Ghent University Pauline Delaruelle Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Multilingual Business Communication Tutor: Prof. Dr. G. Jacobs

Dissertation: MY INTERNSHIP AT THE ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT COMPANY KEREMOS

2009 - 2010 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. PREFACE 5 II. KEREMOS 6 A. The company 6 B. Short history 7 C. Structure 8 D. Corporate identity 9 1. Mission statement and vision 9 2. Strategy 9 E. Clients 9 F. Products 10 G. Competition and positioning 11 H. Conclusion 12 III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION 13 A. Introduction and motivation 13 B. Culture 14 1. Attempt at definition 14 2. Different cultures 16 C. Culture and communication 17 1. Cultural differences 17 2. Cultural differences and communication 18 D. Intercultural communication 20 1. Definition 20 2. Approaches to intercultural communication 21 3. Barriers to intercultural communication 21 IV. CASE STUDY: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE TABII CONCERTS 24 A. Tabii concerts 24 1. Main idea and goals 24 2. First and second editions 25 3. Third and fourth editions 26 B. My contribution to the Tabii concerts 27 1. Communication vis à vis the Serbian community in Ghent 27 2. Communication in general 28 C. Other tasks during my internship 29 1. Press releases 29 2. Newsletters 29 3. Drawing up invoices and callsheets 30 4. ‘Culture 2007’: programme of the European Union 30

3 5. Transition to non-profit organisation for each band 30 D. Evaluation of my contribution 31 1. Main tasks: intercultural communication and the Tabii concerts 31 2. Additional tasks 31 V. FINAL CONCLUSION 32 A. Lessons learned professionally 32 B. Lessons learned personally 33 C. Link with Multilingual Business Communication 33 VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 35 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 36 VIII. APPENDIXES 38 A. Poster of first edition of the Tabii concerts 38 B. Poster of second edition of the Tabii concerts 39 C. Digital flyer of the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts 40 D. Mailing to organizations - Tabii concerts 41 E. Facebookmessage to all Keremos-friends 42 F. Press release - Tabii concerts 43 G. Press release – School Is Cool 44 H. Newsletter - Roadburg 45

4 I. PREFACE

I have always been interested in music and the music industry in particular. That is the main reason why I wanted to do a second internship in the music industry. During my third bachelor year of Communication Sciences at the Free University of Brussels, I already did an internship in the music industry at Poppunt for three months. Poppunt is a non-profit organisation that aims at helping and guiding beginning musicians, producers and dj’s. It does this by organizing different events, information sessions and so on. My tasks at Poppunt contained mainly production and organization aspects of the first edition of ‘Play and Produce’: an event for producers and dj’s that took place at the Vooruit in Ghent.

I knew from the beginning that my second internship would again be in the music industry based on my former experience and passion for music. I applied and got accepted by two different companies: Boomtown, the festival in Ghent during the Gentse Feesten and Keremos, an alternative management company of music artists and bands. I knew I would really like the internship at Boomtown because that would involve a lot of production work in the run-up to the festival. However, as I already built up some ‘experience’ in this field, I was more anxious to get to know a different side of the music industry. That is why I chose Keremos. I wanted to find out if I liked the management side of the music industry as much as the production side.

This dissertation is a combination of both a detailed report of my internship at Keremos and a literary study about intercultural communication. The first chapter consists of a detailed discussion of the company Keremos itself. More specifically, attention will be given to a short history of the company, the corporate identity, clients, products and the competition and positioning of Keremos. The second chapter summarizes my reading on intercultural communication which contextualizes the more practical ensuing chapter. A close look is taken at the concepts of culture and intercultural communication, mostly based on the work of Jandt (2004) and Claes and Gerritsen (2007). This theoretical framework is linked to the case study discussed in the third chapter. Here we take a closer look at my main task during my internship: intercultural communication for the Tabii concerts. In a first paragraph, the goals and ideas behind the Tabii concerts are explained in detail. In addition, the four editions are discussed separately. The second paragraph of that chapter deals with my contribution to the Tabii concerts. I was responsible for finding the right ways and channels to reach the Serbian population in Ghent and inform them about the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts. To end this chapter, I evaluate my contribution and deal with my additional tasks during my internship. In the final chapter, I take a closer look at the things that I have learned from my time with Keremos, both professionally as personally. Furthermore, the link with the programme of Multilingual Business Communication is made.

