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[PMH 3.3 (2008) 207-212] Popular Music History (print) ISSN 1740-7133 doi:10.1558/pomh.v3i3.207 Popular Music History (online) ISSN 1743-1646

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Tuulikki Pietilä

Introduction to the Special Issue World Music and small players in the global music industry

Tuulikki Pietilä is an academy research fellow in the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. She has published a monograph on market women and gender relations in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, and a number of articles on trade and gender issues in post-colonial Africa as well as on the world music industry. Currently she is studying South African music and music industry.

Collegium for Advanced Studies Fabianinkatu 24 00014 University of Helsinki Finland [email protected]

The articles in this issue examine World Music and its history from diverse per- spectives and positions. The papers were originally presented as part of a two-day conference entitled ‘World Music and Small Players in the Global Music Indus- try’, and held in the Danish Institute for International Studies in Copenhagen in August 2005.1 The conference gathered together researchers and practitioners with an interest in minor agents’ position and strategies in the music industry— minor agents being independent labels and producers in general and World Music producers and promoters in particular. Altogether fifteen papers were presented in the conference, under the fol- lowing subthemes: Current Trends in the Global Music Industry (papers by Dave Laing and Phil Hardy); World Music—Gains and Controversies for the Involved Agents (papers by Joe Boyd and John Collins); Small Agents in the South African Recording Industry (papers by David Coplan and Tuulikki Pietilä); Independent Labels’ Strategies in Denmark (papers by Henrik Bødker and Per Darmer); Poli- tics of Representation in the World Music Industry (papers by Mike Alleyne and

1. I wish to thank the Danish Research Agency (Forskningsrådet for Samfund og Erhverv) for providing the major part of the funding for the conference, and the Danish Institute for International Studies for providing additional funding and the facilities for the conference. Addi- tionally, I wish to thank Per Darmer from Copenhagen Business School for help in organizing the conference.

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John Hutnyk); Developments in the World Music Institutions and Concept in the Nordic Countries (papers by Ole Reitov and Mik Aidt); and Experiences of Small Agents in the Music Business (papers by Jonathan Feig, Jakob Hoff, and D. A. Sonneborn). Six of the papers are published here. These six and two other papers (by John Hutnyk and by D. A. Sonneborn) together with a longer introduction are also avail- able as an e-book in a series by the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (Pie- tilä 2009b). Two conference papers not included in these publications (papers by David Coplan and by Tuulikki Pietilä) are published elsewhere (see Coplan [2008: 359–65] and Pietilä [2009a]). The articles by Dave Laing and Phil Hardy deal with the general developments in music industry structures. The music industry has experienced a process of accelerating globalization especially since the end of the 1970s, when companies started to respond to a downturn in sales by a wave of takeovers and mergers (Burnett 1996: 50–59). The result has been a decreasing number of companies with an increasing international reach. Phil Hardy’s article reveals that in the last two decades, the territorial coverage and operating principles of authors’ collec- tion societies in Europe have also been undergoing changes. The pressure from international record companies, competition authorities and the online digital market has undermined the national basis of the collection societies and cre- ated attempts at forming a more international, pan-European body for copyright licensing administration. In the music industry just like in other fields, globalization has thus tended to result in increasing internationalization and a concentration of power among fewer players, and a streamlining and mainstreaming of activities over larger ter- ritories. However, the World Music industry, a small niche in the global music industry, contains features of an alternative mode of globalization to that of the major music industry. Dave Laing describes the multinational major companies’ mode of operation as a ‘centre to periphery panoptic command structure’, and contrasts that with the World Music industry, which he describes as a ‘genre- market’ functioning through specialized institutions and networks across national boundaries. This distinction highlights the fact that World Music has always been and remains a domain within the global music industry in which minor actors, such as independent record labels, freelance journalists and music profession- als, predominate instead of the major players. Because it is based on networks of numerous actors, controversy and diversity in the ideologies, definitions and boundaries are inherent in the World Music industry. Operations based on face- to-face interactions and networks are no less global than those based on large units where employees of the same parent company largely remain anonymous to

