Ilana Van Den Berg - 0426628 [email protected] MA Arts Policy and Management Professor: Prof
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Cover image: Quote: David Fricke, Rolling Stone, 1988, p. ???? Ilana van den Berg - 0426628 [email protected] MA Arts Policy and Management Professor: Prof. dr. T. F. M. ter Bogt May 2012 111 THE ISLAND SYNDROME A VIEW ON THE INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS OF THE ICELANDIC MUSIC SCENE Ilana van den Berg Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Prof. Dr. T.F.M. ter Bogt University of Utrecht June 2012 Cover Image: Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://www.list.co.uk/article/17721-exposure-benni-hemm-hemm/ Quote: David Fricke (1988). Rolling Stone. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://www.icelandmusic.is/music/made-in- iceland/made-in-iceland-1/ 2 ABSTRACT This study investigates the factors facilitating the success of the Icelandic alternative music scene. Its main goal is to gain better insight in the question why some local music production centers are more successful than others. It brings together some main findings of studies on the international success of scenes and yields a set of facilitating factors that can be used to analyze the success of local music scenes. The theoretical framework first deals with the concepts scene and success and subsequently provides a number of facilitating factors to the international success of music scenes in general, extracted from literature on other internationally successful local music scenes. The data consists of 12 semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Among the respondents are mostly musicians who did or did not (yet) break through internationally, but also people working in the music industry and people who are in other ways connected to Icelandic music and its scene. The respondents were asked for the reasons for the Icelandic scenes international success. This data was supplemented with literature on the Icelandic music scene. The findings of this study suggest that most factors that have been at work in the success of other scenes also apply to the case of the Icelandic scene. The success of the Icelandic scene is facilitated by a combination of a number of factors that have worked together. In addition, there are some factors that can be designated as typical for Iceland and a new factor, national characteristics, is added to the list of facilitating factors that was composed in the theoretical framework. The main conclusion of this study is that it is possible to extract a number of factors that have facilitated international success from literature on music scenes and use these factors to explain the success of other scenes. 3 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to express my appreciation to my thesis supervisor prof. dr. T. F. M. ter Bogt for guiding me through the process, giving substantive advice and constructive comments, but most of all I would like to thank him for his time, patience and understanding. Special thanks to Wilma Menko; her severity every now and then and the pushes in the right direction were exactly what I needed. She is also thanked for helping me structuring the document and giving advice on everything else that is not content-related. Dr. Kees Vuijk is thanked as second reader. In addition, I would like to thank all the interviewees for their time and for being so kind and cooperating. In particular, I thank Benedikt Hermann Hermansson for sharing first thoughts on the subject and giving useful advice on which path to take. My gratitude also goes to Rick Ikkersheim and Dagmar Veenstra for checking the English writing on errors in grammar and spelling and Jeroen de Boer for designing the beautiful cover. Last but not least I would like to thank my parents and stepparents for the moral support throughout the process and Maarten Vos for believing in me at all times. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Motivation ........................................................................................................................ 6 1.2 Delineation ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Central research question .................................................................................................. 7 1.4 Structure ........................................................................................................................... 8 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK .......................................................................................... 10 2.1 A short history outline: important events in Icelandic popular music history ..................... 10 2.2 Music Scenes .................................................................................................................. 12 2.2.1 What are music scenes? ........................................................................................... 12 2.2.2 Local, translocal and virtual ..................................................................................... 13 2.2.3 Independent music scenes ........................................................................................ 14 2.3 International success ....................................................................................................... 15 2.3.1 Definitions of success .............................................................................................. 15 2.3.2 Measuring the success of the Icelandic music scene ................................................. 16 2.4 Facilitating factors .......................................................................................................... 18 2.4.1 Networks................................................................................................................. 18 2.4.2 Leveraging .............................................................................................................. 19 2.4.3 The music industry .................................................................................................. 20 2.4.4 Government support and intervention ...................................................................... 21 2.4.5 The urban environment: attractiveness of a city ........................................................ 23 2.4.6 Musicians' professionalism and mentality ................................................................ 24 2.4.7 Product’s quality and distinctiveness ........................................................................ 25 2.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 26 3. METHOD AND RESPONDENTS ........................................................................................ 28 3.1 Data and respondents ...................................................................................................... 28 3.2 Method ........................................................................................................................... 29 4. RESULTS ............................................................................................................................. 31 4.1 Artist’s professionalism and mentality ............................................................................. 31 4.2 Leveraging ..................................................................................................................... 33 4.3 Products’ quality and distinctiveness ............................................................................... 34 4.4 Networks ........................................................................................................................ 36 4.5 The urban environment: attractiveness of a city ............................................................... 37 4.6 The music industry.......................................................................................................... 39 4.7 Government support ....................................................................................................... 41 4.8 Factors specific to the Icelandic case ............................................................................... 43 5. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 46 5.1 Theoretical framework in short........................................................................................ 46 5.2 Answering the research questions .................................................................................... 46 5.3 Limitations & suggestions for further research................................................................. 50 6. REFERENCE LIST............................................................................................................... 52 7. APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................... 55 7.1 Respondent background information ............................................................................... 56 7.2 Interview topic list .......................................................................................................... 57 7.3 An insight in the coding process ...................................................................................... 60 7.3.1 Interview with Hildur Ingveldardóttir Guðnadóttir, July 23, 2010 ............................. 61 7.3.2 Interview with Anna Hildur Hildibrandsdóttir, July 21, 2010 .................................... 67 5 1. INTRODUCTION