Members of the modern diaspora are generally well educated and better connected than those before (O’Donovan 2009, p. 97). With a vastly improved education system now in place, the current generation of school leavers does not suffer the same issues of illiteracy and widespread poverty which many generations before them would have experienced. However, as the Celtic Tiger boom has now become a crisis, a new peak of emigration is once again happening in Ireland (Ghosh 2012). With a very different technological landscape than previous emigration peaks of the 1960s and 1970s, the new diaspora have a vast array of tools to smooth their move to a foreign land. So how has technology effected the diaspora? And how does technology such as the internet and file-sharing services have an effect on policy within Ireland?

A convergence of technology and the interconnectivity of the public through internet and mobile phones, combined with cheap and easily accessible modes of transport, has meant the Irish diaspora has never been more connected to Ireland as it is today. For example, the SeventyMillion project launched in 2008 aims to use the internet to track down and record the 70 million members of the diapora. It also serves as a social network, allowing people to get more involved with their local community and the project itself (SeventyMillion 2008). 

Apart from social networking, the internet plays another part in influencing policy. The ability to easily share media has been a major issue for international music industries, but it allows the diaspora to hurdle previous problems in physical format distribution (such as the need to import media to and from Ireland). The restrictions of locality are removed (Wall 2003 p.227), exposing Ireland to much more media while also allowing Ireland to share aspects on culture easily online. 

However the internet has also had a negative influence on the musical charts in Ireland. The Irish Music Rights Association (IMRA - equivalent to RIAA or PRS in Ireland) charts are heavily loaded with British and American artists, given the obvious effects of globalisation through the internet. Also, Ireland’s music industry has suffered heavily with illegal filesharing causing large reductions in sales. The economics which the music industry centres around were being attacked (Wall 2003 p.201);  CD sales in Ireland fell from €146 million in 2006 to €56 million last year (O’Halloran 2011), forcing the industry to push for laws to police online piracy, similar to proposed SOPA laws in the US. In January 2012, the IMRA filed suit against the government for not implementing ISP blocking to prevent file sharing (Madden 2012). After several months of pressure, the government signed into law a SOPA-like bill despite strong opposition (McDonald 2012). Protection of intellectual property is crucial for the industry to remain profitable (Henry 2007 p.37) 

Ireland is familiar with censorship policies being implemented without public support; for many years the Catholic church held powers to censor any media it felt was immoral or in any way un-Catholic. The Anti-Jazz movement banned the broadcast of Jazz music on Radio Éireann (Issue 1) was an early example of such censorship. In the 1990s, similar examples were still appearing; the popular rock band REM had the music video for their song “Losing My Religion” banned from broadcast due to a sequence with a crucifix and what the church believed was other homoerotic content (Bowler and Dray 1999).  

However, now it seems that the power of the music industry influences government policy, and the church less so. The threat of large scale lawsuits from multinationals like EMI who are being represented by IMRA are enough to make a government go against the protest of the public and sign in highly controversial ISP blocking laws. Where previous censorship stood for morality and controlling national identity, today we see big business pushing for policies to protect their profits. 

Who is to say one is less worrying than the other.

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Bowler, D. and Dray, B. (1999) R.E.M Documental. Boxtree publishing

Ghosh, P. (2012) St. Patrick's Day 2012: Irish Economic Crisis Drives New Emigration Wave. International Business Times [online] Available at <http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/315352/20120316/ireland-econpmic-crisis-debt-... (accessed May 13 2012).

Madden, C. (2012) IRMA launches action against State over anti-piracy order. Irish Times [online] Available at <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0112/1224310141468.html> (accessed 13 May 2012).

McDonald, H. (2012) 'Irish Sopa' legislation passed despite robust opposition. The Guardian [online] Available at <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/01/irish-sopa-legislation-passed> (accessed 13 May 2012).

O’Donovan, F. (2009) Irish Identity is Far From ‘Ideal’. Socheolas: Limerick Student Journal of Sociology. Vol. 2(1) Limerick: University of Limerick.

O’Halloran, B. (2011) Illegal downloading to be curbed by Government order. The Irish Times [online] Available at <http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/1219/1224309259318.html> (accessed 30 April 2012)

SeventyMillion 2008 Available at <http://www.seventymillion.org/> (accessed 13 May 2012)

Wall, T. (2003) Studying Popular Music. London: Hodder Arnold

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By the 1960s, Ireland was repairing its poor economy, with a new Taoiseach in Sean LeMass and a strong focus on fiscal policy alongside high-quality, low-cost secondary education, allowing the country to create a skilled workforce (Casey and Lee 2006 p. 139). The country had began changing policies to welcome foreign business and move away from its previous protectionism by abolishing the Controls of Manufacturers Act in 1957 (Murphy 2000, p. 8). The IDA (part of the Department of Industry and Commerce) was introduced in 1969 to encourage foreign businesses investment, and the country became attractive due to its foreign investor grant schemes and low business tax (Dorgan 2006, p. 3). However, this did not immediately benefit those already raised in a poor education system, many of whom were illiterate. For this generation, manual labour abroad was still the only realistic opportunity. 

By the 1970s, the economy was beginning to show signs of improvement. Public expenditure (GDP per capita) grew from 32% (1960) to 42% (1973). Alongside Ireland’s entry into the European Union in 1973 came investment interest from Europe and the USA (Dorgan 2006, p. 2). However, the decade brought more ups and downs: inflation rates grew rapidly through the late 1970s and 1980s, alongside unemployment rates and government expenditure (Dorgan 2006, p. 3). The oil crisis brought many countries to the brink of recession, and emigration began to take hold again in Ireland. Over 200,000 left between 1981 and 1990.

In 1995,  Ireland experienced an unprecedented economic boom; GDP hit a peak of 8% and and employment was at its highest rate in since fiscal retrenchment policies were introduced in 1987 (Murphy 2000, p. 5). Heavy investment from the IT sector combined with a skilled and well educated local workforce brought the country many multinational corporations. In this short spell, the country transformed itself from one of the poorest to one of the richest in Europe. 

Ireland also saw cultural exports such as U2, The Corrs, Sinead O’Connor, Mary Black and Enya strengthen its music industry: between 1996-2001 Irish artists won 48 platinum awards (Henry, p. 81). The Irish film industry boomed, from movies and directors to actors (Keohane et al. n.d). However, a different art form gave Ireland a new cultural torchbearer - Riverdance. 

Ireland had been successful in back-to-back Eurovision Song Contests, highlighting the popularity of its musical and cultural exports. A small interval performance piece during the 1994 contest, however, became one of Ireland’s most successful stage shows. After its Eurovision success, the producers (John McColgan and Moya Doherty) turned it into a full-length production. In 1995, an estimated 170,000 people attended the show during its eight-week Dublin debut - equivalent to 10% of the Irish population between 15-64 (Henry 2007, p. 82). After Dublin, the show was sent to strategically chosen London and New York to capitalise on their Irish populations. It combined energetic dancing and music from Ireland with elements from Spain, Russia and North America. The show’s multicultural approach - and the effects of globalisation - meant that it quickly gathered an international fan base and soon became the new symbol of Irish modenity (Wulff 2008, p. 121). 

However, Riverdance is in fact a hybrid of the modern and the traditional (Wyndham 2006, p. 124). Irish step dancing has undergone many transitions in the 20th century, influenced not only by artistic movements but also the earlier discussed discourses in Catholicism and its relationship with the state (Keohan et al. n.d.). Certain movements and interactions were controlled, and particular dances were sanctioned by the church and state. Though competitive Irish dancing has become more elaborate in its footwork and costumes, rigid postures and straight arms remain. Riverdance sought to change much of this, simplifying the costumes and introducing dances with arm movements, synonymous now with lead dancer Michael Flatley (Keohan et al. n.d.). The result presented a new and exciting way of displaying Irish traditional dancing to a much wider audience. 

Irish dance became very popular globally, with both Irish and non-Irish involved in classes and competitions. A department (An Coimisiún le Rincí Gaelacha - CLRG) set up by the Gaelic League in 1929 oversaw the progress and regulation of Irish dancing competition (Wulff 2008, p. 93). 

Riverdance spent 18 weeks on top of the Irish music charts and was top ten in the UK, contributing greatly to the Irish creative industry and to its economy (Henry 2007, p. 83). However, although Riverdance appeared during a time of growing economic prosperity in Ireland, Doherty was ultimately disappointed that more cultural entrepreneurship didn’t follow from Riverdance:

 “I’m surprised – I expected more to happen since Riverdance... I would have thought that we had sown the seeds for a younger generation, because of all of the travel, the different cultures in Riverdance; ... I think what is happening at the moment, and maybe this is what has always happened, is that it is driven by the individual.  And the landscape and the scene is very much set by an individual...” (Doherty: Keohane, ND)

There is no monetary prize in dance competitions, so for dancers seeking a career, Irish dance shows like Riverdance act as a realistic career development path with opportunity to travel. (O’Connor 2003, p. 134). Irish dancers have seen their cultural hobby become professional careers; popularity has lead to Irish dance schools growing in number and many school leavers have the opportunity to create cultural professions by joining one of the many Irish dance shows which exist today thanks to Riverdance, or by completing a formal teaching qualification (TCRG) and opening an official school linked to CLRG or similar organisations. 

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Dorgan, S. (2006) How Ireland became the Celtic Tiger. Executive Summary Backgrounder. The Heritage Foundation No. 1945. Available at <http://www.peterbloecker.de/celtictiger1.pdf> (accessed 30 April).

Keohan, K., Kavanagh, D., Kuhling, C. (n.d.). The Creative Scene of Riverdance: Artrepreneurship and the Celtic Tiger; Cork: University College Cork.

Henry, C. (2007). Entrepreneurship in the Creative Industries: An International Perspective. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Lee, J. and Casey, M. (2006). Making the Irish American: History and Heritage of the Irish in the United States. New York: NYU Press.

Murphy, A. (2000). The ‘Celtic Tiger’ - An Analysis of Ireland’s Economic Growth Performance. San Domenico: European University Press.

O'Connor, B (2003). 'Come and Daunce with Me in Irlande'; Tourism, Dance and Globalisation in  Irish Tourism. Clevedon: Channel View Press.

Wulff, H. (2008). Dancing at the Crossroads: Memory and Mobility in Ireland. Stockholm: Berghahn Books.

Wyndham, A. (2006). Re-Imagining Ireland. Virginia: University of Virginia Press.

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As the Irish diaspora looks for links to its homeland, cultural hybridity emerges, raising debates on Irish culture’s evolution into the commercialised commodity it is today (McLaughlin and McLoone 2000, p.181, Danks and Kennedy 2001, Basegmez 2005). This hybridity can be seen through the creative diaspora in Britain and the USA - popular emigrant destinations. The following highlights important moments in Ireland’s cultural history, while also looking at the impact of heritage, recorded music and hybridity in popular music during early globalisation, creating a foundation for the recreation of Irish identity. 

