The Music Industry

Transcription

The Music Industry

Krister Malm: “The Music Industry”, in Helen Myers (Hg.): Ethnomusicology. An Introduction. London: Macmillan 1992,
S. 349-364
CHAPTER XV
The Music Industry
KRISTER MALM
Music technology
When general technology is applied to musi c, one speaks of music technology.
Making even a simple musical instrument requires a certain technology. In
common usc, however, th e term musi c technology refers to the specific
mechanical, electro-mechanical and elect ronic technologies that deve loped
in Europe and North America during th e 19th and 20th centuries. As these
technologies have been applied to music, profound changes have resulted.
These techn ologies unti l recently have been part of the expertise mainl y of
industrialized co untries. But the products resulting from th e application of
th e technologies due to beller communications, colonization and worldwide
transport have been introduced to all continents, starting in the 19th ce ntury
and with accelerating momentum during th e 20th century. The two main
categories of products arc hardware, usuall y some kind of ' music machine',
and software, that is packaged musical data to be processed and decoded into
music with the help ofhardware.
Musical instruments form a special category of hardware, being used more
as tools than as machines. The construction of conventional musical
instruments in almost all cultures has been improved by the use of mechanical
technology. During the 19th century the mechanical design of keyboard
instruments became morc sophisticated, a nd wind instruments got valves.
Mechanical and semi-mechanical instruments were in ve nted , such as musi c
boxes and pianolas. The consequence of these developments has bee n a
subject well-ex plored by traditional organology.
Another kind of hardware is electronic equipment that, combined with
conventional musical instruments, goes to make up electro-mechanical
systems such as microphones, amplifiers a nd loudspeakers. Yel another
category of hardware is the media machines: phonographs, gramophones, all
kinds of radio, TV, CD players, film and video equipment.
Software includes the many kinds of recordings such as phonograph
cylinders, record s, audio cassettes and compact discs, as well as film and
video-recordings and laser video discs.
Electronic musical instruments such as electric organs and synthesizers
combine software and hardware in one unit.
All these products have been linked to industrialization in the field of music;
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Gerd Grupe: Musikkulturen der Welt – Ausgewählte Texte
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S. 349-364
Ethnomusicology: an Introduction
most modern music tcchnology is actually music-industry technology. The
industrialization process has in turn been linked with monetary economy, with
profitability 'laws' rel evant to mass production and wit h the establishment of
international music and media corporations . Since this is a fairly homogeneous conglomerate of phenomena, usuall y introduced at the same lime into the
music culture ofdifTerent geographical regions and ethn ic groups, it is difficult
to single out the effects of technological d evelopments from those of economic
and organizational de ve lopments in the areas. Howf'ver, it is possible to
describ e some of this interaction between mu sic industry technology (i ncluding related eco nomi c and organizational phenomena) and traditional music.
Recording technology
The single technologica l de velo pment that has most influenced the field of
music is the inven tion of sou nd recording in 1877. For the first lime people had
the ability to preserve, transport and reproduce at a specific time and place
sounds that were ori ginall y produced elsewhere. During the period 1877- 90
recordin g was main ly used for speech and only to a limited extent for music. By
the mid-1890s two systems were available . First was the Edison phonograph
system, which used wax cylinders and could both record and play back on the
same machine, representing record /play or two-way recording technology.
The other, the Berliner gramophone system, was built on play only or one-way
recordin g technology. It was designed for the mass production of sound
recordings throu gh a number of stages, from the recording of the sound onto
an original wax disc, through the production of metal stampcrs, to the pressing
of a numb er of identical gramophone discs to be played back on a special
machin e, the gramophone. 'rhe Edison phonograph became the most
important tool in the early docu mentation of sound [or research purposes,
while th e Berliner gramophone became the main vehicle of the commercial
recordin g industry.
The principles of th e gra moph one record have, in gradually more sophisticated vers io ns, remained essentially thc same until the 1980s, when laser
compact-disc technol ogy was laun ched. In the 1930s, cutting equipment for
one-off acetate lacquer di scs was d eveloped; by the 1950s, both the cylinder
and the lacquer disc were replaced by the record/play system of tapereco rding technology.
The commercial recording industry
Although there were some preludes in the 19th century, it was on ly after tht>
turn of the centu ry that the commercial recording industry started to grow.
