Page 248 - Cultural Theory

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••• Popular Music •••

detailed examination of the music industry. One of his key findings is that there is
much uncertainty among business executives, fans, musicians and journalists over
what type of music is going to be commercially successful. In many ways this demon-
strates both the power of the audience, because the industry cannot predict the pop-
ularity of music nor can it control the way it is used, and the specific problems posed
by overproduction. For instance, Simon Frith (1983: 101) estimated that 80 per cent
of the recordings made by the industry in any year are never bought or even heard
by an audience (though the small proportion that do sell well cover their own costs
many times over and thereby cover the more general costs as well). Because the mar-
4
ket is inherently uncertain, the companies have developed a number of strategies to
deal with the risk. One way of managing uncertainty is to spread the risk across a
wide range of different titles to develop a ‘repertoire’. In fact, Nicholas Garnham
(1990: 161–2, emphasis in original) makes the crucial, but seldom made, point that
‘cultural distribution, not cultural production, … is the key locus of power and profit’.
Consequently all the major record companies own large distribution divisions to
make money and manage risk (Toynbee, 2000: 16).
A further strategy that has been developed to deal with this uncertainty involves
establishing a series of aesthetic judgements and commercial hierarchies, so that par-
ticular types of music are prioritized over others with artists struggling for position
in a broader set of social, economic and political constraints. For instance, at the time
Negus (1992) was conducting his research in the late 1980s and early 1990s, he found
that white, male, guitar-dominated bands were being prioritized as long-term com-
mercial propositions, while, in contrast, soul and dance music was being treated in a
less strategic and more ad hoc manner. The effect of this was that rock was prioritized
over soul, albums over singles, live guitar bands over studio-based keyboard groups.
In his more recent work, Negus (1999) examines how the major record labels com-
panies use corporate strategies to exert control and enforce accountability through
‘portfolio management’ across a diverse range of genres (such as rap, country and
salsa) while distribution divisions construct an imagined consumer and various ‘cul-
tural intermediaries’ (Bourdieu, 1986) act as significant taste makers in the promo-
tion of particular artists and styles of music.
This work, however, is not without its critics. One uncharitable view is that Negus
‘quietly absorbs the terminology (of the industry and the Harvard Business School)
and its ideological premises and implications into his discourse’ (Harker, 1997: 73).
This classic Marxist critique strongly indicates how attempts to pit ‘political economy’
against ‘cultural studies’ not only continues to simplify the relationships between
culture and economy but also marginalizes the active role played by musicians and
record company staff in attempting to change cultures of production. In other words,
a more nuanced understanding of organizational power is needed here that can over-
come the determinism of classic political economy approaches while acknowledging
that there are very real structural constraints that limit and enable certain kinds of
action. Nevertheless, it is certainly the case that the work of Hesmondhalgh and
Negus evades confronting the schisms between the micro-process of meaning they
skilfully portray and the macro-conditions of economic control they largely ignore.

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