In 1959, the USA witnessed a hybrid céilidh music scene (of American and Irish music), popular among the already well-established Irish diaspora, with the jigs of Irish traditional music meeting less traditional instruments and the faster tempo of the American bands (Bayor and Meaghan 1997, p. 488). Some of the most influential Irish musical artists of the 1960s were in fact emigrants, using traditional songs of their motherland to entertain both Irish and non-Irish abroad. Examples of Irish ‘hybrid’ recorded material by emigrant groups such as The Clancy Brothers (USA) were exported to Ireland rather than from with a innovative American/British twist (Wyndham 2006, p. 124). 

Ireland’s musical heritage was undergoing hybridisation overseas (Featherstone 2005, p. 56), but traditional music was still “uncool” to younger generations. Sean O’Riada and his project Ceoltóirí Chualann attempted to revitalise traditional music with interesting scores and new instrumentation, but this modernisation caused outrage to traditionalists (Prosser and Sitaram 1999, p. 237). Similar musicians faced further resistance; Luke Kelly, a Dublin native who had emigrated to the UK, was a member of the re-emerging British folk scene whose music was banned. His popularity saw him returning to Dublin with celebrity status, later partnering with Ronnie Drew to form a band synonymous with Irish popular music - The Dubliners. The band’s most popular song, “Seven Drunken Nights”, was banned from Irish public broadcast by the state/church run media (Prosser and Sitaram 1999, p. 236). Much like the 1930s Anti-Jazz Campaign, radio still acted as a medium for cultural and moral control (McCarthy 1999, p. 110).  

1960s Ireland began to see influences of soul, blues, rock and roll and country mixing with Irish traditional timings and compositions to create a new varieties. The sudden surge in cultural imports offered examples of diversity and musical hybridity, including Van Morrison and his band Them. Morrison’s father was an avid record collector with obscure tastes for the Mississippi Delta and Appalachian music (Hage 2009, p. 1). Morrison himself was weaned on this music, but also had affiliation with traditional Irish music, notably the McPeake Family. The 1964 recording of “Baby Please Don’t Go” and its b-side “Gloria” provided an early example of how a Belfast-born singer raised on these sounds could himself become part of their history. Although this happened north of the border, the south - notably Dublin - saw similar trends. The selection of recorded music in Ireland was sparse, therefore showbands and live covers were the primary means of popular music. 

1968 saw the emergence of Celtic rock with Phil Lynott’s band Skid Row. After problems with illness (Byrne 2005, p. 24), Lynott left the band and in 1969 formed Thin Lizzy, a joint project between Lynott and two former members of Them - Eric Bell and Eric Wrixon. In 1973, Thin Lizzy released their take on the Irish ballad “Whiskey in the Jar” - a familiar Irish song mixed with the rock influences of Lizzy, providing just the right balance to break the UK market. Previous releases such as “Ray Gun” were almost ‘too Celtic’ (Byrne 2005, p. 30) to be successful.

The popularity of Thin Lizzy and Celtic rock counterparts such as Planxty, The Horslips and Sweeny’s Men allowed Ireland to create a new identity through its music. However, the political landscape had become more complex; by 1972, British-ruled Ulster was at crisis point. After the events of Bloody Sunday unfolded, Catholic Republicans south of the border began to sympathise with their religious brethren in the North. Songs by Irish artists such as Christy Moore highlighted the troubles. Paul McCartney, with his song “Give Ireland Back to the Irish”, was one of the few British artists to comment; the song went to number one in the Irish single charts in March 1972 and spent eight weeks in the British charts despite being banned by the BBC (Strachan and O’Malley-Younger 2012, p. 140). 

Although debate continues around Irishness, there is little doubt that this period of experimentation through cultural hybridity allowed traditional and modern influences to evolve into a powerful medium for expression of political ideas and building new identities through music. This new Celtic identity would be the foundation in which Ireland would build its commercialism through cultural exports and tourism.  

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References:

Basegmez, V. (2005). Irish Scene and Sound Identity, Authenticity and Transnationality among Young Musicians.  Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Bayor, R. and Meaghan, T. (1997). The New York Irish. Baltimore: JHU Press.

Byrne, A. (2005). Thin Lizzy. London: SAF Publishing.

Danks, C. and Kennedy, P. (2001). Globalization and National Identities: Crisis Or Opportunity? New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Featherstone, S (2005). Postcolonial Cultures. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Hage, E. (2009). The Words and Music of Van Morrison. Westport: Praeger.

McLaughlin, N. and McLoone, M. (2000) Hybridity and national musics: the case of Irish rock music. Popular Music Volume 19/2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Prosser, M. and Sitaram K. (1999). Civic Discourse: Intercultural, International, and Global Media; Stamford: Greenwood Publishing.

Strachan, J. and O’Malley-Younger, A. (2012). Ireland: Revolution and Evolution. Bern: Peter Lang.

Wyndham, A. (2006). Re-Imagining Ireland. Virginia: University of Virginia Press.

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Ireland has a long history of emigration, with more than 70 million people around the world claiming Irish heritage. The debate over the effects of this diaspora on Irish identity stretches back many years and continues today (Mcwilliams 2007, Moffatt 2011, O’Keefe-Vigneron 2008 and Ryan 2008), with the diaspora labelled as ‘excessive’ and lacking ‘authenticity’ by those in Ireland. So what effect has the diaspora truly had on cultural identity and defining Irishness?

For the Irish diaspora, common gathering places for cultural activities abroad were Irish Centres, which celebrated Irish culture in its many forms. In London, for example, there were two main centres for Irish cultural expression - the London Irish Centre in Camden, and the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith. Both still actively teach Irish culture and host a range of music, dance and literature events. These centres were set up by migrants but were soon seen by later (post-1980) arrivals as ‘excessive’ and inauthentic in their practices of Irishness (Gray 2004, p. 108).

Even so, any excessiveness was evidence that the Irish were becoming more conscious of (and anxious over) their identity. Ireland’s cultural heritage had been commercialised in leprechauns and tin whistles. A country once famously self-loathing now exported all things Irish (Hussey 1995, p. 470). However, as globalisation exposed Ireland to outside influences, the boundaries of what constituted ‘Irish’ became blurred. U2’s success, for example, may lie in their identity as cultural leaders, an example of cultural hybridity or the result of Americanisation and globalisation - or all of the above. 

U2 began as a Celtic rock band, with a sound influenced by American icons such as Bob Dylan, but they became increasingly global in their focus (Danks and Kennedy 2001, p. 119). Bono saw America as a catalyst in recreating the band’s Irishness, as Kearney (1988, p. 187) observed:

“Now, as we are rediscovering ourselves through our encounter with others, reclaiming our voice in our migrations through other cultures and continents ... we are beginning to realise that the Irish thing was always there.” 

A focus on global politics moved the band away from issues in their homeland, although they always kept their Irish base (Cogan 2008, p. 157). With global popularity they became one of Ireland’s largest cultural exports - whether or not people agreed on if or how they were representing Ireland.

Although U2 is one of Irish music’s great success stories, they were part of a wide circle of musicians driving Irishness - many of whom were not born in Ireland. The Pogues, for example, represented emigrants embracing cultural roots, creating a hybrid genre of punk rock and Irish. Born and raised in London, the band members sense of pride sprang from an Irish diaspora upbringing (Nagle 2009 p.166). Where U2 devised a sound that left the politics and traditional music of Ireland behind, The Pogues thrived off ethnicity and punk attitude to political messages. 

It can be argued that The Pogues projected a greater musical sense of Irishness than U2, although the former were not based in Ireland. U2’s Irishness is based mainly on geography; to say they are a part of Ireland’s success in rebuilding its cultural identity is debatable (Kearney 1997 p.81). While The Pogues are part of a diaspora affected by nationalist projections of Irishness, U2 represent post-nationalist ‘home-born’ citizen, influenced by globalisation and Americanisation (Dawe and Mulreany 2001). 

In 1990, Ireland elected its first female President, Mary Robinson. She took up her presidency with a clear objective - to redefine the meaning of being Irish. For Robinson, the inclusion of the diaspora was key to understanding what the notion of being Irish had become. Robinson’s speech “Cherish the Irish Diaspora” was one of her most famous; delivered to the Irish government in 1995, it highlighted the importance of diaspora to Ireland’s economic and cultural growth:

The more I know of these stories the more it seems to me an added richness of our heritage that Irishness is not simply territorial. In fact Irishness as a concept seems to me at its strongest when it reaches out to everyone on this island and shows itself capable of honouring and listening to those whose sense of identity, and whose cultural values, may be more British than Irish. It can be strengthened again if we turn with open minds and hearts to the array of people outside Ireland for whom this island is a place of origin. (Robinson 1995)

Although the idea of a transnational Irish identity could define a wider sense of Irishness, the thought of an Irish identity inclusive of both those born in Ireland and those born abroad proves difficult to ‘market’. Hostility towards the diaspora is quite common, with those born abroad being labelled “tans” or “plastic paddy” (Gibney and Lansen 2005, p. 324), and their Irish authenticity constantly questioned. The idea of an inclusive Irishness may only exist for those who are not actually citizens. So are there actually two separate Irish identities - in Ireland and outside? Do those born outside the island deserve to be barred from an ‘authentic’ Irish identity? The complexity of Irish culture has caused this rift, but it has not harmed Ireland commercially. With examples of Irish music inspired by liberalism, politics, societal restructuring and the diaspora, is geography becoming a non-issue in the creation and definition of Irish culture (Cleary 2007 p.103)? As long as cultural creativity continues to prosper, the wider debate of “What is Irishness?” may recede.  

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References:

Cleary, J. (2007). Outrageous Fortune: Capital and Culture in Modern Ireland. Dublin: Field Day Publications.

Coogan, V. (2008). U2: An Irish Phenomenon. New York: Pegasus Books.

Danks, C. and Kennedy, P. (2001). Globalization and National Identities: Crisis Or Opportunity? New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Dawe, G. and Mulreany, M. (2001). The Ogham Stone: An Anthology of Contemporary Ireland. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.

Gibney, M. and Hansen, R. (2005). Immigration and Asylum: From 1900 to the Present, Volume 1. Santa Babara: ABC-CLIO.

Gray, B. (2004). Women and the Irish Diaspora. New York: Routledge Press.

Hussey, G. (1995). Ireland Today: Anatomy of a Changing State. London: Penguin.

Kearney, R. (1988). Across the Frontiers: Ireland in the 1990s: Cultural, Political, Economic. Dublin: Wolfhound Press.

Kearney, R. (1997). Postnationalist Ireland: Politics, Culture, Philosophy. New York: Routledge Press.

McWilliams, D. (2007). “Ireland's future depends on diaspora's 'soft power'”, The Independant [online]. Available at <http://www.independent.ie/opinion/columnists/david-mcwilliams/irelands-future...> (accessed 30 April 2012).