The growth was based on sales of hardware, that is phonographs and
gramophones, w ith recorded music on cylinders and discs as the main
soft wa re. The recording indust ry right from the start was concentrated in a fcw
companies, mainly due to th e restricting effect of patents. In the USA the
dominant companies were the Victor Talkin g Machine Company (later
RCA), the Columbia Phonograph Company (later CBS), a nd the Edison
Company. In Europe the British Gramophone Company (later EM I), the
German Lindstrom Company (later Polygram) and the French Pathe
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Ethical Concerns and New Directions: The Music Industry
Company dominated the industry. Beside th ese six companies a number of
smaller co ncerns were operating, es pecially in Europe, but most of th e big
trans-n a lional music corporations of toda y are direc t descendants of those six
earl y compa ni es.
The ex pansion of the reco rding industry was rapid. By 19 10 th e six big
comp a nies had es tablish ed branches not on ly throu ghout Eu rope and South
Ameri ca but also in Asia and Africa. The gramophon e did not require a ny
special opera tin g skill s. \"-'ith its clockwork mechanism and acoustic
a mplifica tion, it could be used by anybody anywhere. Reco rding companies
soo n fo und that in order to sell gra mophon es th ey had to pro vi de records of
music th at was in de mand by potcntial customers. I n Europe and the USA thc
light music and art musi c of the upper classes had become fairly homogeneous
in the whole area during the 19th ce ntury, partl y du e to the activ ities of musi c
publishing com pa nies and of intern a ti onal impresa rios like P. T. Barnum.
Since the upper classes also were the peo p le who could afford a gramophone,
the recording industry co ncentrated on th e established internation a l musi c
styles in Europe a nd th e Americas. This stra tegy woul d not work in other parts
of the worl d: recordings of local music h ad to be made in each region and
language a rea.
In 1902 the Gramophone Compa ny se nt a yo ung America n, Fred Ga isberg,
to India a nd other Asian cou ntri es to 'open up new ma rkets, cstablish
agenci es, and acquire a catalogu e of native records' (Gaisberg, 1942; Gronow,
1981). At about the same time Fred's brother Will Gaisberg and others were
sent to Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine and elsewhere in the Ru ssian empire. In
1903 Fritz Hampe of th e Gramophone Company started to reco rd in Cairo
and in 1907 a regional branch of th e Gramophone Co mpany was established
in Alexandria. This bra nch carried out activities in the Nca r East, 'T urkey,
Greece a nd Alban ia, whil e a French branch was active in Morocco, Alge ria
a nd Tunisia.
By 1910 th e Gra mophone Company, partly owned by Victor, had madc
over 14,000 recordings th ro ughout Asia and North Africa (Perkin s, K ell y and
Ward , 19 76) excluding the Caucasus and Central Asia. In an agrec ment of
1907 the two companies di vided th e world market into two separate spheres of
interest. Victor go t the Americas, China,] apa n and the Philippines, whi le the
Gramophone Company got the rest of the world. Columbia was ac ti ve in Latin
Ameri ca, Japan, C hin a a nd Eastern Europe. The Pathc Comp a ny had
branches in North Africa, Russia a nd J apa n. The Lindstrom Company and
other German co mpan ies were recording in Nort h a nd South Africa, the Near
Eas t, Southern Asia and the Far East.
In Europe, th e U SA a nd Latin America the rccording com panies soon
ta pped the uppcr-class market a nd then turn ed to issue reco rd s oflocal musi c.
In th e USA , special record series were made for differcI1l ethnic groups
(Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish and U kraini an) . In Latin America, recordings
we re made in the Caribbean Islan ds and on the main land. Gradua lly the
recording industry began introducing music from one cou ntry to the others.
The flow was mainly from the USA and E urope, but there were also cases of
local music from Latin America being exported to the USA and Europe (for
exampl e, th e iI1lroduction of the Argentini an tango to Europe in the earl y
1900s) .
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S. 349-364
By 1914 recording technology had been introduced to local music cui lUres
in almost all parts of the world and the gramophone record was wellestablished as a mass medium. Although in man y places only a few recordings we[e issued with local music, to help sell the hardware locall y, these
recordings must have influenced the further development of local music,
si nce they usually were highly regarded and could be replayed over and over.
World War I put an end to the first period of intensive activities of
recording companies. After the war the expansion of the recording industry
picked up momentum. In the USA man y local music styles were affected,
especially different kinds of African-American music. By 1930 independent
or semi-independent record com panies had been started in some countries of
the Third ""orId Oapan, India and Egypt), but the dominance ora few big
companies continued. Recording activities started in West and East Africa
around 1930.
