UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Where credit is due: cultural practices of recorded music Jansen, B. Publication date 2011 Document Version Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Jansen, B. (2011). Where credit is due: cultural practices of recorded music. Eigen Beheer. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:05 Oct 2021 WhereCredit is Due Music Recorded of Practices Cultural BasJansen Where Credit is Due: Cultural Practices of Recorded Music. Bas Jansen Bas Jansen Where Credit is Due: Cultural Practices of Recorded Music. This research was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scienctific Research (NWO) and was part of the research project “Sound Technologies and Cultural Practices”. Printed by Proefschrift Maken / BOXPress BV, Oisterwijk Layout: Alyanne de Haan Cover front based on a picture by K. Vohsen (this picture is not covered by the creative commons licence, all rights reserved K. Vohsen) This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by-nc/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. WHERE CREDIT IS DUE: CULTURAL PRACTICES OF RECORDED MUSIC. ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Agnietenkapel op woensdag 16 februari 2011, te 12:00 uur door Bastiaan Gerrit Jansen geboren te Driebergen Promotor: Professor Doctor J. T. F. M. van Dijck Promotor: Professor Doctor K. T. Bijsterveld Overige leden: Professor T. DeNora BA, M.A., PhD Doctor A. Fickers Professor Doctor R. de Groot Doctor H. J. Honing Professor Doctor P. P. R. W. Pisters Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen Contents Acknowledgements 9 Chapter1:PopMusicProductionintheDigitalAge:OldIdeasand NewRealities. 11 Introduction 12 Themusicindustry’slineofargument:themeandvariations 13 Hatingtheindustry 16 Atacitmetaphysicsofmusicalcommunication 17 Levelplayingfields,generalizedartistry,agency 19 Sharingeconomies 23 Aculturalpracticesapproach 24 Chapter2:HowthePopMusicianBecamea(New)RomanticHero. 27 Introduction 28 Empfindsamkeitandemotionalcommunication 28 Romantichighartandthesacralizationoftheartist 32 Ataleoftwomusicindustries,partI:sheetmusic 34 Ataleoftwomusicindustries,part2:gramophonerecords 37 Howtherockmusicianbecamearomantichero 42 Conclusion 45 Chapter3:ConceptsandCases. 49 Introduction 50 Theconceptofculturalpractices 50 Theagencyproblem 52 Theselectionofthecases 54 Theanalysis,partI:mixtaping 55 Theanalysis,partII:ccMixter 57 Theanalysis,partIII:deejaying 60 Chapter4:CreatorsorCriminals:TheCaseofMixTaping. 63 Introduction 64 Lookingbackonapastpractice 65 Howmixtapingbecameanart 66 Whatmakesmixtapinganart? 67 Mixtapingascreation:thequestforcoherence 70 Themixtapeasapersonalgift 74 Amusicaleducation 77 Tapingforoneself 80 Conclusion 82 Chapter5:ContributionsandAttributions:TheCaseofccMixter. 85 Introduction 86 Aboutremixing 87 Aboutthecreativecommonsmovement 89 WhatccMixterlookslike 92 Acapella-basedremixing 98 Collaborationandthecommercialproduct:thecaseofCalendarSongs100 TheccMixterattributionparadox 102 Attribution,andthegenealogicalrelationbetweenworks 103 Generouspraise 105 Gratitudeandmodesty 109 Threegeneralizedroles:remixer,reviewer,genealogist 111 Conclusions 113 Chapter6:FromMakingThingstoMakingThingsHappen: Vinyl,DigitalMediaandthePracticeofDeejaying. 115 Introduction 116 TheDJsinterviewed 116 DJsintheacademicliterature,andbeyond 118 Thecharmsofthegramophonerecord 122 Archeologistsandreferencepersons 126 Theroleoftheselector 130 Theenergeticsofpartying 133 Conclusion 137 Chapter7:Conclusion 141 Thecreditquestionandtwowaysofsolvingit 142 Thedetailsofpracticesmatter 144 Stylesofcredit-givingkeeppracticesgoing 146 Aforegroundingofthecreatorobscurestheimportanceof otherkindsofcontributors 147 Thecommercialtheoryofappropriatecreditmayputpressure onstylesofcredit-giving 149 Aremarkabouttechnology 150 Aremarkaboutculturalpractices 151 Persistingromanticisms 152 Afinalobservation 153 NederlandstaligeSamenvatting(Dutchsummary) 157 Summary 167 AppendixA:TheAnalyzedMixTapeStoriesandtheirNumbering 177 StoriesfromMix Tape, The art of cassette culture, editedbyThurstonMoore 177 Storiesfromweblogs 178 Storiesfromthewebsitekassettengeschichten.de 