5 II. KEREMOS

A. The company

Keremos is a non-profit alternative management company of young pop and rock bands and is located in Ghent. Currently they manage ten different bands: Arquettes, Kawada, Rianto Delrue, Roadburg, The Galacticos, Team William, Steak Number Eight, Absynthe Minded, School Is Cool and Maya’s Moving Castle. Since very recently almost every band has had its own non-profit structure (vzw), with Keremos taking part in the general meeting and the executive committee. The main reason behind this structure is for every band to become the owner and to have the rights to everything that they make (music, music videos, etc.) and, more importantly, to remain the owner in case they decide to no longer work with Keremos. Working with this structure also makes everything well-organized and makes it simple to get a correct overview for each band.

The goal of Keremos for each of their bands is to guide them from their early stages to a professional level. To achieve this main goal, the management engages in three main activities: promotion, production and administration. In general, the managers do all this in close contact with their bands. First of all, Keremos sets up efficient and contemporary ways to promote the bands. They do this by using the more traditional channels (radio, television, etc.) in combination with promotion through the new social media (facebook, MySpace, etc.) and occasionally they set up special actions to promote, for instance, a new album or single. Secondly, Keremos is also responsible for some production aspects of the concerts of each band. The bookings of these concerts is done by Keremos for the bands that are just starting. The other bands, who have already achieved something, have an external booker, Busker 1, who works closely together with Keremos. Nevertheless, Keremos draws up callsheets for each concert so that the bands have all the information they need. The managers also try to be present at as many concerts as possible to guide the band. Thirdly, Keremos takes care of the administration of each band. They draw up contracts, invoices, negotiate with third parties, etc. and they prepare the bookkeeping of each band which is done by an external accountant.

Keremos is one of the three management companies that is recognised by the Flemish Government as an alternative management company and for this they have been receiving structural subsidies since January 2007.2 Rock’o Co and Gentlemanagement are the other two. The Flemish Government considers an alternative management company to be a service company that guides artists professionally. More specifically, they are responsible for the financial management,

1 http://www.busker.be/ 2 KEREMOS. http://www.keremos.be/site/ Date of consultation: 25/06/2010

6 distribution and promotion of the work of their artists. 3 In 2009 Keremos applied for a long-term subsidy for their entire functioning for the second time for the period from 2010 until 2013. Keremos has a limited budget to manage their 10 different bands and pay the employees. I found out during my internship that Keremos really is a company that tries to be as creative as they can in finding ways to do great things with limited resources and a limited staff. In addition to the subsidies Keremos of course generates money from its functioning. The managers receive a 20% management fee on the sales of CD’s, publishing and concerts of the bands that do not have a booker yet. Currently (2010 – 2013) the revenue structure is as follows: 36% own revenues and roughly 60% subsidies. For the next period, from 2014 onwards, Keremos aims at reversing this. 4

B. Short history

The beginning of Keremos is linked to the start of the career of the band Sioen. This band started in 2000 and Tom De Clercq (one of the founders of Keremos) has been their manager from the very beginning. On April 21st 2001 the band Sioen, Tom De Clercq and a third partner set up the company Keremos in the light of the growing success of Sioen. One year later four other bands joined Keremos, Absynthe Minded being one of them. They signed a management contract with Keremos after only their second concert. In 2003 Sioen released its first full album that sold over 25.000 copies (golden record). By the end of 2003, Keremos received its first subsidy for the last quarter of that year. In 2004 Absynthe Minded finished second in the Humo’s Rock Rally and the band released its first album. On top of that, Sioen played at Rock Werchter, one of the biggest festivals in Europe. Keremos continued to receive quarterly subsidies throughout 2004.

2005 was a very fruitful year for Keremos. The second album of Sioen received gold almost immediately after its release and the band played at Rock Werchter for the second time. Absynthe Minded released a second album and received a golden record for the single ‘My Heroics, part one’. Unfortunately, the band Bolchi who joined Keremos in 2004, did not break through. In that same year, the artistic ‘Music’ commission of the Flemisch Government and the Treasury insisted that Sioen be lifted out of Keremos because they were becoming too big. That same year Keremos qualified for the first time for an annual subsidy. In 2006 both Sioen and Absynthe Minded played at Rock Werchter and the latter received two Zamu Awards. 5 These awards were presented by the Flemisch Music Centre for the most deserving musicians. 6

The first period of time for which Keremos was structurally subsidized, was from 2007 to 2009. They received € 100,000 a year and from then on Keremos employed four people. In 2007, Absynthe