New electric recording technology and the emergence of radio in the 1920s
brought new hardware and more sophisticated software on the market. The
introduction of sound movies around 1930, the activities of radio corporations and the worldwide depression halted the expansion of the recording
industry until the 1960s.
The introduction of tape-recording in the 1950s made it possible to record
long sequences of music outside special recording studios. The long-pla ying
disc was the major means of marketing these recordings, but the 78 rpm
record still dominated the market in the Third World, since electricity was
needed to run open-reel tape recorders and LP playback sysLems.
In the 1960s locall y O\vned recording companies were established in many
of the newly independent countries of the Third World. These companies
had their own recording studios but were in most cases still dependent on the
big trans-national companies for mass production. The records mainly
contained local popular music or representative, nationalistic music
sponsored by the new ruling local clites.
The introduction of tran sistorized amplifiers and cassette tape-recording
technology around 1965 meant that relatively inexpensive, easy to usc
record/play technology was available. The cassette radio-recorders could
work on small batteries and be taken anywhere. The cassette recording
technology penetrated in a very short time from a rou nd 1973 to 1980 into
almost ~vny human s~ ttlrm~nt on the: glohf'. Bf'forf' roarls, runnin g watn
and mains electricity, cassette recorders and amplifiers reached the most
remote villages. And with the recorders came the software, most of it
produced by a few trans-national corporations. By the early 1980s for th e
first time the world had a yo uth population where almost everybody had
heard the music of the Western superstars of the 19 70s: the BeeGees, ABBA,
Boney M and MichaelJackson.
Low-cost cassette technology also soon gave rise to a booming Third
World local recording industry . This industry is partly based on recordings
of local music, and partl y on the reissuing of hit records originally published
by the trans-national companies. Reissuing is extremely profitable since little
investment is required and fees are not paid to performers. It is also illegal
according to copyright legislation in most countries. As this legislation is
seldom enforced, the so-called 'cassette pirates' thri ve.
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S. 349-364
By the mid-1980s the trans-national music industry launched a new highcost, one-way music medium - the compact disc. Around the corner, however,
lurks a low-cost, two-way version of digital sound recording technology; the
digital audio tape. Soon personal computers will also be used to distribute
music to the masses. or course these changes will in time also alIcet the
recording industry in the Third World.
Although many new companies have started over the years, they have
usually been integrated into the structure of the handful of big companies that
were producing bOlh the hardware and the software right from the start.
Through mergers and take-overs the link between electronic hardware and
software production has been maintained so that by the 1980s, in spite of the
local cassette industry boom, more than 50 per cent of all commercial
recordings sold worldwide were produced by eight trans-national companies.
The aim of the commercial recording industry is of course to makc money.
During the first expansion period recordings orlocal music were made in order
to sell the hardware. I n the 1920s the selling or records became a profitable
business; the more copies sold of a recording, the higher the profit. With the
spread of broadcasting - to a grcat extent bascd on commercial records - and
later film and television, the recording industry acquired very efficient
marketing channels .
The strategy became to sell the same music to as many customers as
possible. This meant finding the lowest common musical denominator for the
largest possible market. Sinee the biggest single market was, and still is, the
English-speaking communities of North America and Europe, it wa:) the target
of the bulk of record production. The Spanish-, French- and German-speaking
markets and some others were also big enough to make record production
aimed at them profitable. As investment costs in studio and mass reproduction
equipment rose, it became harder to produce records for small language and
music culture areas at a profit. This trend was temporarily halted by cassette
technology but has culminated in the very high costs of compact-disc
production. As a result, small cult ure areas have mainly served as marginal
markets for the sale of left-overs from the larger mass markets. This situation
can lead to the total integration of the smaller music cultures into the larger
ones, starting with a change in the musical preferences of youth groups in the
smaller cultures.
Soon the recording industry discovered that small cultures could provide
music to be sold to a larger audience not belonging to the small cullure itself
The big companies have used these small music cultures as sources of new
music to market, most of the time in adapted second-hand versions. The blues,
jazz, the tango to the bossa nova, indian film music and reggae are a few of the
many examples of this phenomenon. Small local recording companies first put
recordings of such minority musics on the market, fulfilling the role of testers
and risk takers. in order to keep track of what is catching on, the major
companies try to handle the distribution of records from small companies.
They often provide the mass-reproduction equipment and sometimes even the
recording studios, thus keeping control of production facilities and at the same
time casing the burden of investment for small companies. I n this way there is
both competition a nd sym biosis between the trans-national and the small
local companies.
