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The Promotion of Live Music in the UK
The Promotion of Live Music in the UK—a Historical, Cultural and Institutional Analysis.
AHRC Research Grant F009437/1
Principal Investigator: Professor Simon Frith (University of Edinburgh)
Co-Investigator: Professor Martin Cloonan (University of Glasgow)
Research Officer: Dr Matt Brennan (University of Edinburgh)
Attached PhD: Emma Webster (University of Glasgow)
The aim of this three year project (which commenced on April 15 2008) is to get a better understanding of the live music sector in the UK. The research is concerned with all kinds of musical event (from orchestral and chamber music concerts to stadium shows and rock festivals, from rap and reggae gigs to acoustic and jazz club nights). It explores live music phenomenologically, as a social event and aesthetic experience, and institutionally, as something produced in the context of legal and state regulations and economic and marketing strategies. But it does so from a particular perspective, that of the promoters, venue managers and impresarios who bring live music to the public. The research addresses the following questions:
- How is the live music business in the UK presently organised and how has it changed over the last 50 years?
- How do promoters understand the live music experience that they seek to persuade audiences to enjoy?
- What values are attached to live music by its various publics?
- How does live music fit into the overall organisation of various music worlds, on the one hand, and the leisure economy, on the other?
- What are the effects of state regulation and policy on the promotion of live music?
This is a deliberately ambitious project. For music makers and listeners alike the live music experience defines the value and pleasure of music, and yet it is a neglected area of academic research. Our purpose has been to address this neglect and in doing so we have found ourselves challenging accounts of British musical history which focus on the rise (and more recent fall) of the record industry. Our findings will constitute a new history of music in Britain since 1950, which will be published in three volumes by Ashgate.
For further details of both the project and the forthcoming books visit our website.
This article was published on Sep 17, 2010