3 VALCKENAERS (H). Een beleidsaanbeveling voor het subsidiëren van alternatieve managementbureaus: de noodzakelijkheid en wenselijkheid binnen het Vlaams pop-rockcircuit. Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2009, p. 28. 4 KEREMOS VZW. Aanvraag van een meerjarige subsidie voor het geheel van de werking . Gent, Vlaams Ministerie van Cultuur, Jeugd, Sport en Media, 2009, p. 21. 5 KEREMOS VZW. Op. Cit. , 2009, p. 6. 6 ZAMU MUSIC AWARDS 2006. http://www.zamu.be/awards/watzijndezamuawards.php Date of consultation: 28/06/2010

7 Minded followed into the footsteps of Sioen and was lifted out of Keremos. Financially, the company faced a very difficult year because it managed eleven bands and missed out on an already successful band who could have made certain that Keremos were to continue as a company. This changed in 2008, when Keremos took on another band and both Sioen and Absynthe Minded returned to Keremos under a separate legal provision. On top of that, Luna Twist joined the company which strengthened their existence as a company. 7

As mentioned above, Keremos currently manages ten bands, with Absynthe Minded as the best known and most successful. More information about the current structure, mission and strategy will be given below.

C. Structure

Currently Keremos consists of four full time employers. Tom De Clercq, one of the founders of the company, is the manager of the biggest band, Absynthe Minded. They have been with Keremos since their starting days. This band is now breaking through in other parts of Europe like France, Germany, Poland, etc. In addition to his managerial function, Tom De Clercq is also responsible for the general functioning of his company.

The two other managers, Reinout De Pauw and Maarten Decock each take on the full management of different bands. They both started working for Keremos in 2008. Reinout De Pauw manages The Galacticos, Team William and Roadburg and Maarten Decock is responsible for Arquettes, School Is Cool, Steak Number Eight and Maya’s Moving Castle. The two other bands, Kawada and Rianto Delrue, were not active during my internship. During my last week as an intern, Keremos hired a new workforce, Rien Samson, who supports the promotion and administration tasks of Reinout and Maarten.

The board of Keremos consists of four members: Frederik Sioen (leading member of the band Sioen), Vincent Welvaert (founder of ‘Debuutrock’ and business manager of Toursupport), Guy Van Handehove (business manager EMI Publishing Belgium NV) and Tom De Clercq. Every two months the board discusses the current situation, de bands, staff and the financial situation of Keremos. So as to create a very active and controlling board. The general meeting gets together a few times each year and consists of five people. The daily management is the responsibility of Tom De Clercq.

7 KEREMOS VZW. Op. Cit. , 2009, p. 6.

8 D. Corporate identity

1. Mission statement and vision

As a management company, Keremos has a very clear mission which they always keep in mind and which is also one of the reasons why they receive structural subsidies from the Flemish Government.

Keremos manages young music bands in the pop/rock scene. The managers guide their bands from a very early stage in which musical talent and potential are present but is not yet viable, to a professional stage. The actual goal of Keremos is to make sure that their bands only have to think about making and playing their music and that, in time, they can make a living from it. This can be seen as the overall mission statement of Keremos. 8

2. Strategy

With the above-mentioned mission statement and vision in mind, Keremos’s aim is to manage the entire career of their bands so that the latter only have to concern themselves with musical aspects. Keremos takes care of the social, legal, technical, fiscal matters. Furthermore, Keremos finds concerts for the bands, guides and supports them with the recordings of their first album, takes care of their social statute and helps them to play in foreign countries when the time is right. Keremos does all this with great engagement, intensity and with the know-how that they have built up over the years. They do this because they strive for success, but also because they really believe in the music of their bands and from a conviction that music deserves a place in Belgium and beyond. 9

E. Clients

The clients of a management company are the people with whom they have signed a management contract. The managers thus represent their client, the music bands in this case. In the case of Keremos, the company has ten clients: Arquettes, Kawada, Rianto Delrue, Roadburg, The Galacticos, Team William, Steak Number Eight, Absynthe Minded, School Is Cool and Maya’s Moving Castle. It would be irrelevant to discuss the biography of each band. For this reason I will only deal with the three bands that I worked with the most during my internship.

Keremos started working with the band School Is Cool only a few months before they won Humo’s Rock Rally in 2010. After this, the Antwerp-based band marched right into the studio and recorded their first single ‘New Kids In Town’. In a very short period of time, this single became very successful and in barely three weeks, reached the number 1 spot in the alternative music charts (Studio Brussel’s De Afrekening ). They were number 1 for six weeks in a row. This success and the amount of airplay on the radio, really got things going for School Is Cool. Keremos was able to find a lot of better concerts for the band during the summer and they now have a full concert agenda for the upcoming

8 KEREMOS VZW. Op. Cit. , 2009, p. 6. 9 IBIDEM.

9 months. For instance, they will play at Pukkelpop, Boomtown and Dranouter aan Zee, three big festivals in Belgium.