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Etlmomusicology: an Introduction
Technology and ethnomusicology
Record / play versions of recording technology, from the phonograph to th e
multitrack cassette 'po rt as tudio' a nd dig ita l recording equi pment, have been
ofg rcat importa nce to cthnomusico logy. Thc possibility of reco rding mus ic in
th e field and instantl y playing it back there opened up a wh ole world of new
methods for stud ying music. Combina tions of reco rd ed sou nd a nd still o r
moving pi ctures (film and video) made th e method ological possibili ties even
greater. Th e systemati c recording of traditi ona l and o th er mu sir:s for scientific
purposes had started before the turn of th e centu ry. In 1899 the first so und
archive was esta blished in Vienna, D er Phonog ra m marc hi v der Osterreichischen Akademie del' Wissensc haften, which is still ac tive. Late r ma ny mo re
archi ves wc re es ta blished a t uni versities or by governm ent au tho ri ties, and
radio stations also com pil ed a rchi ves of recordin gs of tradi tional music. T he
aims of these archi ves we re often quite d ifferent from those of the co mmercial
reco rdi ng industry. "Vh ile ethn omusicologis ts ge nerall y reco rded ceremonia l
and other music belonging to closed co ntex ts a nd sma ll popu la tions, the m usic
industry record ed more wi des pread kinds of en terta inment m usic. Today both
ca tegories of reco rdin gs provide importan t so urce materia l for eth nomusicological research .
Some of the music collected as pa rt of cthnomusicological fie ld work has a lso
bee n published as commerci al record s. T here were a few remarka ble seri es of
such re cordings of ethni c and fo lk mu sic iss ued on 78 rpm records by th e
Library of Cong ress in \Nashin gton, DC, Hugh Tracey in Sou th Afri ca and
olh ers before 1950. In th e 1950s a series of fi eld recordings of traditi onal music
from d ifferent parts ohhe world was iss ued by Alan Lomax on Columbi a and
by severa l collectors on Folkways. T hese were the first of ma n y such ed itions to
appear: for example th e UNESC O Coll ection (iss ued on a n umber of la bels),
th c Fren ch Oco ra Seri es and th e Ameri can No nes uch series. T he bes t of these
LP a lbums have ex tensive wri tten co mmen ta ri es a nd d ocu mentary photograp hs th a t form a uniqu e medi a product.
Documentary recordings have been of grea t import ance in preserving
tradition a l music. In ma ny cou ntries the y have been the ma in sou rce of
info rmat ion when young people start 1O revi ve older kinds of m usic.
T echnological hard wa re like di fferent va ri a nts of mclograp hs, sonagraphs
a nd oscillographs ha ve a lso bec n used by ethno musicolog ists lO study the
stru cture of vario us musical trad itions. The possibiliti es in this res pec t opencd
up by th e d evelopment of computer a nd synthesize r tcchno logy a rc still to be
ta pped.
Recording technology has provided musicologists a nd cthnomus icologists
with a mea ns for preserving, dupli cati ng a nd mov ing raw d a ta in a way tha t
many other disciplines were not able to do until the ad ven t of compu ter
technology . For man y yea rs musicologists mad e on ly li m ited use of the
capabi li ti es offered by record ing technology. Most ea rl y musicologica l wo rk
was confined entirely to th e realm of the written wo rd. Sin ce th e 1950s
ethnomusicologists have started to use sound reco rdi ngs as an integral pa rt of
their scho larl y tex ts. H oweve r, this is only a start. There is still much to bc
don e in oreler to ta ke full advantage of th e inherent possibilities for p ublishing
the res ults of ethnomusicological work as a com bina tio n of tex t, sou nd
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S. 349-364
recordings and moving pictures. After ali, one can never describe the so und of
an instrument or a kind of music to somebody who has not heard it before
without at least one recording.
An interaction model
Recording technology and the recording industry have been at the ce ntre of
contacts between technology and music during the 20th century. The music
industry, however, is surrounded by a network that includes many kinds of
organizations and institutions. During 1979-83 a survey was carried out by
Roger Wallis and myself in 12 sma ll countries in Dreier LO chart the e(feets of
technological, organizational and economi c developments on musical life
(Wallis and Maim, 1984). The projcct, called 'The Music Industry in Small
Countries' (MiSe), gave risc to an interaction model as a means of describing
the cOlllinually morc complex ne twork of relationships in the field of music
(sec fig. I ).
The model has three main levels of action: the global o r international,
national and, finally, the local level.