180 AppendixB:TheDJsInterviewed 183 AppendixC:TheOriginalDutchfortheCitationsTaken fromDJInterviews 185 References 195 Acknowledgements To acknowledge the help of others is always important, but in a dissertation discussing the importance of credit-giving it is perhaps even more so. As someone who tends to retreat into solitude when the going gets tough, I have not made it particularly easy for others to be of assistance. However, several colleagues have managed to do so anyway, by giving suggestions for literature and engaging in clarifying discussions on my research. In this regard, I want to mention Monika Röther, Melanie Schiller, David Nieborg, Laura Schuster, Carolyn Birdsall, and Jennifer Steetskamp. I would like to thank Martijn de Waal for granting me permanent access to his prodigious collection of relevant books. Drafts and early versions of my writing were discussed in sound scholar meetings in Maastricht, and during the open peer review sessions that preceded the publishing of the book Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memory, and Cultural Practices (Bijsterveld & van Dijck 2009). I want to thank Ruth Benschop, Wiebe Bijker, Jonathan Sterne, Micheal Bull, Trevor Pinch, Timothy D. Taylor, Susan Schmidt Horning, Hans-Joachim Braun, Andreas Fickers, Heike Weber, and Annelies Jacobs for their supportive, yet sharp commentary. I would like to express my gratitude to the DJs interviewed for their time and candor. Also, I would like to thank three people who have been very active in helping me come into contact with DJs. They are Ruth Wolters, Jochem Verdonk, and Maurice Langenhoff. I thank the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for funding the project “Sound Technologies and Cultural Practices” of which my own research has been a part. Many thanks go to my supervisors José van Dijck and Karin Bijsterveld for their expert guidance throughout this difficult project. Their discerning commentary and their firm belief in a positive result were essential to the completion of this dissertation. I would also like to thank my friends, my parents, and my sisters for their support and their patience. To my paranymphs Melanie Schiller and Sophie Prins, who will stand at my side as I defend the study below, go many thanks in advance. Finally, I want to thank my girlfriend Alyanne de Haan for doing the DTP on this text, and for keeping an eye on my health and sanity, but above all for love. Thank you. 10 Chapter 1 Pop Music Production in the Digital Age: Old Ideas and New Realities. The received wisdom is that: - The internet has democratised communications, so that in the digital age, all information, including music, is going to be free - The business model of record companies is broken. That they’re dinosaurs that haven’t evolved and don’t deserve to survive - And that would be a good thing for music and our culture because they were parasites anyway. (…) It’s up to us to explain why those points of view are wrong, why we’ve got an exciting future as a business, one that will benefit not just for those who make music, but everyone that loves music. ~ Geoff Taylor 1 This song is copyrighted in U.S., under Seal of Copyright 154085, for a period of 28 years, and anybody caught singin it without our permission, will be mighty good friends of ourn, cause we don’t give a dern. Publish it. Write it. Sing it. Swing to it. Yodel it. We wrote it, that’s all we wanted to do. ~ Woody Guthrie (Leadbeater 2008: 58) [T]here are systems of value other than, or in addition to, money, that are very important to people: connecting with other people, creating an online identity, expressing oneself – and, not least, garnering people’s attention. ~ Caterina Fake (Tapscott and Williams 2008: 206) 1: Geoff Taylor “The Role of Record Labels in the Digital Age: BPI Speech, 9 juli 2008.” http://www.bpi.co.uk/ Available 08-31-2009. 11 Introduction We used to know how pop music production worked. An artist created a song, or at least received admiration for doing the creative part; a music industry took care of the busi- ness side of the process; and consumers applauded the artist, provided