Moffatt, J. (2011). Paradigms of Irishness for Young People in Dublin (PhD thesis). The National University of Ireland Maynooth [online]. Available at <http://eprints.nuim.ie/2578/1/Joseph_Moffatt_Paradigms_of_Irishness_for_Young...> (accessed 26 April 2012).

Nagle, J. (2009). Multiculturalism's Double Bind: Creating Inclusivity, Cosmopolitanism and Difference. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. 

O’Keeffe-Vigneron, G. (2008). “Celebrating Irishness in London”, in The Irish Celebrating: Festive and Tragic Overtones. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Available at <http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/61/27/23/PDF/OKeeffe_The_Irish_Celebr...> (accessed 15 April 2012).

Robinson, M. (1995). Cherishing the Irish Diaspora. Address to the house of the Oireachtas by President Mary Robinson on a Matter of Public Importance [Public Address], 2 February 1995.

Ryan, D. (2008). The Irish Diaspora and the Creative Economy. Dublin Insititute of Technology. Available at <http://www30.us.archive.org/stream/TheIrishDiasporaAndTheCreativeEconomy/TheI...> (accessed 16 April 2012).

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Important debate continues as to whether a nationalist, Catholic Irish cultural identity is sustainable (Smyth 2012, Penet 2008, Laws 2012, Moffatt 2011). With multiple reports of abuse within the church, many Irish are seeking to distance themselves from the organisation, while globalisation and disenfranchisement with government (post-Celtic Tiger) have left the people of Ireland seeking new cultural steerage. Due to many factors, Music, alongside other creative cultural industries, have boomed in the past 20 years, as Ireland also grew further from the church and purist nationalist ideals. To understand this debate, we must highlight how nationalism and catholicism came to lead the nation and Ireland’s current need for a new cultural leader.

The revival of the Irish arts began to take off in the 1890s; it acted to curtail the demise of Irish native language, literacy, music and dance, all of which had been outlawed under British colonial rule. The British had worked to replace the traditional Gaelic language with the ‘modern’ English and had likewise suppressed outlets for traditional music and dancing (McCarthy 1999, p. 55). In 1893, however, Conradh na Gaeilge (the Gaelic League) was formed to preserve Irish culture and language. It was also the base from which some Irish nationalist planned an uprising against British Rule (Ó Croidheáin 2006, p. 154).

The 1930s saw Ireland’s government begin bowing to pressure from the Catholic church. The ‘Anti-Jazz’ campaign of 1934 was led by a reaction to foreign music’s influence on public morality (Brennan 2011).  The Public Dance Halls Act of 1935 was soon made law, meaning public gatherings in local halls were licensed and monitored by local government and clergy. Similar restrictions in media and publications were enforced, monitored for blasphemy and heresy.

Nationalism and Catholicism became intrinsically linked, in part because of the dual oppression of cultural and religious expression during occupation. The Irish Free State made it compulsory for state schools to teach the Irish language and education would be led by the church. After the establishment of a Republic in 1937, overt wording in the Irish Constitution supported nationalist and Catholic values and in turn fostered anti-British sentiment.

Irish writers James Joyce and WB Yeats wrote both before and after independence and commented on both cultural instances. Yeats, rejected ideas of cultural hybridity and spoke negatively of the rural, peasant models of Irishness - what he saw as a crude representation of the real traditions. Joyce welcomed the translational hybridity of Irish identity but preferred ideas of a fluid cultural cosmopolitanism rather than one of racial nationalism (Gillespie 2001, p.86). Douglas Hyde, founder of Conradh na Gaeilge, held ideals of an Ireland from a previous era: of fairytales, heroic stories and Gaelic mythology. Like Yeats, he believed the native language was a pure pathway to a true Irish identity which encompassed traditional artistic practices. 

Ireland was shackled by the purists of nationalism and Catholicism.  The church was in charge of education, while the government brought in protectionist policies and distanced themselves from global economics and politics. Globalisation crept in, however, and Ireland could not avoid external influences. After joining the European Union in 1973, respite in new laws and sanctions was found away from the government and its guidance by the church - a key moment in its decline (Banks 2008, p. 64). Globalisation allowed foreign music and film to flood the country, and this was reflected in the music being created. The country experienced series of economic peaks and troughs over the next two decades, alongside multinationalism, multiculturalism and further emigration. Ireland’s nationalist, Catholic identity was slowly watered down by what was leaving and entering the island. 

The Celtic Tiger economic boom in the mid-1990s coincided with a fresh cultural outpouring: the rise of the Irish pop industry through Boyzone, Westlife, The Corrs, Bewitched and The Cranberries, the emergence of Riverdance (and similar shows) and successful films such as ‘In The Name of The Father’, ‘The Commitments’, ‘Angela’s Ashes’ and ‘Michael Collins’ - all movies which reflect important watersheds of Irish cultural identity. It enabled the country to produce creative cultural industries (Keohane et al, n.d.) (Hazelkorn 2001 p. 2) and an independent music industry from Britain - The IMRO (Cogan 2008 p. 65).

However, with Ireland today in economic crisis through the failings of the government and the banking sector, alongside a church in dire straits over multiple allegations of sexual abuse and its loss of influence in areas of education, health care and policy, it is easy to understand the shift from a nationalist, Catholic Irish identity (Smyth 2008 p.149). The wealth Ireland has experienced has created a far more materialistic country and one in tune with the global marketplace. As such, it has built a successful creative cultural, connected to a vast diaspora network to guarantee an audience for cultural exports (Issue 5). These liberal arts sectors thrive off the changes in Irish identity through globalisation, immigration, and individualism (Penet 2008 p.148-149). The government must rebuild its reputation, and through elections and policy changes it may do so. The catholic church may find that harder to do. 

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References:

Banks, M. (2008) Modern Ireland: multinationals and multiculturalism; Information, Society and Justice, Volume 2.1, December 2008: pp 63-93. London Metropolitan University [online]. Available at <http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/library/k89377_3.pdf> (accessed 28 April 2012)

Brennan, C. (2011) The Anti-Jazz Campaign; The Irish Story [online]. Available at: <http://www.theirishstory.com/2011/07/01/the-anti-jazz-campaign/#ednref1> (accessed 5 May 2012)

Coogan, V. (2008) U2: An Irish Phenomenon; New York: Pegasus Books

Gillespie. M. (2001) James Joyce and the Fabrication of Irish Identity; Amsterdam: Rodopi

Hazelkorn, E. (2001) The Dynamics of Cultural Production in Ireland: Economic Strategy, Digital Technology and Public Policy Making; Dublin Institute of Technology [online]. Available at <http://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=cserbk> (accessed 30 April 2012)

Keohan, K., Kavanagh, D., Kuhling, C.; (n.d.), The Creative Scene of Riverdance:  Artrepreneurship and the Celtic Tiger; Cork: University College Cork.

Laws, J. (2012) Generation Bailout Art, Psycho-Geography, and ‘The Irish Mind’ debate; Variant [online]. Available at <http://www.variant.org.uk/43texts/JoanneLaws43.html> (accessed 12 May 2012).

McCarthy, M. (1999) Passing It on: The Transmission of Music in Irish Culture; Cork: Cork University Press.

Moffatt, J. (2011), Paradigms of Irishness for Young People in Dublin; The National University of Ireland Maynooth [online]. Available at <http://eprints.nuim.ie/2578/1/Joseph_Moffatt_Paradigms_of_Irishness_for_Young...> (accessed 26 April 2012).

Ó Croidheáin, C. (2006) Language from Below: The Irish Language, Ideology and Power in 20th-Century Ireland; Bern: Peter Lang Press

Penet, J. (2008) From Idealised Moral Community to Real Tiger Society. The Catholic Church in Secular Ireland;  Estudios Irlandeses, 3, p. 143-153

Smyth, G. (2012) Irish National Identity after the Celtic Tiger; Estudios Irlandeses, 7,  p.132-137

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Introduction

 My production lab project has taken a somewhat dramatic turn. I was originally going to create an online web show for pro audio. Responses to the idea were mixed and there were already some similar projects online. However, a new idea formed when I was contacted by a friend who needed some production help for a gig in London. After helping him out, I decided to take on the development of his project as my production lab assignment.

Hammerstep and Sneaky Steppers

My new project is to create a stage show for the group Hammerstep. The group is a fusion of Irish dance and hip hop that allows an open level of flexible cultural hybridity depending on their location. Previous collaborations have included jazz bands, classical musicians and beat boxers. The core group is a set of Irish dancers and musicians who tour together with Riverdance and similar shows. Set up in Boston in 2009, the Hammerstep project stemmed from the desire to create a show which crosses elements of Irish music and dance with that of hip hop. However, the show itself is never static in its structure; the cast tend to get local bands and performance groups involved and have based visiting acts on contacts they have met in the road or doing street performances.  

In their time away from Riverdance, the group take part in busking-style street performances with other musicians who perform in the same area. This gives the group an ability to freestyle with a random group of performers and has been a foundation of their cultural hybridity ethos. 

The group has another street initiative called Sneaky Steppers. This project is a mix of street performance and viral marketing which sees the group go into public spaces for unannounced performances which are filmed and placed on YouTube. Public stunts are not common place in Irish dancing, so videos like this tend to go viral inside the dance community. This video from last year saw 150 dancers take part in an Irish dance flash-mob in Sydney for St. Patrick's day. So far it has over 2 million views.

St Patrick's Day 2012

This year saw Hammerstep return to the UK to take part in the St. Patrick’s Day Festival in London's Trafalgar Square. Hammerstep wanted to do something more with the weekend and a chance encounter online saw me chatting with dancer Chris Naish and concocting a plan to create a promo video and film the festival performance - all to increase their online presence. 

I offered to lead the project and create a team to help them reach this goal. Utilising students from SAE Oxford, I quickly put together a film and audio crew which headed down to London for two days. Saturday consisted of going around London and performing sneaky ambushes on the unsuspecting public wearing morphsuits in the Irish tri-colour. Day two was much the same but lead up to a performance in Trafalgar Square in front of 18,000 people. 

This was a major opportunity for Hammerstep, and it also gave the students of SAE Oxford a rare chance to have privileged access at a major festival. It gave them great experience in guerilla filming and working with a new type of performance group. 

Several days (and very late nights) were spent at the SAE Oxford campus where editing was done by students Haakam Singh and Aiden Newby. Although the final video was four minutes long, two days of footage had to be gone through to find the best parts for the promo video. Still photos from student Joel Rundle and SAE staffer Marc Rose helped to keep the social marketing up over the days we were editing. Student Candice Offer provided the overlay graphic (after one day of After Effects training!!!) and after several days with little sleep, the video was finished. The students at SAE did a great job!!