The illlcrnationallevcl includes copy ri gh t and other international co nventions. I ncluded also arc associations and orga nizations like the
non-governmental UNESCO-affi liated International Music Council (IMC)
with all its independent member organizations (tht' International Federation
of Musicians, the International Society for Music Education, the International Council for Traditional Music, and the Internation al Publishers'
Association), and fUfther the World Illlci lectual ProperlY Organization
(WI PO) and the International Federation ofProdueers of Phonograms and
Vidcograms (IFP[). It a lso includes the trans-national industry dominated in
the mid-1980s by the Big Five: Polygram, Warners, CBS, RCA a nd EM!, and
by the related media and electronics hardware and software industries
including transborder satellite broadcasting corporat ions.
At thc nationallevcl, sovereign governments can make decis ions th a t affect
the field of music. Operative here are the national organizations from
copyright societies and musicians' unions to fan clubs, and also the music
industry, both the nationally owned companies and the subsidiaries of transnationals, nationa l mass media, show business and institutions for formal
music education.
The local level comprises all the musical activity in communities and
neighbourhoods, including different musical sub-cu ltures and mini-cu ltures,
and musical societies. This is the level of the 'public at large'.
The interaction within and among the three levels has grown in intensity
from the 19605. So far, the national level has been a medi a tor between the
international and local levels. But with large international marketing
campaigns, starting with disco music in the 19705 and on to satellite
broadcasting ofmusie videos in the 19805, the direct interac tion between the
international and local level is rap idl y increasi ng.
With increasingly sophisticated musical technology, the network ofinstitutions and legislation trying to moni LOr the usc of the technology gets ever morc
complicated. Still it seems virtually impossible to keep up with the rapid
tcchnological dcvciopmcnLs. For instancc, the whole international and
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S. 349-364
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S. 349-364
Ellmomusicology: an Introduction
national system of copyrig ht convention s and legislation has, through
constan t additions promoted by new technology, grow n into a patc hwork of
regulations (hat is almost impossible lO implement. That so much music is
pla yed through an ever-increasi ng number of media channels, o n alllcvcls and
at all hours of th e day and night, is making the problem of identi fyi ng usage- of
music, for the purpose of correc tl y remuneratin g creators and performers, an
almost insolubl e pro blem. The present copyright sys tem can ha ndl e neither
th e tra nsfer of copy righ t monies from industri a li zed countries to th e Third
\Vorld, nor co unter tra nsbordcr sa tellite broadcasting or home tap ing and
piracy - not 1O mention the problcms that \\'i ll be causcd by the digital audio
tape-rccording tcchnology. Anothcr chall engc to th e sys tem is poscd by local
traditional music becoming part of an imcrnational ' packaged music' not
protected by intern ational copyright convcntions or evcn, with a few
exceptions, by nati onal legisla tion.
Music industry technology and patterns oj change
The products of music indu stry tcchnol ogy havc permeatcd a ll kinds of
socicties regardl ess of their individual state of develop m cnt. \Nith each wave of
new products this penetration is beco min g more ra pid . This has resulted in
mu ch of thc hard wa re and software of the music industry du ri ng the past
d ecades reaching co untries in th c indust riali zed wo rld and the Third \\'orld
almost at the sa mc time. A su rvey carried out by the MISe team in 1983 in the
sma ll vi llage of Pi tip a na. Sri Lanka, showed that 35 per cent of the households
2. A cassette recorder on Jalt at tlu marktt in Ihe iJolattd fOll'n of f)ou::.. in tht Sahara dutrt, Tunisia
358
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S. 349-364
Ethical Concerns and New Directions: The Music Indu stry
had cassette players (Maim and Wallis, 1985 , p.289) . A survey carried out in
Swedcnjusl a few years earlier showed lha152 per cent of the house holds had
cassette record ers (Maim , 1982, p.67 ). The difference in gene ral co nditi ons
between Sri Lanka and Sweden is enormous, but th e percentage of households
ha vi ng cassene record ers is quile similar.
The prese nce of music industry products profoundl y affec ts music and
musica l life wherever th ey penetrate. Although tradit ional societies and their
music in different countries and ethnic groups can be di ssimilar, th e changes
r~suhing from the in troduction o f mus ic industry technology ~t:t: JII to follow
com mon basic patterns (Wallis a nd l..talm , 1984, pp.269-311). Many changes
are brought about by usc of different kinds of hardware to di sse minate music
and by th e adaptation of local music to the co nstraints of mass media,
recording technology and pho nogram markets. On e can term this the
'mediaizatio n' of music a nd music life.