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each other. This reminds us that globalization does not necessarily always mean an increased abstraction and a distancing of human relations as is commonly envis- aged in globalization theories (e.g., Giddens 1990; Harvey 1989). Against the decreasing significance of locality in many forms of globalization, World Music is an instance of the emphasized importance of locality, albeit not one without contradictions. Much of the attraction of World Music derives from the images and atmospheres it brings from other cultures. World Music may give the listener a feeling of being able to command the perplexing cacophony that the globalized media and excessive information produces; it offers a simplified way to explore the world, and map the world through music. In practice, though, the feeling of command and comprehension may well be as imaginary as the places and cultures that the World Music industry portrays, often represented as more localized, romanticized and unchanging than they are in reality. In his article Mike Alleyne discusses how Caribbean musics, calypso and reggae in particular, have often become diluted and diminished in their aural, visual and textual qualities as they are produced by the multinational record companies for the world markets. He emphasizes the power that the dominant Euro-American culture and record companies exert in representing and defining Other peoples’—in this case Anglo- phone Caribbean—musical genres and cultures. Regardless of its many good intentions, the World Music industry is indeed often criticized for the nature of the representations and images it perpetuates of non-Western peoples, whose music it showcases (e.g., Erlmann 1994: 179; Feld 1994: 266; Mitchell 1993: 310). When the label World Music was launched as a mar- keting category in the mid-1980s, much of the music included was from Africa and the African diaspora (see Collins in this issue; fRoots magazine 1987). Gradually, however, the category has come to embrace music of non-Western origins in gen- eral, as well as that of European and American minorities. In that way, the World Music category lumps together a wide diversity of music, for which the common denominator is a social and territorial location in the world system rather than a clearly definable musical genre. The way World Music is produced on records and presented on stage and on record covers—the performers clad in ethnic costumes, feathers and with painted faces—tends to emphasize traditionalism, exoticism and primitive naturalness (e.g., Erlmann 1994; Taylor 1997: 19–27).2 At worst the audi- ence and industry expectations of what a World Music band should sound and look like are so strong and inflexible that they in effect constrain the band from experimenting with sounds and styles and, thus, from realizing their creativity fully (Pietilä 2008; see also Feig on ‘race music’ in this issue).

2. For a summary of the discussion on the economic and symbolic forms of appropriation inherent in the World Music institution, see Pietilä 2008.

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Joe Boyd’s article offers a vivid description of the divergent musical tastes and expectations clashing in the recording studio. As an experienced producer, Boyd knows that Euro-American audiences seek in World Music ‘virtuosity, a sense of roots and tradition, and the spontaneous energy of a live recording session where great musicians interact in real time’. However, once non-Western musicians get into the studio in order to make a World Music record, they are often more interested in musical experimentation by modifying traditional sounds with hi- tech productions and electrified instruments. In his article, John Collins describes a similar discrepancy between the expectations of World Music audiences and domestic audiences for Ghanaian music. Both Boyd and Collins find in the World Music industry a means to re-elevate the value of traditional music among the people whose traditions it belongs. They depict well the contrast and irony in the longing of Western audiences for traditional music from musicians and peoples who themselves yearn for modern, electrically-amplified sounds. Thus, if West- ern people search for an escape from their technologically infused, postmodern life in the ‘pure’ and ‘rootsy’ sounds of World Music, non-Western people seem to be searching for ways and signs of modern life in Western electric sounds and genres. Indeed, there has been so much criticism in the academic literature on the Western-originated exoticizing and orientalizing tendencies inherent in the World Music industry that it is high time to balance the picture by drawing atten- tion to the pure and rather innocent curiosity, fascination and enthusiasm that Western and non-Western people equally feel in regard to each other’s musical styles. As the examples given by Boyd and Collins show, there is a mutual curi- osity over Otherness and Others’ music that moves Western and non-Western people alike. There is nothing intrinsically bad in this fascination, even though it can turn into the fetishization and exoticization of the Other as easily among non-Western people as it does among Westerners. The discrepancy in power and technology means, however, that the Western images of the Other circulate more widely than vice versa, as Alleyne’s paper reminds us. In contrast to what Alleyne describes as the dilution of aesthetic and cultural authenticity of the Car- ibbean music by the major music industry, Collins’s paper emphasizes the many positive developments that the World Music industry has engendered for Gha- naian music, important among these being the increased interest in ‘authentic’— traditional and neo-traditional—musical forms. The ambience and energy of live performance is a crucial part of the attraction of World Music. Indeed, by examining the statistics, Dave Laing finds that the live performance is the largest and fastest-expanding sub-sector of the World Music industry. Online distribution of music and the creation of a virtual fan-base are

