BBC Specialist Music Fandom Online
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BBC Specialist Music Fandom Online Specialist music fans online: implications for public service broadcasting Tim Wall and Andrew Dubber Birmingham School of Media, Birmingham City University Introduction This paper presents the findings of a study into the implications for the BBC of the development of online fan communities around forms of specialist music. The investigation covers original research into the online activities of specialist music fans and the way that key BBC staff conceptualise and respond to changes taking places in the environment in which their listeners operate. We also engage with wider debates around ideas of ‘public service broadcasting’ and ‘specialist music’ and draw on the key concepts and frameworks used in academia to understand radio production and programming, music fan activities, and the transformation of both enabled by online technologies. Central to this investigation is the proposition that provision to fans of differing forms of specialist music has been one of the central ways in which the BBC has been understood to distinguish itself as a public service broadcaster, but that the way in which this provision should be understood, and how this commitment can be maintained, has been transformed by the challenges of operating within the new media space created by online technologies. The paper reports the findings of the primary research through a wider discussion of ideas of ‘public service media’, ‘specialist music fandom’, and ‘online activity’. By placing these ideas in context of the historical development of the BBC and wider music culture, and then recontextualising them in an examination of the ways that ‘specialist music’ and ‘fandom’ operate in the formation of online communities and cultural practices, we reveal the challenges facing BBC staff in reinterpreting ‘public service’ and ‘broadcasting’ in these new, online, media forms. The importance of specialist music to the BBC In recent years, the programming of specialist music on its radio stations has been a key way in which the BBC has been justified, and has justified itself, as a public service broadcaster. For instance, the authors of the 1 BBC Specialist Music Fandom Online government 2006 white paper on the future of the BBC selected Radio 1 as a case study in its discussion of the future of the BBC as a public service broadcaster, and identified the provision of “new and specialist music” as one of the ways in which the popular music station should distinguish itself from commercial radio [1]. The corporation’s response to government policy on the BBC as a public service broadcaster has been primarily enacted through the development of a ‘service remit’ for each part of the BBC. Following through the case study of Radio 1, the station’s service remit clearly aims to distinguish it from other BBC services through its target audience and its broadcast content, and from other broadcasters in large part by the prominence of specialist music. So, according to the corporation’s public communication, Radio 1 is distinguished by its 15-29 year old audience and its “distinctive mix of contemporary music and speech”. Additionally, the same document sets the station’s priorities as the provision of “a mix of daytime programmes with wide appeal and specialist shows in the evening which operate at the forefront of new music”. Specifically, it aims to ensure that “at least 40% of the schedule is devoted to specialist music or speech-based programmes”[2]. For the BBC, specialist music is “music which appeals to specific groups of listeners – focusing on a specific genre of music or on cutting-edge music from a range of genres”[2]. This definition places an emphasis on the ordering of music by its listeners as definable groups, and the link of these social groups to genre-specific music, or a notion of the music as innovative. Implicit in this definition is a distinction between a majority mainstream, and a series of minority ‘taste groups’. This is, of course, made explicit in the BBC’s practice, which reproduces this distinction within its broadcast schedule as daytime = wide appeal; evening = specialist (= small audiences). So fundamental is this calculus to public service broadcasting as it relates to music radio that it has been articulated in the statement “ratings by day; reputation by night”. This phrase is widely used within the UK radio industry (across both public and commercial sectors) when justifying their practical steps to balance programming aimed to attract sizable audiences with a public service commitment. Although the justifications for a public service mission, and the broadcast practices which have emerged from this mission, have been quite varied, historically they have most often been rooted in ideas of frequency scarcity, the need for cultural uplift and, more recently, the need to rectify market failure in the provision of public goods. The emergence of new 2 BBC Specialist Music Fandom Online distribution technologies based on the internet, the way that interaction is engineered into them, and the way that communities have been built around them, require a new analysis. As we will show, there have been some profound changes in relation to music broadcasting and the idea of specialist music resulting from this new online media. Specifically, from the perspective of the broadcaster, scarcity has been superseded by ubiquity; ‘cultural uplift’ by new sorts of relationships; and traditional broadcast models by new structures of political economy. Both the real changes in distribution and consumption, and the ways that these have changed the forms of debate about the role of public service media, have major implications for a leading broadcaster like the BBC. Discussion about specialist music and public service is certainly only one aspect of the challenge which faces the BBC, and even when discussing music radio the specificities of the debates can only be generalised with great care. Nevertheless, lodged at the centre of this study there are some important changes in music fandom to be understood; some significant issues to grappled with by policy makers, ‘broadcasters’ and ‘listeners’ alike; and, most importantly, some implications to be drawn about the way in which staff who work for an organisation like the BBC can and should relate and respond to music fans. The research To make our task manageable we have focused our study in two main ways. Firstly, we have concentrated on a three major strands of specialist music. These are those associated with music of black origin of the last forty years, usually under genre terms like soul, reggae, or urban; with indie rock; and with jazz. Secondly, we have examined music fan practice, and the attitudes and practices of broadcasters associated with programmes on BBC Radio 1, 1Xtra, 2, 3 and 6Music because these specialist musics can be found across the output of these stations, and they offer significantly different identities as broadcast brands, and different policies on online provision. We examined online activity at just over 250 online locations, including 14 BBC web sites, discussion boards, and chat rooms, and undertook interviews with 12 members of BBC staff. Through our research we have identified a range of online fan activity which could be more fully utilised by BBC staff to continue and deepen their public service commitment to a range of specialist popular musics. We have also been able to identify a number of ways in which this activity 3 BBC Specialist Music Fandom Online can be understood in terms of the BBC tradition of specialist music broadcasting, now extended to embrace new online technologies. Our work with BBC staff reveals that there are a significant number of people within the BBC operational teams who have started on this journey, but that different individuals are going at different speeds towards its realisation. In analysing the working concepts and professional practices of BBC staff, we have identified two orientations which are commonly deployed both to understand how they should relate to a range of specialist musics and how they should utilise online resources. To emphasise the differences in these orientations we have called one a broadcast orientation and the other an online interactive orientation. As we will show, we believe that it would be a mistake to simply replace a broadcasting orientation with an online interactive orientation. Instead, we think that staff may find it useful to discuss and start rethinking the scope of the public service purpose of the BBC. The organisation of the report The substance of the paper reports in three sections on the key areas of our research, followed by a recommendations section. In the first report section, building on scholarship in the field, we examine what exactly is meant by specialist music, and the role that it has taken within public service broadcasting. Second, utilising our primary research with staff within the BBC, we present an analysis of how BBC staff responsible for specialist music understand the opportunities provided by new online media. Thirdly, from our research into the way people engage with the internet, we map out the online fan practices around specialist forms of popular music that go beyond their activities as radio listeners. The recommendation section offers suggestions to BBC staff that we hope will promote discussion, give support to staff who are already thinking in creative ways about the challenges, and set these within a informed understanding of the opportunities and constraints on BBC staff as they grapple with these changes. Specialist music and public service broadcasting The idea of specialist music is widely used, and generally taken for granted. However, some clarity about how the idea developed, and an appreciation of its central place in the development of the idea of public service broadcasting, are essential first steps in thinking through the challenges for the BBC in providing for such specialist interests.