Before the ad ve nt of music technology all mu sic was performed live and
cou ld be hea rd only \vithin a limited space. The introduction of music
technology brings an increasing dis tance between music makers and audience.
Microphones, amplifiers, louds peake rs , recording studi os and radio transmitters are inserted between musicians and listeners, se para ting the music
from a specific context. \Vith a \Valkman-style cassette machine you can listen
to a ny kind of music a nywhere. 1\1 usic becomes a n indepe ndent, abstract
sound phenomenon. 1\l a ny languages do not traditiona ll y have a word
meaning music. vVith music technology such a word is usually introduced into
these languages.
The shift from live-music to va ri ous forms of media-dis seminated situations
also brings a shift in audience a ttitud es from acti ve, participating lis tening to
passive hea rin g. Music is increasingly used as a tim e-fi ll er and as a
background to other activi ti es .
The musicians become speciali zed professionals, stars and eve n idol s far
removed from the public at large, lesse ning possibility ofimeraction with th eir
audience. I n extreme cases the only feedback from the aud ience to the artist is
in th e form of money. ' Media stars' tend to become fewer, concentrating the
a mOunt of money invested in technologica l equipment a nd ' production'. For
example, o nl y a handful of supers tar singf'rs perform on the sou nd tracks of the
hig h- cost I ndian film p rodu cti ons.
l\lediaization both changes tradi tio nal music and gi\'Cs binh LO new music.
Th e o pen forms of man y tradition a l kind s of music a re replaced by closed
forms with a distinct beginning and end. The 3-minute 78 rpm record form at
has moulded man y kind s of traditio nal music in to pieces of music of around
three minutes duration . Longe r form s of musi c such as epi c so ngs are often
excluded from the med ia . The use and fun c tion of traditio nal music also
changes. They become represe nta tive and are used in national and ot her
official fun ct ions, often perform ed in stylized and arranged versions on stage
by official musi c g roup s. Traditional music is a lso used in adv ertising and the
tourist industry.
At some point in th e mediaization process copyri ght legi slation is introdu ced. Tn man y traditi onal music cultures neither the concep t of individual
ownership nor the \"'estern an-mus ic concept of a com pose r is applicabl e,
both of which are basic concepts of copyright conve ntions. Th e problems
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Development of National Pop and Roek (N P and R) 1960s-carly 1980s in Tanzania, Tunisia, Sweden and Trinidad
1960,
TANZANIA
TUNISIA
Ea dy 1970s
Mid 1970s
Late 19705 and early 1980s
'Jazz' bands playing popular music from Zaire
migrate to Tanzania. European string and wind
instruments. African percussion. Style influenced by
jazz and Caribbean music.
Sung in linguala (Za irean
patois). Tanzaniangroups
formed imitating the ZaiTean 'jazz'.
First groups formed
copying Western rock and
so ul and using electric
guitars. Texts in English.
Groups imitating Zaircan
music and start to sing in
Swahili and develop
'Tanzanian' style. First
recordings made and
pressed in Nairobi, Kenya.
Electric instruments gradually replace wind instruments. Almost all texts in
Swahili on Tanzanian
topics. Melodi c and rhythmic clements from traditional ngoma mixed with
Zairean and Afro-American
elements rorm ' Swahili
jazz'. 'Jazz bands' sponsored by co-opera tives,
trade union s and students'
associations. Radio Tanzania starts reg ular live
broadcasts with ~azz'.
Approximately 120 'jazz'
band s active in major
towns. N P and R rega rded
as representing development by ruling elite. Supported by National Music
Council. Arro 70 Band represent Tanzania at FESTAC 77 in Nairobi with rull
set of electric instruments
including synthesizer. In
early 1980s no electric
instr uments imported due
to lack offore ign
currency.
Strong influence of
Libancsc and Egyptian film
music and French pop
music.
Electric o rgans introduced
in wedding party music in
urban areas. Youth groups
formed to play music patterned on film music and
trans-national rock. Much
emphasis on solo singers.
Electricorga ns adapted to
Arabic sca les. Groups
ex periment with N P and R.
African-American and
Arabic styli stic elemenLS
mixed, but with limitations.