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so far more viable for Western artists. Interestingly, however, as Laing discusses, the live music sector is the fastest-growing category of the whole global music industry. The spread of digital technology and online distribution of music are unlikely to diminish the importance and popularity of live performance. Quite the contrary: the moments of live interaction continue to draw and fascinate people amidst the increasing presence of virtual realities in their lives. This shows again how abstract and disembedding processes related to globalization, such as the online downloading of music, simultaneously create space and demand for embodied, participatory and situated experiences. Jonathan Feig’s article discusses live performances and the different stage roles available and suitable for different musicians. By comparing the distinct careers of six violin players, he reminds us of the centrality of live improvisation in music, often barely captured on record and seldom adequately appreciated by the recording industry. He also highlights the importance of acknowledging the particular personality of each musician, because it influences the roles in which he or she feels most at ease and creative. Improvisation and a suitable distribu- tion of roles are thus what make a performance memorable and the band, as well as the individual artists, unique. When all the pieces fall into place, profession- alism is revealed in the creative and virtuosic mixing of musical elements from diverse sources and traditions, which are thereby renewed. This is World Music at its best and discourses and definitions can only go so far in their attempt to capture it.

References Burnett, R. 1996. The Global Jukebox: The International Music Industry. London and New York:

Routledge. Coplan, D. 2008. In Township Tonight! South Africa’s Black City Music and Theatre. Chicago:

University of Chicago Press. Erlmann, V. 1994. ‘Africa Civilised, Africa Uncivilised: Local Culture, World System and South

African Music’. Journal of Southern African Studies 20/2: 165–79. Feld, S. 1994. ‘From Schizophonia to Schismogenesis: On the Discourses and Commodifica-

tion Practices of “World Music” and “World Beat”’. In Music Grooves, by Charles Keil and Steven Feld, 257–89.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

fRoots Magazine. 1987. ‘History of World Music’. http://www.frootsmag.com/content/ features/world_music_history/minutes

Giddens, A. 1990. The Consequences of Modernity. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Harvey, D. 1989. The Condition of Postmodernity. Oxford: Blackwell. Mitchell, T. 1993. ‘World Music and the Popular Music Industry: An Australian View’. Ethno-

musicology 37/3: 309–37. Pietilä, T. 2008. ‘Singing in the Dark? World Music and Issues of Power and Agency’. In

Globalization and Restructuring of African Commodity Flows, eds Niels Fold and Mari- anne Nylandsted Larsen, 241–66. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

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—2009a. ‘Whose Works and What Kinds of Rewards: The Persisting Question of Ownership and Control in the South African and Global Music Industry’. Information, Communi- cation & Society 12/2: 229–50.

—ed. 2009b. World Music: Roots and Routes. Helsinki: Collegium for Advanced Studies, e-book series, volume 6: http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/e-series/volumes/vol ume_6/ index.htm

Taylor, T. 1997. Global Pop: World Music, World Markets. New York and London: Routledge.