Hammerstep and Production Lab

Hammerstep is now looking to create a flexible formula which will allow them to have a touring production that incorporates both a slick production and the ability to maintain a dynamic show that can easily be customised depending on external acts. They are also seeking cultural funding to design new costumes and set and a budget to book and promote a series of performances in the UK.

For my production lab project, I intend to create a formalised structure for the business side of Hammerstep and, with the group, l plan marketing and funding strategies, as well as constructing a performance at at theatre in the Uk to launch the new Hammerstep show.

Summary

Although Hammerstep is already an ongoing project for the dancers and musicians involved, my position will be to enable them to have a production base and help them to develop their ideas further. With their commitments with Riverdance, they are constantly travelling, but with a UK base, the cast will be able to focus on performance, choreography and creativity. 

The group has a growing online fanbase and has created a lot of interest in the Irish cultural communities in the UK. However, their passion for cultural hybridity is what will set the apart from other similar productions. Finding new ways to combine Irish and hip hop has been their motivating factor, but the potential for new crossovers with other similar genres is an exciting possibility.

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Source: BBC - © Francesco Mellina

The ethnography of dance (ethnochoreology) and its ties with popular music culture can be important to understanding the key themes of a particular place and time. Dance through popular culture represents the evolution of past trends combined with newer and emerging/marginal themes. Unlike ethnic dance, which has more traditional roots and particular expressive meaning through movement, dance through popular culture has a fashionable phase (where its popularity peaks) and then a phase of decay before becoming outdated and niche. Although such styles may have later revival phases, their cultural effects are never the same. These trends also hold generational and geographical strongholds, with participants holding nostalgic events today. 

Rather than being tied by ethnicity and tradition, popular forms of dance are a derivative of other previous trends in popular culture and are affected by popular music and fashion. We can see this in many forms of popular dance culture, such as swing dancing, breakdancing, rock and roll, disco, house and northern soul. Each of these dance trends goes in hand with the emergence of new music, unlike more traditional forms of dance such as ballet or ethnic folk dances. 

Utilising the northern soul scene, it is possible to identify how the popularity of a musical genre became the foundation of a club scene which formed its own style of fast-paced and expressive dance moves. 

However, in terms of ethnochoreology, the focus is not the study of the physical dance form itself, but the cultural context surrounding it. As Tim Wall notes in his work, the analysis of geographical, sociological and political matters alongside cultural studies and  gender studies can define the meaning for such a dance style far more than the analysis of the physical movements. 

Much like trends in popular music, dance and other symbolic forms (such as fashion and behaviour) can also teach us about the surrounding issues of the time. By plotting such cultural symbols associated with the scene, we can begin to analyse behaviour traits and their meaning. Dancing can contribute to any cultural theme and add a sense of ritualism to the context. For example, although dancing has regularly had negative connotations for men by raising questions over their masculinity or sexuality, dancers often seek to impress the opposite sex with their moves. With all-day and all-night events utilised as a controlled environment for drug use and courting, and with a fast-paced musical scene filled with creative and competitive dancers and gazing spectators, northern soul’s popularity grew - although was only sustained in the north of the country. 

We must also recognise that elements of cultural identity in popular music and dance are not quite the same as cultural identity in terms of tradition and ethnicity. Scenes such as Northern Soul do not represent heritage in the traditional sense, but a combination of factors which create a fashion or trend. As such, the environment is heavily laden with “cool” factor and also has the same emergence, peak and decline correlation as other popular cultural trends such as rock and roll and disco. Ethnic cultural identity and the music, dance and literature which is associated with it has a different sense of longevity. Where popular scenes may decline and possibly undergo revival points (due to fashion trends), they are not given the same importance. Traditional cultural teaching tends to come through community and family seeking to protect heritage, but also receives government funding and sometimes charity status. 

So is it more important to document and maintain one type of cultural identity over another? Should popular cultural symbols have the same attention as maintaining those of tradition and heritage? This is something I want to discuss further, as my assignment is likely to be a comparison of popular and traditional cultural elements, their effects within geographical locations (mainly Ireland) and what effects the convergence of technology and digital media has had. 

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Introduction:

For my Production Lab module, I have been tasked with creating a practical research project which relates to my area of expertise. With my background being predominantly Audio Engineering, be it teaching or freelancing, I have decided to focus on creating an entertaining and informative way of delivering Pro Audio news, skills and interviews.

Working with my colleagues and students at the SAE Institute in Oxford, we will create a recorded 15-30 minute (per episode) online show, the focus is on guest engineers/producers, teaching new techniques through trials and test situations, news features (including new products and business news), and live music in a similar style to "live at abbey road". 

This will be both a learning tool for others and can also work as a means of marketing for SAE. It will also give students the opportunity to work with guest lecturers and learn new skills whilst being involved in a real product that is going online every few weeks. 

Objectives:

Although the marketing and exposure of the college is an important objective, it is not by any means the main one. The projects is to provide a more entertaining outlet for Pro Audio information, with charismatic presenters, student interactivity and up to date news and information about important products and technology. 

Approach:

After firstly putting the idea to some friends and colleagues, I created a survey to get some more feedback from the online world and from my own students. 

The survey is still feeding back information, but there is already a common trend in some data, such as the length of the show, what content should be included and where it should be available. I plan to do another round of crowd sourcing this week, and by next weekend plan to summarise and post the data here on the blog. The survey itself can be found here.

The next step is to actively get the SAE Institute involved and sell this idea and a possible marketing outlet which will boost the online presence for the local campus and for the Online learning outlet, SAE Online. 

This week will see several meetings taking place to discuss this project and the risks and opportunities involved and to whether the personnel is available.  

Following this, an approach to industry professionals will be made to source guests for the show. 

Competitors:

The idea isn’t completely new; Pensado’s Place is in a similar structure; interviews, new tech and tips and tricks. What we aim to do different is the sense of ‘vibe’ and entertainment. Filming will take place in front of a room full of students and the show will include Q&A and live music. It will also be important to have dynamic and charismatic presenters that can entertain audiences, both live and online. A sense of ‘banter’ is necessary to soften the approach and execution. 

Other colleges also pose a threat, many delivering their own online content. It will be the entertainment factor which will set this project apart. 

Marketing:

The show will gain exposure through the SAE marketing network as well as utilising social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Other important outlets such as SoundOnSound and Future Music will be key for exposure and there is also potential to create special versions for shows such as Music Live, NAMM, AES and Plasa. 

The marketing of such a show will need a significant amount of research to identify key areas where the show needs to create an identity and have an identity. 

Summary:

This is only a very brief introduction to the project idea which will continue to evolve over then next few weeks. I’m hoping that given the resources I have available that creating at least a pilot episode is doable. I am keen to hear any idea’s and feedback from you, so feel free to contact me. Don’t forget you can also complete my survey if you haven’t already!!  

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This month may possibly turn out to be my busiest in the last twelve. A culmination of recording projects, sound design, MA studies and a very exciting performance project with old friends is providing an impressive addition to my full time position as SAE Oxford. 

Faceometer and The Dapper Swindler

This quirky brum duo have been frequenting my studio and my living room floor for quite some time. After several songwriting expeditions, two recording projects would come into fruition - The Spooky EP and Vibe, Drill and It.

The Spooky EP was a 5 track halloween themed concoction brewed up by Will Tattersdill and Max jones alongside children's author Sam Taplin. Recorded in 3 nights and mixed/mastered in around a week, the albums quality was bore from the talented threesome and there uncanny wordsmith, making my life in the producer chair very easy. The album was completed and released last halloween and is still available on their bandcamp:

This spring will see the completion of the Vibe, Drill and It album. The project began last June, and stopped to allow the Spooky EP  to have its moment. After a period of reflection and some more songwriting, their return to the studio will be a welcome one. 

Find their musings here and @faceometer...

Torchbox

At the beginning of 2012 I was asked by the awesome guys at Torchbox to do some sound design for a 10 part advertising campaign. The project is ongoing, so I cannot reveal the saucy details at the moment, but I have thoroughly enjoyed working again with animator Wes West (@wesayso) on these videos. Completion will hopefully happen in the next few weeks, so watch this space. 

Below is a previous project Wes and I worked on together for community app Upshot. 

Hammerstep, Sneaky Steppers and St Patrick’s Day madness.

Next weekend will see many of us raise a pint or nine to ol’ St Pat and celebrate all things Irish. Where would we be without a little madness thrown into the proceedings, courtesy of Irish dance, Hip Hop fusion group Hammerstep (@hammerstepshow) and King’s of the Irish dance ambush Sneaky Steppers (@sneakysteppers). Plan’s for this years festivities are currently under wraps but myself and some helpful folks from SAE Oxford will be helping to capture all the great moments. Here's one of their best videos from last year...

MA Music Industry @ BCU

The MA is going well and it’s still great being around positive, forward thinkers who want to see responsible evolution of the Music Industry. Andrew Dubber (@Dubber) has been leading us through many of the complexities and discourses faced in our fields and with fellow lecturing staff has challenged us to really evaluate our own understanding of the industry. The course has given me the time to identify the subjects I am strong in and conduct more focused research on those areas. It's already having positive effects on my teaching and my networking. This month will bring more blog posts here and on the MA Music Industry blog, as well as first drafts and proposals for our Music as Culture module. 

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To many, Bright Eye’s frontman Conor Oberst can be a bit much to take; his tendency to play on people’s emotions with his deeply graphic and descriptive writing can make the listening experience uncomfortable. However, others find his writing full of contextual meaning. He has become popular with liberal youth due to anti-war rhetoric mixed with complex love songs, songs of tragedy and some of sullen loneliness. 

Although many of Oberst’s tracks are viable for in-depth analysis, there is one particular track from I’m wide awake, it’s morning that I’ll address: the pro-love, anti-war homily “Landlocked Blues”.

The fundamental notion of being “landlocked” is to be surrounded by other countries; such notable regions are Afghanistan and almost Iraq (one water stream from the gulf stops this classification being official). The idea of being landlocked may also be metaphorical, as Oberst is surrounded by parallel complexities of love and war from which he wants to find an escape.

The song opens with no intro part and begins with the first line and a simple acoustic guitar part. The production is simple, and the tone is subtle from the outset. A 3/4 time signature waltzes the listener gently into a peaceful opening.

“If you walk away, I’ll walk away...”

The song opens with a resolution for peace: an amicable parting of ways and a plan for future avoidance. It sets a tone from the outset that rational (yet possibly naive) logic could lead to a solution and therefore peace. Conflict becomes the ongoing theme for the song, and so instantly a commentary on war begins. Bright Eyes have been quite open in their anti-war sentiment, so the subject is not surprising. However, it is the personal approach to political ideas of war, negotiations and ceasefire which humanizes the situation and causes the song to resonate with the listener. 