Government counteracts
influence or trans-national
P and R by extensive yo uth
activities in network of cu lture hou ses. Many youth
o rch.est ras play Arabic film
Imitations or trans-national
P and R still common. N P
and R not firml y esta blished.lnearly 1980s a new
form ' musique engagee'
with political texts in Arabic is developed by young
intellectuals. Music style a
mixture of traditional
Tunisian music a nd French
popular music.
mUSIc.
f
~§,
~
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~
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S. 349-364
W
J>
o
11
TRINIDAD
ALL FOUR
COUNTR IES
0>
'"
•
Numerous groups imitating
Beatles, Stones etc. 68/69
groups emerge singing in
Swedish. Ignored by established media. New groups
in opposition to older forms
of Swedish popular music.
'Swedis h trend' develops.
Croups mix Swedish folk
music with trans-national
rock into N P and R. Enthusiasts start record companies for N P and R. Many
texts carry political comments. Electric groups
appear all over the country.
'M usic movement'
develops. Associations
formed to suppo rt li ve N P
and R. New record companies form own association
to confront IFPl. Much
opposition from establishment, a lth ough some grants
given to N P and R groups
by National Council for
Cultural Affairs. Synthcsizers introduced but not getting common in N P and R
due to association with
trans-national ABBA
musIc.
N Pand Rgets more divers·
ified and soph isticated. Elements from non-European
musics introduced. Young
punk groups emerge, first
singing in English, then in
Swedish. In creased suppo rt
for N P and R from establi shed media and governmen!. N P and R groups
find it hard to retain 'a ngry'
identity.
~
§.
An indigenous non-tra nsnationalized folk / popular
music firml y established:
calypso played by 'brass
bands' and steel bands.
Indian film music a nd US
hits imitated by some
groups.
Electric instruments used in
calypso bands. In spiteof
massive output of soul,
Beatles, etc in mass media,
lillie imitation ofthat
music. Trans-national
record company operations
taken over by local enthusiasts.
Soul and reggae rhythm s
filter into the calypso music
resulting in new N Pand R
style called 'soca' (so ulcalypso). From 1977
adopted by most bands.
The heavy soca beat
depends totally on electric
instruments.
Soca fad continues. Synthesizers adopted by most
bands. Some soca tunes
banned in mass media due
to content of text. Steel
bands start to play soca.
PA systems used. Introduction of electric instruments.
Imitations of trans-national
pop and rock music by local
groups.
Electric instruments
adopted by many groups.
Groups start to compose
own music instead of
copying. Experiments with
singing pop and rock in
local languages, mixing
trans-national music styles
with national music. The
emerging N P and R groups
try to find venues (new
clubs, reslivalsofWoodstock type etc) and mass
media outlets .
Fully developed N P and R
styles are accepted by youth
audience.
Disco boom causes setback
oflive music scene and
demand fora more heavy
beat (i.e. more powerful
amplifier systems and sophisticated multitrack studio
facilities). Some kinds orN
P and R accepted by govcrnment authorities and
national mass media.
-
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~
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S. 349-364
SWEDEN
12
S. 349-364
Ellmomusicology: an Introduction
caused by this conniel have affected the development oflocal music in many
ways. While local kinds of music arc used as raw material by the recording
industry, this borrowing often means that cenain pieces of traditional music
arc registered with copyright societi es and thus become the 'properly' of
persons who have had nothing to do with thei r original creation. Copyright
legislation combined with this kind of , theft' of music has 1ccllO instances in
which local media havc to pa y somebody in another part of the world in order
[Q disseminate a piece ofloca l music.
The introduction of amplification has chan ged the style of musical
pcrformance, Many traditional voca l styles have been moulded by the usc or
microphones and amplification. One obvious example is thc rapid 'softcning'
of thc Muslim praycr calls during the past df·cade. All kinds of traditional
ins trum cnts arc now played with amplification and \'Vestcrn electro-acoustic
and elcctron ic instrumen ts, especially r1ectric gui tars and syn thcsiz('fs, can bc
found in all parts of thc world. Thcse instruments arc usually imporLcd and
ex pensive; hcre is a significan t factor changing the economics of local musiemaking.
Amplified and clectroni c instrumcnts ean be used as substitutes for
traditional instruments; for exam ple, a sYnl hcsizcr programmed 1O givc the
appropriate sound can be used instead ofa bagpipe at a Tunisian wedding. A
sy nthesizer can also be used to imitatc music styles marketed by thc transnational music industry. They are often used to create new kinds of local
mcdiaized music, which usually borrows stylistic featurcs both from local
lrad itional music and international hit music. '['his kind of 'hybrid' mcdi",
music has developcd in most small regions and countries since the I 960s, In
the MISe project this music was called 'National pop and rock music'. Table
I shows thc stages in the dcvelopme nt of such music in four otherwise very
diflerent societies: Tanzania, Tunisia, Swcden and Trinidad. The parallels arc
stri king.
