Group Identity: Bands, Rock and Popular Music

Since rock became the subject of academic study, its attendant ideology has been scrutinised and its mythical and Romantic components exposed. Largely absent from this account has been a thorough analysis of the phenomenon of the ‘band’. The role of individual acts and the wider contexts in which they worked has been discussed at the expense of an examination of an important form of music-making. This thesis seeks to address that gap. Using a mixture of literary research and ethnography, I present an overall picture of the band as a modus operandum, charting its evolution during the emergence of rock and presenting evidence that it has become a key means by which people enter and engage with the field of popular music. I suggest that debates about ‘authenticity’ in rock, in seeking to see through industry rhetoric have overlooked the way in which creativity in bands is closely connected to social interaction. My historical analysis brings to light the way in which the group- identified band has become embedded into popular music practice through the power of narratives.Two case studies, contextualised with archival material and interviews, form the basis for a model for collective creativity. By demonstrating how social action and narrative myth feed into one another, I argue that the group identity of a band is the core of the industrially mediated texts to which audiences respond. Our understanding of how authenticity is ascribed in popular music, and rock in particular, has paid too much attention to genre-based arguments and not enough to musical and social methods. I propose a way of revising this to take better account of rock as an actual practice

Understanding musical copyright in the digital age

Copyright appears in one of two guises. It is either the backdrop to arguments about plagiarism - about how 'Blurred Lines' was stolen from Marvin Gaye, or about how Donald Trump is making (allegedly) illegitimate use of Adele and others to accompany his rallies. Or copyright is seen as central to the development of the digital economy - hence, Ian ..

The influence of capital expenditures on working capital management in the corporate sector of an emerging economy: the role of financing constraints

Relying on firm-level panel data from an emerging economy, this study explores the impact of fixed capital expenditure on working capital management practices. When facing insufficient internally generated cash flows and external funds for accommodating capital investments, companies are found to finance capital expenditure by primarily depleting cash reserves and increasing trade payables. Corroborating the postulates of the financing constraints theory, working capital investments are found to be inversely related to the degree of financing constraints, and positively sensitive to operating cash flow fluctuations and availability of external finance. For financially constrained companies, capital expenditures are found to more likely exercise a negative impact on working capital investments. Contributing to the discussion on the nature of business cycles, we document that the negative cash flow shocks are likely to be transmitted to firms’ counterparties through the trade credit channel rather than through the reduction of investment demand. The empirical findings also suggest that financial managers fail to properly account for capital expenditures in short-term liquidity planning, which, under conditions of limited access to imperfect capital markets, may induce the recurrence of costly working capital adjustments

Scotland on Tour: Strategies for Promoting the Scottish Music Industry

This report is the result of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) 'Cultural Engagement' project, conducted between February and May 2013 with the aim of identifying the strengths and gaps in provision of development support (including but not limited to financial support) provided by the state for Scottish music businesses. A primary criterion for the Cultural Engagement research was that it involved a non-academics partner. In this case, that partner was the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA). Board members and non board members of the SMIA were interviewed as were representatives from the support agencies in Scotland. We also conducted an online survey of the SMIA members regarding their knowledge of support provision and experiences of trying to access it. The SMIA co-operated on this research by advising on interviewees and by sending the online survey out to its membership. The main recipient of this report, then, is the SMIA itself. Representative rather than exhaustive, its primary purpose is to provide the SMIA with information to assist it in developing strategies to promote Scottish music businesses domestically and abroad, and in developing its relationship with both its members and with government bodies

The UK Live Music Industry in a post-2019 era: A Globalised Local Perspective

This report is the second in a series produced through an on-going, collaborative programme of research being undertaken by a team at Aston University, Birmingham City University and Newcastle University. The Birmingham Live Music Project (BLMP) seeks to explore how the live music ecology of Birmingham and beyond is constituted, and how the sector is approaching challenges related to local, national and international change. Specifically, it explores how those challenges are being managed at a local level, and whether any coping strategies identified within the Birmingham live music sector could be applied to other urban areas. This report is based on activities conducted within a project titled ‘The UK Live Music Industry in post 2019 era: A Globalised Local Perspective’ made possible by a grant from the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC), which is led by Nesta and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The research took place between February 2020 and April 2021

The Cultural Value of Live Music from the Pub to the Stadium:Getting Beyond the Numbers

This report was produced as part of the Arts and Humanities Council’s (AHRC) Cultural Value project and with the co-operation of UK Music, the Musicians’ Union and PRS for Music. It aims to contribute to a conversation that looks behind the headline numbers to examine the relationships between venues and provide a qualitative illustration of the live music ecology in three locations – Camden, Glasgow and Leeds. It also seeks to expand the concept of ‘publicly-funded culture’ to include not simply the subsidy and cultural provision traditionally associated with ‘high culture’ (classical orchestras, opera, etc.) but also provision in areas such as local authority licensing for live entertainment, infrastructure in the form of arenas and other large venues which are majority-owned by city councils, and the role of live music in strategies for urban regeneration

Live Music Ecologies in the UK – A local perspective in the context of the pandemic

In 2019, the UK’s live music sector was valued at over £1.3 billion. After almost a decade of strong growth the sector helped push the UK music’s overall GVA from £3.5 billion in 2012 to £5.8 billion in 2019, the outbreak of the global pandemic brought it to a near standstill. There are a number of issues to consider in the broader process of recovering from the pandemic shutdown. Live music remains heavily impacted by the developing situation around Brexit, where further reciprocal engagement to facilitate touring will be productive. There is also a need for consideration of the long-term effects of national policies around matters like planning on local, small-scale cultural operators (grassroots venues and others). Measures to tackle Covid-19 also obviously affected venues in Birmingham, as elsewhere. The main argument here focuses on recognising the importance of the live music ecosystem to the broader night-time economy, and the value of communication channels between musical stakeholders, local authorities and regional – as well as national – policymakers. The role of existing music representative bodies, and the emergence of new ones, was an important factor in the necessary work of trying to align top-down approaches, like the disbursement of national funds, and grassroots initiatives. The authors conclude that a healthy live music ecology needs policymakers to take account of factors like planning and development, the spread of venues in different neighbourhoods – as well as within the city as a whole – and the effect of national policy on local provision. This points towards an important role for representative music bodies and emerging regional music boards in establishing impact assessments and serving as a forum for the development of a strategic approach that considers the musical economy in local, regional and national policies