“And the future hangs over our heads”

 Oberst’s next tactic is to create a sense of involvement between himself and the listener. Instead of a personal rhetoric, the inclusive style helps to connect personal storytelling with an overhanging situation of war. The metaphorical ‘rain’ that surrounds us is another part of the rhetoric, added to create a sense of how the actions of war cause a reaction of events.  

The introduction of Emmy Lou Harris’s harmonic part moves the song from its gentle, lonely tone. Her addition helps the undertone of relationships and love to continue alongside the themes of war.

It is the playful switching between the microcosm and macrocosm which helps to create a stronger link between himself, the listener and the global politics of the metatextual subject matter. The song continues to build through scenes of conflict, creating a parallel between a child’s game of using sticks as guns and the previous (and latter) idea of walking away from confrontation. 

Three verses return to the notion of relationships and their complexity before returning back to the war narrative, creatively utilizing a love scene to intertwine the subjects:

“We made love on the living room floor

With the noise in the background of a televised war

And in the deafening pleasure I thought I heard someone say

"If we walk away, they'll walk away"

The song begins to gain a more aggressive pace, fully returning to and immersing the listener into the rhetoric. A middle 8 section of a “battle-charge” like horn section pulls the listener further into the scene, cleverly constructed to add resonance to the war theme. This peak of anger, aggression and noise settles back down and returns to Oberst’s initial loneliness and feelings of complete disenfranchisement from his own country, as he states “I feel more like a stranger each time I come home”. 

The song finishes with Oberst taking the idea of walking away slightly more literally; the frustrations of war, and possibly of love, are something he wants an escape from - although he has no idea where that is: 

“So I'm up at dawn

Putting on my shoes

I just want to make a clean escape

I'm leaving but I don't know where to”

Bright Eyes and the Emo culture

Despite the musical talent and songwriting ability Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes bring, there is a tendency to oversensitise subjects, creating deep landscapes of emotional complexity whilst using everyday scenes and objects to humanise them. Their music has been heavily linked to the Emo culture and has sometimes unfairly been stereotyped as dark, depressive, doom and gloom pandering to a liberal youth. 

That said, Oberst is also seen as someone not afraid of shying away from sex, politics, religion and death, and has always been someone to write from many of his own personal experiences. Recording from the age of 13, he has become heavily engaged with his own descriptive narrative of how he sees the world - both happy and sad. Probably one of the most heartwarming songs I know - “First day of my life” - exists on the same album as “Landlocked Blues”. It's another emotionally riddled song but completely out of phase with the depressing character of this one. Maybe not all things are dark and pesimistic in Oberst's world. 

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‘Tis the season for heartwarming adverts, packed high streets and attempts to break the usual online retail figures. Although the season is based around religious holiday, the notorious commercial factors surrounding Christmas will be keeping the economists busy, thumbing through sales reports and picking up the trends. But 2011 is  a year with much focus on the digital streaming services and new online music stores through Amazon and Google; what will the season bring for the music industry?

There were three articles in Music Week which got my attention this week and all service this discussion. The first very brief announcement covered Spotify’s growing body of paid subscribers, which has reached 2.5 million and still growing. Due to a US launch and its integration with Facebook, it seems things are looking good for Spotify to cut a profit at the end of the financial year. Although the company may rejoice, the success will only cause the many quibbling artists to continue harking about royalties and the devaluation of their product. If Spotify has so many subscribers, why are so many artists still not seeing returns from these services? Craig Hamilton was good enough to point out to me last week, “Some are on points deals (similar to physical deals) and are only getting 10% of digital revenue. Bear in mind that a label could be giving 20% to an aggregator, so artists could be getting 8% (or the label could even be passing on the aggregation costs to the artist!).

The other article discussed ST Holdings removing their catalogue from streaming services after seeing a poor return, including a dip in online sales (which may or may not be blamed on the growth of online streaming). They have now announced that they are working with streaming companies to determine what, if any, better deals could be made available to musicians whilst keeping the consumer happy. Another debate formed around “streams vs sales”; Beggars Group Chairman Martin Mills came out defending Spotify, equating 200 plays to a sale - although admitting that you need to be as popular as Adele to see those numbers. I do worry that there is a sort of nepotism at work between the major labels and the streaming companies, as it seems to be the smaller artists complaining and being squeezed on the deals. The fallout means 200 indie labels are off these services, making Spotify retort to the cue card: If you are getting something from pirates and those who are not your traditional fanbase, it’s better than nothing.

The third announcement addressed Amazon’s Black Friday deals on their music store. As with Amazon’s Cloud Drive and their commitment to pushing the buttons of many of the record labels, they are giving away free music to drive more customers to their service. The likes of Laura Marling, Katy Perry and The Rolling Stones will become the unwitting loss leaders; traditionally a supermarket tactic to sell goods at cost or below to stimulate greater sales in other goods. Going back to what I discussed last week, could digital music be reduced to free media to drive consumption of more physical objects, such as live concerts or merchandising? 

The battle of the gift cards...

So as Crimbo quickly approaches and we complete endless shopping lists, there will of course be the awkward gift card moment - when just nothing else will do! iTunes has always done pretty well in this market, with many choosing to buy a voucher for their iPod-obsessed teen or app-crazy spouse. Spotify will now have their green pieces of plastic gold on retailers’ shelves soon, and Amazon’s already strong online presence will have a new outlet to push. Even Facebook are getting in on the act in the US. X-Factor will make its traditional (yet not always successful) singles chart bid, and the Christmas pop compilations have already started flooding TV advertising and retail shelf space alike, almost as premature as eating a mince pie in November. 

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This week we have been assigned several readings from Will Page, including “PRS Report: State of the Music Industry” (2008, 2009 and 2010), “Moving Digital Britain Forward Without Leaving Creative Britain Behind”, “The Long Tail of P2P” and “Spotify - the Stats”. We will also look at David Hesmondhalgh’s “The British Dance Music Industry: A Case Study of Independent Cultural Production”.

When I began working as a freelancer, I kept hearing a common phrase - “Work for free or at full price; NEVER work cheap”. A cheap rate can undermine your working process by eliciting the expectation of a lower quality. Working for free manages expectations and gives you more power and control; working for full price allows clear processes to be defined and quality and turnover to be discussed freely. Yet imagine a musician as a freelancer, independent of major label contracts; it seems that musicians are being forced to work more and more cheaply while still meeting the demands of the paying consumer.

In my last blog post, I discussed the Open Source community and how it works together for the good of a project rather than its financial success. The model allows developers greater collaboration, producing tools for productivity’s sake, although not completely altruistically. Developers create these projects to enhance or even launch their careers, and many go on to (or are already in) full-time employment with software engineering companies, building for commercial ventures. Their “side projects” tend to lead to other ventures from which an income may be made. Whilst writing about this process, I could not help but compare it to the works created by music artists - and how such products were not necessarily made available just to create a revenue stream, but also to enhance or create other opportunities. So is the recorded medium being sacrificed willingly to improve statistics in other sectors? And with many sectors of digital music on the rise, why are artists getting such a poor deal from new retail services?

The economics of the music industry have changed significantly in the last decade. The live industry and publishing sectors have seen growth, recorded sales have declined (although they did flatten out in 2010) and emerging business models have given rise to new revenue streams through ad-supported campaigns. Synchronisation and merchandising deals have served to bolster the recording sector, with the greater use of 360 deals (Page [2010], p.7). Many attribute these changes to the convergence of technology, new music distribution models (such as streaming and online retail) and increased media consumption. According to Page, the industry is not all “doom and gloom” as many commentators state. Digital revenue was up in all three PRS reports (see above);51% year-on-year growth in 2008 represented a boom that continued through 2009 though cooled off slightly in 2010. iTunes is hugely successful and further online retailers such as HMV and even supermarket Tesco have been helping to sector growth. Spotify’s streaming service has seen a significant rise in popularity, citing 2.2m users in 2009, quickly gaining 1m users on launch in the USA in August 2011 and rising to an estimated 3.25m following a deal with Facebook in September 2011. 

Yet this week, John Hopkins demonstrated his strong dislike for Spotify. The streaming service is notorious for poor royalty output in relation to other means of distribution and the number of times the music is accessed: “Got paid £8 for 90,000 plays. Fuck Spotify.”  His sentiments were shared by fellow Twitter users, and soon the debate erupted on Music Week’s comment section. The major labels have been happy to strike deals with streaming services, but the royalty output for artists has been considerably lower than that based on the sale of physical formats. Spotify’s defence focuses on access rather than ‘per stream’ revenue, reminding us they are the second largest digital streaming service in regards to revenue and payout (over $100m) and that at least the artist is getting something, rather than the nothing that online piracy generates. It also has to be mentioned that users do not usually turn to services like Spotify to listen to independents, and it tends to be the indie artists and those without representation who are complaining the most. Hesmondhalgh notes that independents often avoid compilations and the mainstream; Spotify and such services similarly can’t meet the needs of the indie artist as any monetary success is based on popularity and favours the ‘star system’. Physical formats rather than digital sales have remained popular for the indie consumer due to the souvenir nature of the product; these artists often produce more interesting physical products, from limited edition vinyl to letterpress prints. 

Although piracy has been blamed for the overall decline in sales, the industry is also at fault for not adapting to technological change quickly enough and languishing in a submissive ‘something is better than nothing’ mentality. Now that digital distribution is becoming the norm, labels are being held at ransom over participation in online sales and streaming services. A perfect example of this was Apple’s treatment of Coldplay, promising the iTunes launch of the album at one price but cutting the price on release (Knopper, 2009). When the label complained, iTunes replied that the price was set and they could remove it from the store if requested. The album remained, and it became clear who holds the power in online retail. This seems to have created a knock-on effect, and the percentage the artists sees is dwindling. Labels must maintain a good relationship with their new online distributor, so it seems they are willing to work within these pricing models, however reluctantly. Yet the services do drive consumption, which aids the live sector and merchandise - the parts of the industry which can be made tangible and bespoke. So do the majors see digital streaming as a cheap sell off to drive other consumption, pushing products like live events? Is this a devaluation that leads to small term gains? Is this false economy? 

2012 is also poised to be the year of the new online music service - more and more are trying to exploit the digitisation of music sales and distribution. Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Music and Boinc will all look to capture a share of their respective markets. Amazon and Google have a strong user base to work from, while News Corp-backed Boinc will be entering as a relative newbie. But although moving away from the physical formats will lower cost in manufacturing and distribution for the label, the shift to digital formats has seen artists getting a poor deal on digital sales - and an even poorer one on streaming. 

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This week I have been charged with three readings: James Boyle’s The Public Domain (Ch. 8), Chris Anderson’s Wired article on ‘The Long Tail’ and Matt Mason’s The Pirate Dilemma (Ch. 5 & 6). The key points I took from these readings were their ideas about the online community, their behaviour and why although the notion of developing, releasing, sharing and copying comes with some negative connotations, there are those who believe in working for a cause rather than for a price.