Sometimes the adaptation of local music to the media ca n go so far that,
like Jamaican reggae, it becom es almost entirely a product of the recording
studio. It is onl y in the sophisticated recording slUdios of Kingston,
J ama ica, that the rcggae sound the world has come to kno,",; is created. I.iv('
performances of reggae are rare, since the demands on equipment ar(' so
great and the fin ances of all but a few top reggac artists so limited. Rcggac
ca n be heard li ve in Jamaica on ly at major even ts direc tcd lOwards tourists.
On thc other hand, gia nt discOlhcques, called 'sound systems' in Jamaica,
dominate thc local music sce ne, where live performance is by local disc
jockeys who often improvise lyrics (,toas t') over reggae rhythm tracks
('dubs').
Local, regiona l and national mass media playas important a ro le today for
music and musi c life in the Third \,yorld as in the industrialized world. In most
cou ntries local musicians more o r less have access to the broadcasting media
or at least to recording tcchnology and legal or illega l distribution of
recordings. If the broadcasting media project only c('rtain officially accepted
kinds of music or just actas megaphones for the trans· national music industry,
local cassette com panies tend to take over thc mass distribution orothcr kinds
of music. In the village of Pitipana in Sri Lanka, til(' most popular music in
1983 was haila, a Sri Lankan popular music with topical Lf'xts seldom plaYf'd
362
13
S. 349-364
3. Ont: of Iht many rtcord pressing
plants iT/Jamaica
on the a ir by the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, but sold on prerecorded
cassettes .
' Transculturation'
Music technology has played many rol es in processes of cultural excha nge,
cu ltural domination and cultural imperi alism. It has also brought abo ut a new
kind of process that can be termed the ' transculturation ' of music. This process
in vo lves the combi na tion of features from several kinds of music in an
industrial process, the result being a music without roots in any specific et hni c
group. Disco music, co nstru cted by producers in the recording studi os of
Munich, was probably the first such ' transcu ltural' music.
An increasing number of national and loca l music cultures contribute
feat ures to transcultural music. For exam ple, a Eu ropean record producer
travels to Africa with a portabl e 8-track tape recorder and records local
drumming. O nce back in one of th e music capitals of th e world , he feeds som e
of this into his sampling synthesizer, ad ds sy nthetic brass sounds, backing
vocalists, mixes in so me effects from a recording with a Mongolian singer fro m
a sound archive and produces a hit record to which everyone can sing a long
but which sou nds unique.
Today, in the 1990s, as people all over th e world sit in front of their small
battery-poweredJapanescsynthesizersand try to relate Lo the pre-programmed
rhythms and sounds produced when they press buttons which say ' Big
Ba nd ', 'W altz', 'Cosmic' or 'K oto', ' tra nscultural' music stru ctures are
quickl y spread. Will this lead to a 'grcyout' , a global music styl e, or even a
global music culture? Or will a ll the possibilities brought a bout by music and
media technology add a wealth of new kind s of music to those already existing
in living tradi tion a nd on recordings wa iting for revival?
•
363
14
S. 349-364
Much research rem ains to be done before the impact of music-industry
technology on music cultures is fully understood. One can sarely predict that
this wi ll be onc of th e main areas of ethnomusicological resea rch in the
immedia te ruture. The res ults ofsuch research will be a n important reso urce in
th e form a tion of national and in terna tional cult ura l and communication
policies.
B ibliography
F. Gaisbcrg: The Music COts Houlld (New York , 19421 R1977 )
J. F. Perk ins: 'On Gramophone Company Matrix Numbers lage 1921', Record C/tfwger, xxiii/ 3--4
( 1976), 51
P. G ronow: 'The Record Ind ustry Comes to the Oriem ', EA!, xxv/2 ( 198 1), 25 1
K . MaIm: ' Phonograms and Cultural Policy in Sweden ', Tilt Phonogram in Cultural Communication,
ed. K. Blaukopf (Vicnna a nd New York , 1982), 43
R. Wallis a nd K. Maim : /Jig SOllllds/rom Smail Ptoples: the Music illduslry ill Small COIIII/fits (London ,
1984)
- - : 'The Baila of Sri J ,anka and the Calypso of Trinidad ' , Communication R m arrh, x x ii/ 3 ( 1985),
277
•
364
15

The Music Industry

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