Narelle Gee Thesis
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MAINTAINING OUR RAGE: INSIDE AUSTRALIA’S LONGEST-RUNNING MUSIC VIDEO PROGRAM. By Narelle Gee BA/DipEd (University of NSW) A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Industries) School of Media, Entertainment, Creative Arts, Film, Screen and Animation Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2015 Key Words ABC Music Television Alternative Music Music Videos Australian Broadcasting Corporation Popular Music Australian Cultural Industries Production Cultures Australian Television Public Service Broadcasting Creative Labour rage Cultural Production Television Broadcasting Media Culture Television Production Music Industry TV Programs 2 Abstract The thesis, “Maintaining our rage: inside Australia’s longest-running music video program”, takes a reflective and reflexive narrative journey across the decades of rage, from its 1987 creation through to the program’s current incarnation, providing unique insider perspectives and affordances. Australia’s longest-running music video program is also, arguably, the most sustained such program globally (Bodey, 2012; Helper, 2012). Despite its longevity, there has been scarce scholarly analysis of rage, and of what has underpinned its unusual endurance; many music video programs have come and gone during the program’s long-held tenure. How has rage survived the vicissitudes of network programming – particularly within the capricious space of music video programming - and maintained its cultural place and role, for more than a quarter of a century? The significance of this research is that it explores rage’s unusual durability, examines the program’s unique elements, and answers three key research questions: What has been the history of rage as a program and a cultural entity? What has been the cultural significance of rage? How did rage create a shift within the music industry ecology of Australia? This thesis presents an insider’s account of rage, exploring it within its ABC TV and public broadcasting context. As an insider’s history, it aligns with the tradition of ABC program makers documenting programs, program making, the ABC’s cultural politics, and the ABC experience. This historical study of rage examines the program from the inside, presenting the accounts of its program makers, aided by the perspective of an embedded researcher. As rage’s Series Producer, from 1995 to 2008, the author has a deep personal, biographical, and professional association with the program. Accordingly, the study’s qualitative methodological approach acknowledges personal perspective, individual knowledge, and subjectivity. The researcher’s position – biographically situated writer-as-interpreter presenting the perspective of the insider - has been triangulated and balanced by the established research methods of: writing as research, semi-structured interviews, and archival research. 3 List of figures and tables Figure 1.1 rage’s program logo …….…………………………….14 Table 1.1 Research interview stakeholder groups………………25 4 Table of Contents Key Words ................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 List of figures and tables .............................................................................................. 4 List of abbreviations used in this thesis ..................................................................... 10 Statement of Original Authorship .............................................................................. 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 12 Historical echoes: “maintain your rage” to “maintaining our rage” .................... 14 The insider perspective .......................................................................................... 14 Brief outline of the introductory chapter ................................................................ 19 The general research approach ............................................................................... 19 The specific research approach and methodology ................................................. 20 Data collection strategies and interpretation of data .............................................. 23 The interviews ........................................................................................................ 24 Brief outline of the available literature .................................................................. 25 The literature: conclusion ....................................................................................... 26 The research’s significance, scope and contribution.............................................. 27 Definition of key concepts ..................................................................................... 29 Music video ........................................................................................................ 29 Music television ................................................................................................. 29 Chapter overview ................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................... 33 Literature and Contextual Review ............................................................................. 33 Introduction/Background ....................................................................................... 33 Music video, music television, and the MTV cacophony ...................................... 34 MV2.0: New Digital Contexts ............................................................................... 41 Conclusion: the state of the debate on music video and its contexts ..................... 45 Other contexts: moving beyond MTV and towards rage....................................... 46 The ABC context ................................................................................................... 54 rage within ‘other’ writings ................................................................................... 56 Production studies, industrial reflexivity, and rage reflexivity.............................. 61 Creative labour within the cultural industries ........................................................ 62 5 Inside cultural and media organisations ................................................................. 64 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 65 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................... 67 The first decade of rage (1987 – 1996) ...................................................................... 67 rage enters the picture: introduction, background and program launch ................ 67 Screams of ‘rage’: the term ‘rage’ and the distinctive program titles ................... 69 ABC TV’s overnight ‘Station Close’ comes to a close.......................................... 70 The rush to rage: creation of the program ............................................................. 73 Truncation and Fortuitous Compromise: naming rage .......................................... 75 rage unites with “Real Wild Child”: the opening titles music ............................... 76 r-r-r-r-rage!: the opening titles .............................................................................. 78 Psychedelic explosion: the rage logo .................................................................... 79 rage ‘fills’ the night: convenience and economy ................................................... 80 rage’s nature, roles and functions .......................................................................... 81 A rage audience: imagined and real ....................................................................... 85 Questioning rage’s character: personality, character and identity ......................... 89 rage’s home base.................................................................................................... 90 Separation and difference: the early production culture of rage ............................ 91 Unstructured rage .................................................................................................. 93 Networks: rage within the ABC machine .............................................................. 97 rage on air: uninterrupted adult party music .......................................................... 98 The all-night music video party ........................................................................... 100 Democratisation and diversity: program policies ................................................ 103 Fractured rage: multiple genres and split focus ................................................... 106 Aesthetics and an evolving identity ..................................................................... 108 rage’s approach to music video and its style of programming ............................ 110 Into the regions ..................................................................................................... 112 rage within the music industry ............................................................................. 113 Record company