For many years I have been a huge fan of open source. When I was 18 and built my first home computer, it was run on Linux Ubuntu - the open source operating system. When I couldn’t afford Adobe’s expensive Photoshop software, I turned to GIMP - the GNU Image Manipulation Program. While living in Ireland and working on a Brian Adams concert, I was introduced to the open source audio editing suite Audacity by a colleague who was helping with the advertisements. I’ve used Thuderbird for my email, Firefox for my Browsing, VLC as my media player... the list goes on. The fact is that open source is all around us, helping with our work processes and our media creation and consumption and essentially doing it for FREE. A Union report in 2007 (Mason p.151) claimed over £525m in voluntary work contributions are made every year by the Open Source community. 

The Open Source community is built on a simple set of functions and understandings: create, share with the community to help develop and improve, release the finished version online for download and also publish the code of the final product. But Open Source is not limited to just software. For instance, some people consider meal recipes as open source; they have been posted, amended and redistributed online in much the same way as a traditional Open Source project has. The idea is based on collaboration and development for the sake of the project itself, not an end goal of large profits and global fame. Much like Boyle (p.189) goes on the describe, the sense of creating in a community drives people to work on the projects on their own free time. But with a large social network and many people focusing on the same goals, the burden is shared. 

Not all projects are harmless fun or for general productivity, however. In 2010 a virus was called Stuxnet was discovered in the system controlling the centrifuges to Iran’s nuclear reactors. The worm was intended to shut down the cooling mechanisms of uranium enrichment facilities whilst telling its operators nothing was wrong. So why is this important? Stuxnet is an Open Source virus; the code is out there to download, amend and redeploy. Although the traditional Open Source community is not being blamed for the development of such a weaponised piece of code, it could certainly be a part of the next if such releases and programming become popular amongst the community. As of this week, a new trojan virus linked to Stuxnet named Duqu was apparently detected in a second attack. 

Similar to the Open Source community are those who contribute to a less restrictive copyright mechanism known as Creative Commons. Rather than a single project surrounded by contributors, Creative Commons allows the release of works which would be traditionally copyrighted (music, images, books, videos etc.) and lets them be posted for others to include in their own work without cost - with appropriate credits. It is a more passive collaboration - rather than the ideas of many coming together to create something, a sole creator is offered a library of resources to build from. Creative Commons is actually a non-profit organisation headed by Harvard Law professor and copyright commentator Lawrence Lessig. It is a licence process that Lessig has “made out of private and exclusive rights” (p.184) alongside the Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Boyles describes it as an alternative to traditional copyright, replacing “all rights reserved” for “some rights reserved” (p.182). Yet although it sounds like a more open copyright process, it only streamlines copyright approval features that already exist - the traditional copyright does allow for works to be used with the correct permissions granted. The saying may be “all rights reserved”, but that does not rule out the possibility for traditional copyright holders to grant some freedom of use. 

So what does Creative Commons give us as media producers? Much like our discussions around Open Source and the public domain, Creative Commons becomes a tool of the community. Rather than a replacement for traditional copyright, it is an amendment to make available some creative actions (copying, editing, posting) as long as certain rules are met. Copyright comes with lots of negative connotations, often through misunderstanding of its processes or the inherent legal implications of misusing it. The concept of Creative Commons developed to circumvent certain out-of-date copyright laws, allowing those who use relatively new technologies such as the internet an easier way of maintaining rights while granting creative freedom. Commons is an attempt to make some works more accessible to the creative industries, letting them manipulate and produce in a “remix culture” manner. 

I have focused much of this post on the creative communities and their open platforms - Commons and Open Source. In the readings from Anderson and Mason we also look at changes to online distribution and the online consumer. Anderson gives us insight into the model of distribution and how digitisation and online enterprise are changing it. Storage is cheap, and computer and internet speeds continue to increase; according to Moore’s Law, they will only continue to grow. This has allowed us to create vast online sales catalogues of media goods, eliminating the restrictions created when items formerly went “out of print”. 

The Long Tail economic theory has always been fascinating. Although we often discuss how success for an artist in the industry is to have one release that sells lots rather than lots of releases that sell some, we see that distributors who take advantage of online enterprise and increased technological performance (in speed or storage) have managed to create an income stream from the large percentage of releases that sell only some. The theory has its critics notably from Will Page of MCPS-PRS, who queries whether the Long Tail truly exists on services like iTunes. Anderson has defended his data and postures that although data from mobile music providers may not follow the trend explicitly, the theory does play out in the marketplace. Massive demand, a wide selection and high media consumption all make it possible. Self distribution and marketing are also contributors; along with social media sites and streamlined access to music aggregators, they allow easier access to independent and unsigned artists. 

Community was once defined by those around you; a group interacted locally for particular goals. With ever-increasing interconnectivity, we have all become members of a different type of community - the online community. Although Open Source communities were around before the internet came to fruition, online features have enabled a far greater range of collaboration than notable pre-internet groups such as the Homebrew Computer Club. Creative Commons has allowed those who wish to distribute their works a simple and streamlined process; rights holders can grant others an alternative licence to the restrictions imposed by traditional copyright law. Our ability to consume as individuals within online social platforms means that niche markets have become as important to distributors as the big hit makers; it is commercially important that those niches represent discussion, sharing and purchasing - enabling the Long Tail. But there can only be so much consumption; so with a rapid rise in material available to discover, what will be the knock on effect, if any, to the “hits”? Will the Long Tail ever simply become an equilibrium? And could it be possible that our new sense of community and development for mostly the greater good will spawn a wider ‘free culture’ movement, circumnavigating major labels and producing merely for the sake of consumption? 

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A historic £1.2b buyout finally took place last week when Universal Music Group (who had seemingly backed out of talks) placed a final winning bid for the British music institution EMI and its recording division. But with regulatory bodies and the likes of IMPALA waiting to scrutinise the deal and its knock-on effects, is the deal well and truly done?

Anybody who has been following my posts over the past month has seen the deals go back and forth with ongoing speculation and “will they, won’t they” drama. The deal effectively moves EMI’s catalogue and assets such as Abbey Road into the ownership of Universal and French parent company Vivendi. But like all major corporate takeovers, there are still some hurdles to jump. IMPALA (the Independent Music Companies Association) had already spoken out over a large buyout and warned it would oppose any other major label’s attempts to acquire EMI. 

In a Music Week article last week, Charlotte Otter described IMPALA’s concerns and the reasons behind their strong opposition to the deal. IMPALA fear that the combination of EMI and a group such as Universal under the Vivendi flag would give an unfair market share to one label and widen the competitive gap between major labels and independents. Another side effect of the buyout could be the streamlining of departments under the Universal label, meaning potential job losses and possibly closures of some of EMI’s smaller sub-labels. IMPALA have voiced concerns about major label practices in the past, and as the article states, IMPALA have already been looking into Universal’s dealings with Live Nation, the large live events oligarch. 

IMPALA will be turning to the competition authorities to voice these concerns, but Universal stresses that the deal is not simply a move to gain power, but an effort to rescue a brand that it sees as vital to the industry itself and “breathe new life into it.” The Financial Times notes Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy’s reminder of the Bertelsmann buyout in 2006 and his claim that this transaction would only help to create a resurgence of the great British icon. Universal CEO Lucian Grange added “We’re not bankers; we’re not private equity. Music runs through our veins” - addressing concerns surrounding EMI during its ownership by Guy Hands and his private equity firm Terra Nova. Many artists felt the corporate style of management and funding brought in under Hands’s reign led to a stifling of creativity. These issues caused artists like the Rolling Stones and Sir Paul McCartney to walk away from the label. 

These concerns are valid, and some have raised other pressing issues. James Ashton of the Evening Standard sees the greater threat to the UK’s creativity as a nation without a major music label. EMI’s talent for finding new artists and making them stars has launched many successful British acts. Now the power will lie elsewhere, with dictation coming from HQs in the USA. Again, a valid concern, but the UK has produced lots of talent without EMI. And will EMI’s directive of finding and nurturing such artists be diminished, or will its new owners demand it as part of the package they have purchased? 

One asset which the deal does not seem to threaten is Abbey Road Studios. Celebrating its 80th anniversary during the weekend of the buyout, Universal was clear to state their intentions for Abbey Road. In an article for The Independent, Grange stated:

"Abbey Road Studios are a symbol of EMI, a symbol of British culture, a symbol for the creative community. This is a historic acquisition and an important step in preserving the legacy of EMI Music. As an Englishman, EMI was the pre-eminent music company that I grew up with. Its artists and their music provided the soundtrack to my teenage years."

We must also remember that Universal did not buy up EMI in its entirety. Only the recording division of EMI has gone to Universal, with the bid for the publishing side going to joint-led Sony-ATV Publishing. If regulators are happy with the move, Sony will become the largest publishing company in the sector - something IMPALA is also concerned about. The EMI catalogue is very valuable, and this seismic shift may be what the competition authorities are particularly worried about, both in the USA and EU. IMPALA’s American equivalent A2IM (the American Association of Independant Musicians) and their president Rich Bengloff stood alongside their European counterpart, stating: 

“The increased concentration of copyright ownership, historically, has always hurt the independent label community in terms of achieving economic parity and market access. We join our European Impala Independent music label colleagues in their concern over this acquisition and await more detail."

All that we know for sure is that where there were four, there are now three - the major labels and their ongoing battles for market share have entered a new phase and competitiveness between them will now be higher than ever. How Europe and its competition authorities will favour this new structure is yet to be seen, and the importance of the objections IMPALA and many similar voice may raise is not yet known. There may yet be some twists in the road ahead for the Sony-Universal-EMI love triangle...

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This week’s readings are from Mark Deuze (Media Work) and Keith Negus (Music Genres and Corporate Cultures) on the interconnections between the workplace and our personal lives and how the cycle of production and consumption is converging on so many aspects of our everyday lives. They also discussed the implications of corporate intervention in the media industries.

Many of us take everyday media for granted. The digital revolution has made access to media such as music, games and films easy, and the rise of home computing and the internet has offered us a streamlined connection to it. This has brought big business into play and has created a much tighter corporate structure around the creative industries. How does an industry historically based on creativity, fickle consumer trends and risk taking suddenly become constrained by formulated corporate analysis and predictions?

To discuss this, we have to look first at the way we consumed then and the way we consume now. Before the late 1990s, consumption of media was generally in two forms: a physical medium (a CD, a newspaper, a video tape) or a broadcast (TV, radio, cinema). Our means of distributing media, be it creative or news journalism, were restricted by the technology at hand. With the popularity of the gramophone and home playback devices during the 1920s, a means of media production, sales and consumption was born. This industrial process was encouraged not solely by those involved in the music industry, but also by those involved in consumer electronics. EMI (Electric and Music Industries) was initially rival companies Columbia Gramophone and The Gramophone company. Sony is famous for its electronic products today, but its conception was via the Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo company, famous for its work developing transistor radios. Sony (alongside Phillips) were also industries leaders in format creation, creating the CD, MiniDisc, DVD and Blueray.  

