ROIO, or ‘records of illegitimate origin’) which are sourced, edited, remastered and packaged by fans as not-for-profit bootlegs (Anderton, 2006). The former includes a range of internet blogs that publish links to music downloads via cyberlockers or video streaming s...
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The outdoor or Greenfield music festival sector of the live music industries has expanded considerably in both numerical and economic terms over the past decade. The sector is highly volatile and inherently risky since these events are at... more
The outdoor or Greenfield music festival sector of the live music industries has expanded considerably in both numerical and economic terms over the past decade. The sector is highly volatile and inherently risky since these events are at the mercy of the British weather, and are often reliant on gate receipts which are collected long after substantial initial investments have been made in securing bands and constructing the festival site. In addition, local authority licensing terms and the increasing costs of policing, security and insurance place considerable financial pressure upon festival promoters (many of which are small independents or volunteer-run). Corporate sponsorship has become an important way to offset these risks and meet set-up costs. However, sponsors and promoters must negotiate a fine balance between commercial motivations and a cultural heritage of outdoor rock and pop events associated with youth rebellion, anti-commercial attitudes and countercultural politi...
This presentation discusses the strategies of brand sponsors at music festivals and questions the congruence or 'fit' between the music festival sector and sponsorship activities in terms of the cultural history of the sector.
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Research Interests:
This article examines the narrative construction of two British music festival films, Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995) and Glastonbury Fayre (1972): films which demonstrate narratives and techniques familiar from... more
This article examines the narrative construction of two British music festival films, Message to Love: the Isle of Wight Festival (1995) and Glastonbury Fayre (1972): films which demonstrate narratives and techniques familiar from Woodstock – Three Days of Peace and Music (1970). I argue that these films, which portray the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival and the 1971 Glastonbury Fayre, have helped to construct and reinforce what I refer to as the “countercultural carnivalesque” – a way of thinking about festival culture that is informed by a particular understanding of the youth counterculture of the late-1960s.