Week 11 – on Soundtracks: Popular Music, Identity and Place, chapters 1 and 11

The exploration within the first chapter of Soundtracks of popular music as “providing a platform for the expression of marginalised [sic] voices,” was compelling, especially the notion that popular music might even capture some type of “resistance to the homogenizing forces of the culture industry,” (Connell & Gibson, 2004, p. 15).  Particularly with widespread (global) availability of ICTs as well as to all manner of software for listening to, distributing, and recording & editing music, the potential for ‘marginal’ voices to be heard seems significant—more substantial, certainly, than in the days of nothing more than the field recordings of the Lomaxes for the Library of Congress, for example.  This is particularly interesting as it shows the potential for the musician to express a challenging voice, and with global distribution expands the potential audience between the geographically local, (though problems of virtual distribution and access are still relevant, of course). What seems to have been given short shrift—at least within the first and eleventh chapters—of the book, though, is the tension that exists between this current (what one might identify as a subversive or countercultural force of expression) and the powerful force of absorption/appropriation and commodification, (see Dick Hebdige’s Subculture: The Meaning of Style for further explanation of this idea). Notions of consumption are particularly relevant: despite a nod toward Michel de Certeau’s idea, in writing “music is one way through which ordinary acts of consumption and movement throughout daily life could constitute ‘tactics’ of subtle opposition,” (Soundtracks, p. 16), the idea of the consumer as representing or echoing challenge aren’t given substantial attention. Despite that detraction, the notion that there is an elastic but certain relationship between geography and music, (as regards the place itself, the people of a given location, and every face of globalization), is interesting and worthy of serious exploration—especially using the iterative and interpretive approach of Connell and Gibson in developing critical analysis/analyses.

The significance of geography, especially as regards boundary-crossing collaboration made possible (or at least easier) by networked technologies, is apparent within much contemporary musical production, though I’d argue this is prevalent in subversive or at least sorts of outsider products that live beyond the packaged delivery of a global culture industry. A few examples include: (1) the band Money Can’t Buy Music, built on the collaboration of a Scottish musician and Swedish musician (using technology to bridge a geographic gap); (2) technology blurring relocation, like that of Antony Harding (Ant), formerly of England and now of Sweden, whose music is almost dislocated as it echoes of his earlier music, expressing his English roots while situated (in terms of both labels and collaborators) in his Scandinavian adopted home; and (3) of technology facilitating transcendence of genre and time, like that between Vashti Bunyan (forgotten late 1960s British folk artist) and new ‘freak folk’/’new folk’ musicians like Animal Collective and Devendra Banhart, (whose re-finding of Bunyan and further collaboration stepped over boundaries of strict genre, geography, and time).

Another interesting aspect of globalization, or considering geography and music in the contemporary world, is very much related to what Connell and Gibson note of businesses in the culture industry pursuing investments (and perhaps legal and/or legislative lobbying) in countries/regions that may be amenable to more western (read: ‘business-friendly’) understandings of copyright control.  Although I haven’t yet identified an actual cause-and-effect, it is surely worth noting that the most substantial violators of copyright in terms of illegal file sharing are Western countries – the same countries that have the most substantial controls of copyright. While this may be read as something as simple as the effect of having more copyright control, (perhaps a parallel: you can only ‘speed’ in a place where there is a speed limit, and where there are vehicles capable of travelling faster than that limit), I would suggest this issue worthy of further investigation as a method to examine the effects of copyright control.

One final thought about the apparent boundarylessness when it comes to globalization – while certainly access can be head that transcends geography, it is worth attending to the price of this access. For instance, in a world based on tangibility, an added cost based on physical distribution and transfer from one country to another can be understood; in a world of instantaneity and absolute permeability (such as the virtual world), though, it may be argued that the boundaries of traditional geography lose relevance. I would simply point to the reinforcement of traditional boundaries in the form of things such as international transaction fees applied to purchases regardless of their tangibility. Such an example (humorous because Radiohead seems to often be the go-to model for digital delivery of content) is my recent online purchase of the latest Radiohead album, The King of Limbs, prior to its physical release. Although digital delivery made the process immediate—and even though the Radiohead billing site billed in US dollars—I was assessed an international transaction fee (despite this being transacted online). Perhaps this is an indication of how traditional institutions that have outmoded revenue streams seek to reinforce their existing models, (in this case, notions of geography and boundaries), no matter the situation.

References

Connell, J. & Gibson, C. (2003). Soundtracks: Popular music, identity and place. New York: Routledge.