For these companies, controlling the production (music, film, games, etc.) as well as the means of its consumption (technology) was a no-brainer. Essentially, the large firms became responsible for the output of much of the commercial media, releasing it on formats requiring the purchasing of hardware goods. Their earnings from the music industry itself were minor in comparison to their other business ventures, but as technology improved, consumption increased and so did the need for production. Personal playback devices became the norm with the introduction of the Sony Walkman; cars began to have stereos built in as standard and eventually the consumption of media began to invade many more aspects of our personal lives. 

With the introduction of the CD in the early 1980s, the physical format shifted from the analogue domain to the digital. The move was significant and eventually lead to increased issues with piracy due to the ease in which they could be duplicated and later ripped and shared using the new household commodity of the home computer and the introduction of the internet. New means of digital distribution began to emerge and online enterprise drove innovation. This gave greater power to the consumer and meant distribution was not only driven by marketing through advertisement and airplay, but by virtual “word of mouth”. Huge digital libraries began to grow, some by legal means such as iTunes, some by illegal, such as Napster. Organising large personal collections became simpler, and they could even be carried around in your pocket with mp3 players such as Apple’s iPod. Like Deuze (p.15) describes, technology began to aid organisation and allowed people to consume all the time (p.30). People were given new ways to gather and consume, as well as share and discuss, outside the traditional controls on the mainstream media. 

Although much power was given to the consumer in regards to choice, the personal computer became the proverbial “Trojan Horse” (Deuze p.37) for other services to invade the home and become new tools in distribution. YouTube, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Twitter, Facebook - all these services give us ways to consume as we have discussed, but they now give the public their own ways to distribute and socialise. These businesses tap into a seemingly un-endless stream of creativity, made up of millions of contributors. Giving the public the ability to upload their talent has enabled them to become part of the industrial process of creation rather than just being for consumption. This is effectively free labour for media sites which encourage people to put their creative works online. 

The convergence of technology to amend this cycle of creation and consumption has also lead to new means of networking around particular media. Content has birthed many online communities (Deuze p.76). World of Warcraft is an example of a MMORPG creating not only a devout following but an interacting community that generates ongoing revenue through subscriptions and in-game purchasing. Facebook and Myspace were driven by sharing personal information, media such as music and video and linking to articles and news stories which may be interesting to those in their social circle. This networked socialising has also allowed for greater data analysis of web statistics, also known as web analytics. This data has become a valued commodity and is a main stream of income for companies such as Facebook. The data we share and the media we watch becomes a statistic, which in turn drives decision making for those companies who purchase that information or focus on a demographic of interest. 

This form of statistical analysis comes to suit the more historically recent corporate structure of the industry. Trends can be analysed and so can their consumption. Although sitels like Google Analytics can give out basic information on visitors, sites like Next Big Sound give comparative data to other artists and also work off social media network trends.  Labels can assess risks with data relating to demographic, locations where the artist may be popular (through popular view counts and sharing in that country) and by what medium their fanbase use to listen to the works (streaming, downloads, CD purchasing, etc.). These statistics can also aid in the management of production and consumption as Negus (p.47) discusses. Although the use of tools like Nielsen Soundscan are still important for monitoring distribution and sales figures, analytics are able to define popular trends and therefore aid in market predictability and can be important deciding factor on how much development and budget are available to a rising artist. 

Consumption is at its highest, and media can be created, marketed and distribution at low or no cost by anybody with the correct tools at home. Yet the keys to mainstream media outlets (including new internet marketing tactics such as AdWords and targeted advertising) and grand advertising budgets are still held by those who can afford it. For the artists, becoming popular online through self marketing and distribution is just as difficult as being discovered and signed in the traditional sense - though live music performances and demo tapes. For the labels, statistics like web analytics and Soundscan provide some comfort and aid in their predictability, but can also be seen as a way to avoid risks and potentially miss something or someone that could have made a significant impact through their talent alone, not just the amount of views they have on YouTube. 

I’ll leave with with a little video from Frank Zappa and his thoughts on how the music industry was changing and what his concerns were... (he goes in a weird tangent after 2 mins, but a fun watch). 

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This week’s Music Week article reminded me of the ongoing problems over at EMI. The storied buy-out has been dragged out since Citigroup took control of the label from Terra Firma in February of this year. The latest reports claim that Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik has walked away from the bidding after a $1.5 billion offer was rejected by Citigroup. Bidding remains ongoing, and in an effort to recoup their £2.2 billion loss, Citigroup are willing to split the business for multiple buy-outs. So what will be left of the label when the feasting frenzy is over?

Let’s clarify who allegedly wants what: Warner Music is interested mainly in EMI’s extensive and historic music catalogue. KKR and Bertlesmann-owned BMG Rights Management is going after the publishing wing. Sony has asked for more time to whip up interest amongst its investors and is currently rumoured to be bidding on the publishing side only. Universal walked away last week after becoming the front runner in the negotiations but then apparently losing out in bidding to Blavatnik.

EMI CEO Roger Faxon was desperate not to split EMI and believes keeping it together will enable its overall value to grow. He has been rumoured to be integrating strategies between the divisions to make the split more difficult. But with no buyer willing to take on EMI as a single entity, the split looks likely. If a Warner bid is to be revived, it is likely EMI will cease to be a brand in the US market. If Sony acquires the publishing side, it will likely merge it with its own extensive works and those newly acquired from the Michael Jackson estate. 

It is also unclear where the likes of Abbey Road would lie if a split were to occur. Almost a year ago, the famous studios were under threat, with rumours of closure and sell offs. After a campaign by music fans and celebrities to safeguard the British institution, EMI held onto the site and considered touting the studio to third-party investors. Now, while its parent company dissolves, the first purpose built recording studio may find itself the unwanted furniture in the publishing v. catalogue divorce proceedings. But to many, Abbey Road is as historic and important as the 114-year-old label itself. From the technological discoveries of Alan Blumlein in the 1930s to The Beatles and Pink Floyd recordings in the 1960s, the building has a rich and important history of British innovation and creativity – one which should not be simply cast aside.

The bidding wars and rumour mills will continue while the staff and talent at EMI wait nervously for the final outcome. The Rolling Stones, Queen, Sir Paul McCartney and more recently Robbie Williams have left the label, the latter citing the ongoing turbulence as a factor in his departure. It’s difficult to see an ending that will be happy for all, especially for the likes of Terra Firma and Guy Hands who are still reeling from losing control. EMI, a brand and a symbol of the British music industry, may be torn apart and condemned to history. 

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Last week, I discussed how the record and tech industries were venturing into the world of cloud computing for digital music distribution. In recent weeks we have seen the arrival of Apple’s iCloud and the leaked Google Music Locker, and we have been aware of Amazon’s Cloud Drive for a while. We have also discussed the recent integration of popular social networking site Facebook with Spotify. 

This week’s report from the cloud comes from Charlotte Otter with the impending arrival of new cloud and and online streaming service Boinc. In her article, she looks at a service with some very bold claims in how it will work. 

According to Otter, and later backed up by Boinc’s promotional video, the company is willing to pay out 70% of its revenue to artists, as well as royalties for each play. A huge promise to make when Spotify are synonymous with struggling to implement a reasonable payout structure to artists. Even more interestingly, Boinc are willing to pay royalties for any media played after being converted/imported into their platform. They don’t care where the material originally came from; its playback on their service will lead to a royalty being given. They also state they will not ask for subscription fees, there will be no adverts and users can listen as much as they like. It sounds similar to iTunes Match, but nobody is quite sure how Apple will broach the subject of illegally sourced material on their service and whether it’s a honeypot trap.

What the revenue stream is to make this possible is difficult to guess at this point, but they have already received significant investment. According to Otter, “News Corp invested $9.2m (£5.6m) for a 23% stake in Boinc in April 2010 and a further $2m in March, as part of a $77m funding round led by the charity foundation, the Wellcome Trust.”

But what must be astonishing/worrying to the likes of Amazon and Google, who are yet to secure licenses from several of the major labels, is that this new and untested service has already secured licences with Sony and Warner - the two labels the two rivals are yet to secure. Google has currently secured a licence with EMI and are in ongoing talks with Universal but not the others. Amazon simply haven’t bothered at all. Spotify have their licences, but have been known for disputes and are regularly falling out of favour with musicians and songwriters over payments. So how have Boinc achieved this on a service that isn’t planning to launch until 2012 and has no prior history in mass online distribution? They do have a powerful investor in News Corp, although this may also be thought of as a potential stain on their early reputation (due to the recent scandals in the UK and abroad). Is this another episode of a multinational media company willing to invest in music streaming services to exploit a potential revenue, or possibly just another data mining exercise using music as bait? 

It will be an interesting few weeks and months as more information about these services becomes available. I’m sure the marketing of Boinc will begin to go into overdrive as the its launch draws nearer - they are already using “Boinc’ing” as a verb and further innuendo is bound to follow. Even as a platform under development, the promises being made are sure to worry its rivals and the buzz it will create should secure a strong market penetration. No pun intended... 

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The essential product being sold by the record is creativity: The use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. Given that definition, are the rules surrounding sampling and copyright actually helping or harming the music industry?

I first would like to discuss the second reading of Mark Katz - “Listening in Cyberspace”  -and his ideas of a medium as Rivalrous and non-rivalrous. His statement of an idea as a non-rivalrous medium is important throughout this discussion of copyright and sampling. By nature, the mp3 as a digital format is a non-rivalrous form; it can be copied and transferred and not a bit of information will change. This form has allowed it to be misused and distributed freely online through Peer-2-Peer (P2P) networks and directly from user to user. This distribution, a clear breach of copyright, has yet to be successfully controlled, in particular due to the millions of “criminals” and the belief of many that what they are doing isn’t even wrong. The problem the industry faces is not only finding a suitable control without alienating their consumer base again, but educating further generations so they understand their actions. Like many copyright issues, the rules are just too blurred.  

Before the issues of mass piracy through P2P and the mp3 and before the so call “Napster Moment”, the music industry was part of a different kind of copyright battle. Sampling had become popular through new technologies and the emergence of genres based on the technique of capturing, manipulating and looping other works. This musical recycling was not a new phenomenon, but had evolved over 50 years of experimentation and innovation. Imaginary Landscape No1 (1939) by composer John Cage was an early example of this creativity. The Music Concréte (1948) movement followed, and with the arrival of analogue tape new forms of recording, sample manipulation, and significantly, composition became available. Synthesis technology gave way to new sounds and creativity, and with the popular uptake of the Moog synthesisers, the two methods of sound creation began to amalgamate. The Mellotron, the earliest form of keyboard triggerable sampler, became synonymous with the psychedelic movement of the 1960s. The Fairlight CMI digital sampler/sythesizer was hugely popular in the late 1970s and was fashioned by the likes of Peter Gabriel, Herbie Hancock and Kate Bush. The 1980s were dominated by digital samplers from the likes of Akai and Roland. The industry was booming and emerging genres emerging such as rap and electronica were leading the demand for such technology. 

Although sampling had been around for around half a century, it wasn’t until it had reached huge popularity and a mass market that it started to upset the commercial music industry. Although laws were in place during all of these movements, the 1988 copyright act stated that a “substantial part” must be copied before there is a breach (Section 16(3)(a) CDPA); something many people who went to court cited as unclear. It wasn’t until the Biz Markie vs. Gilbert O’Sullivan case (Grand Upright Music vs. Warner Bros, 1991) that a significant case of copyright infringement begin to effect the way samples were being used. The case itself had a huge effect on hip hop production and soon lead to the industrialisation of sample licensing and clearance. Although right to protect his copyright, Gilbert O’Sullivan regretted the court action and wished it could have been avoided. 

In the first reading from Mark Katz, Music in 1’s and 0’s, he intends to outline three well-referenced cases of sampling and manipulation of commercial works - Notjustmoreidlechatter, a work by composer Paul Lansky, Norman Cook’s usage of Camille Yarbrough’s “Take Yo’ Praise” for his track “Praise You” and the sample concentric composition of Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”. 

Katz begins with a case study that focuses on creativity rather the difficult matters of copyright infringement. In a style resembling the era of Music Concréte utilising the modern day technology of digital sampling, his experimental work stemmed from his work on the C-Mix language and his musical background. His experiment with algorithmic landscapes of sounds lead to his famous Notjustmoreidlechatter - a piece comprised of speech played as if were music. This lays the benchmark for this conversation in relation to creativity vs. copyright in the sampling world. Could every voice in this composition be subject to a copyright infringement?

It is interesting that Katz moves on the the Norman Cook case study next; I believe the evolution in sampling came with Public Enemy, so I’m going to review it first. 

Katz describes Hip Hop production from 1989 - Public Enemy’s “Fight The Power”. The track contains multiple samples from other works, but these were broken down into such small pieces and looped or manipulated to distract you from the original piece of music it came from; there was no intention to steal. It was popular at the time to ‘borrow to create’ and to hark back to your influences. If you read the list of the artists sampled in this tack, there is certainly a note of pride in the black musicians featured: James Brown (and his drummer Clyde Stubblefield), Uriah Heap, Bob Marley, Guy, Trouble funk and others. This sample culture existed up until such cases as Biz Markie vs. O’ Sullivan and De La Soul vs. The Turtles. 

The Norman Cook study is a little more open and shut. It sounds far too over analysed, and it was also interesting to note the animosity towards Camille Yarbrough by the author and other critics. Yarbrough was happy for the sample to be used, was content with the creative context and, although it had a racial undertone and a personal meaning to her, she believed its message of “Praise” was being constructed in a new but decent way. Although the medium had changed slightly, it still had the same message. For Norman Cook, it served its purpose as a means to his creativity. 

The person I feel for the most is Clyde Stubblefield (aka the Funky Drummer). He is believed to be the most sampled person in commercial music. It is interesting to note that he has never received a penny from performance royalties for anything that the sample is used on (as a session musician he received a one-off fee). As he is the creator of that pattern and no other musician is in the loops he appears in, many believe he should be the sole owner of that piece and its copyright. But the copyright is not owned by him, nor by the artist he was playing for, James Brown. It is the label who own the copyright and it is they who are protecting their “product” in many of these cases.

Paul Miller’s text In Through the Out Door expresses similar beliefs in regards to “the idea” and the digital world’s exchange and engineering of ideas. Although his writing is eccentric, he is essentially trying to reach the conclusion that ideas are the stem of creativity and that those ideas should be open for manipulation and sometimes improvement so they can evolve into a new form. Can these thoughts and ideas be subjected to law and copyright? A brilliant discussion on NPR’s Science Friday programme evaluates the concept of copyrighting ideas. To hear it, click below:

NPR Science Friday - Digital Music Sampling: Creativity or Criminality

What is still unclear to me is the decision-making process behind sample clearing. I looked to Anne Harrison’s Music: The Business (p.228) for some answers. Although she gives a good account of where to start and what to do, the decision making is somewhere between the label, the artist and if third party, the songwriters and publishers. But one thing is clear: all samples must be cleared, no matter how manipulated or unrecognisable the used sample is from its original. I would like to know who really holds the power in these situations. The licensing and purchasing system of sample clearance irks of an industrial process that capitalises on a popular creative technique. Although the protection of works is important, fair use would be a mitigation factor for many of these cases, especially where works are not being purposely “stolen” or misrepresented. A blanket policy of “clear or be sued” is a simplistic attitude and one that damages potential creativity for those with a genuine artistic use. Was this due to a genuine need to protect, or did the industry spot a chance to monetise the process of sampling?

Many of those who are creating music with samplers will tell you that they are simply trying to be creative in the same way that person who played that drum pattern or that guitar part were. To hear many interviews with DJs and artists on this subject, I suggest you watch the “Copyright Criminals” documentary. 

(This is only the trailer but the full documentary is on youtube - the irony...)

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As part of my Online Enterprise module, I have been asked to discuss Oxford creative cultural industries and the local clusters that have a significant impact on their economy. 

Oxford is well known for its academic stature, beautiful landscape and dreaming spires. It is a city reknowned for inspiring great writers and designers alike and is steeped in a rich history of creativity. Today, Oxford is a city for not only the classical arts but also the modern creative cultural industries such as game design, music, fashion and software engineering. But one of the greatest and oldest creative mechanisms in Oxford is its publishing sector.  

Oxford University Press (OUP) is to many the Mecca of publishing houses. It began its life in the print world during the 15th Century, initially printing bibles and scholarly media. Printing at the time operated primarily in London and select areas, so Oxford had to apply to the Crown to establish itself as an official printer. A century passed before Oxford was allowed the privelege to print what it liked. This was the beginning of Oxford’s publishing industry.

As its economy grew and publishing restrictions beagan to diminish, the attraction to Oxford as a printing hub escalate, particularly given the ease of access to academics and authors from the University. Overseas trade spurned growth in the early 20th century, and as the war had an effect on British trade, businesses in London had to shift to Oxford. Towards the end of the 20th century, further opportunities opened up with the convergence of technologies and the arrival of online enterprise. OUP is currently the worlds largest University press, printing approximately 6000 titles a year and employing over 1800 people (65% of whom live in Oxfordshire). A study by Oxford Inspires - The Economic Impact of the Cultural and Creative Industries in Oxfordshire - revealed that OUP had an annual turnover of £578m in March 2009. In addition to OUP, other major publishing groups such as Macmillan, Blackwell and Elsevier base a great deal of their operations out of Oxford. The total annual turnover for publishing in Oxford was believed to be £1.27bn in 2006, according to The Oxfordshire Publishing Cluster – Initial Scoping Study.

Although publishing is a key part of Oxford’s creative cultural industries, there are other growing clusters within the city. In a 2010 report by NESTA, The Geography of Industry,  it was highlighted that there were significant layers of overlap in creative industries such as the software, computer games and electronic publishing sectors in cities such as Oxford alongside its already strong publishing industry. According to NESTA, the report aimed to “improv[e] our understanding of the mechanisms through which creative industries contribute to regional innovative performance”. Another report conducted by Europe Innova (Priority Sector Report: Creative and Cultural Industries) has Oxford ranked 13th in Europe’s Top 25 regions for creative and cultural industries employment clusters (Power & Nielsen, p.5). 

Due to the size of the sector, Oxford has also attracted a support network for those in this industry. The Oxford Publishing Society (OPUS) aims to create a forum for members of the publishing industry in the city. It hosts networkng events and talks for its members and  encourages those involved to meet, share ideas and exchange views. It was founded by some of the largest publishers in Oxford, including Blackwell Publishers, Butterworth-Heinemann, CAB International and Elsevier Science. 

With a healthy publishing sector thriving on one of the best Universities in the world, it is not difficult to see why the academic press has been so successful in Oxford. The scholarly culture and creative clusters work well side by side and as such continue to innovate and expand. It is important to ensure that they continue to thrive and innovate, as the creative cultural industries of new and old are important to local and national economic growth. 

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This week I have chosen Tim Ingham’s article on Google’s apparent plan to launch a digital music service set to rival Spotify, iTunes and similar services. The article itself is more about the rumoured announcement  Google music store is imminent, but also leads onto the discussion of how music and the internet are entering a new phase of joint enterprise. 

The integration of popular music services into other platforms is not new, but not until this year has media and music sharing been such a major playing card for sites like Facebook and Google. With media sharing becoming an important element to social networking, this deeper integration may have been inevitable. Digital music streaming services are a major talking point, especially when discussing piracy issues and artist payments (or lack of). So what does Google’s further ventures into these music services mean for the consumer and for industry professionals? 

The dominance of Google and its stronghold on the search engine market have turned “Googling” into its own term. It’s where many of us turn when looking for pretty much anything. We’ve seen how Google has driven media streams in the past: after purchasing YouTube, it went onto link video media into its search results, driving more traffic to YouTube than to any other video sharing website while also increasing Google’s own traffic.. This may give us hints to Google’s implementation, and we must now take into account both Google Music Locker and Google Plus and how they will also play a big part interlacing a music store and/or streaming service into Google’s portfolio. Although neither can be claimed as great successes so far, both have laid a significant foundation for a heavily connected social music environment, without having to adapt to work with third parties (as in the case of the Facebook-Spotify deal). Importantly, especially for those who are concerned about licensing and copyright, this will also link heavily into Google’s cloud computing plans. 

Cloud computing itself has come into the forefront of tech “chatter” over the past week. Apple’s new iOS includes the new iCloud service. Recognising that many Apple users have more than one device, this service stores much of the users’ information on an online server, sharing data and synchronising settings. But it also comes with online storage and the ability to sync your music across multiple devices (but without technically “copying” them to those devices). Amazon has also been in the news with their “Cloud Drive” service, which offers something similar. 

So with three major internet companies suddenly trying to crack the media market, we may see a better marketplace for the consumer as far as “deals” are concerned, although this is likely a bad thing for those aiming to make money by utilising these services to sell music. Currently, Apple has the edge; only it has licensing deals from the four major labels. Google and Amazon are in beta with their services while trying to secure licenses. Apple also is caching the files smartly on devices, giving the users quick access to their music, whereas Amazon must stream each file slowly and manually to the device. Apple also has an avid fan base, multiple successful product lines that can utilise the features and a store in place for purchasing. 

There is still an important question to be answered: “Will it create a viable revenue stream for the music industries?” In regards to cloud streaming, I believe it will be a source of income, though more like the pennies of Spotify than the pounds of the CD. But greater integration of music stores into search engines and social networks could create more paths for music to be purchased legally.

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