Maya’s Moving Castle is a very young band that joined Keremos after Humo’s Rock Rally in 2010. Today the band is still really in its infancy. They reached the final of two important music competitions in 2010, the Rockconcours of East-Flanders and Humo’s Rock Rally, and they have played a few concerts since then. During my internship the band was looking for a few new members and the two main members set up their proper non-profit structure (vzw). The band and Keremos had a lot of meetings to discuss their future and to outline a plan as to how to proceed. Maya’s Moving Castle will record an EP in the next few months, so that Keremos has a ‘tool’ to work with in order to get the attention of the press and concert organizers to really launch the band.

Arquettes joined Keremos in 2007. That year they released two separate singles ‘It’s a relief’ and ‘Feehler’ which were played on the national radio station Studio Brussel and on the television show ‘Debby & Nancy’ on Eén . At the end of that year, Arquettes released a mini-album which allowed them to play in many venues, the festivals Pukkelpop in 2007 and Maanrock in 2008 being the highlights. During my internship, Arquettes completed the recording of their first full album which will be released at the end of summer. Because of the timing of this release, Keremos has had some difficulties in finding good concerts for the band during the festival summer.

F. Products

The most siginificant products of Keremos, are the concerts and CD’s of the bands that are produced on their own. Keremos guides its bands very closely in the build-up, production and release of the most important first album. It is only with this very important first real product, that a manager can try to get a fair amount of press attention and reach a lot of concert organizers so as to lift the band to a more professional level. In the build-up to this first CD, Keremos also tries to book as many concert as possible for their bands. The aim here is to always find better places for the bands to play at so that they can develop a solid live reputation.10

In a very wide sense, all the things and all the ways in which the managers represent their bands are also products of Keremos. Posters, flyers, a music video, etc. in which the managers have a say, are thus products of Keremos, but of course in the first place of the band.

Other products of Keremos are the co-productions and the co-operations that, since 2007, have been set up due to the growing difficulty to find sufficient concerts for bands. There are multiple reasons for this: the growing professionalism in the music industry in general, the growing number of young

10 IDEM, p. 10.

10 Belgian musical talent, and the fewer opportunities for Belgian bands to find a stage. Keremos has three motives for setting up these co-productions and co-operations. First of all, they want to create more possibilities for their bands to play. Secondly, Keremos wants to establish co-operations with the most important players in the sector. Thirdly, they hope that these co-operations give them more strength in the field. On top of that, it is the intention of Keremos that all the bands benefit from these co-productions and co-operations.11 An example of a co-production, is the Tabii concerts, which are explained in detail in chapter four.

G. Competition and positioning

In Flanders there are two other alternative management companies that are structurally subsidized by the Flemish Government: Rock’o Co management and Gentlemanagement which are both located in Ghent. These management companies also have young bands as their main target group. Rock’o Co and Gentlemanagement can thus be considered the immediate competitors of Keremos. According to Keremos, there are two main characteristics that distinguish them from these two. First of all, Keremos starts working with their bands from a much earlier stage. Very often they sign a band long before it is ready to record an album and this continues to be an important goal for Keremos. The way in which they promote a band is a second distinctive characteristic. Very often Keremos finds original ways to put its bands in the spotlight. 12 An example of this is the ‘Galacticab’, an action for the band The Galacticos in April of 2009. For one day, the commuters from Hasselt could call the Galacticab and get a live concert from the Galacticos during the ride. 13 Actions like this get a lot of press attention and are a great way to create a lot of attention for a band. Every band at Keremos has its own character and the managers think very carefully about which action would be appropriate for which band at which time. A study of the Flemish pop and rock management sector by Valckenaers, shows that the subsidised management companies do have some different characteristics. Some of them decide to focus on really young bands, others to work with the 360 degrees model and still others to work with a dual legal structure, one for the commercial bands and the other for vulnerable ones.14 These differences allow the three subsidised companies to differentiate themselves from one another and to enjoy each a different position in the management segment of the music industry. Bands will choose the management company that best fits their profile and ambitions.

Furthermore, the management bureaus of the Flemish pop and rock sector, may be divided into those that are subsidized, the commercial ones and the small companies. This subdivision is made by Valckenaers who studied the management sector in detail. It is based not only on the legal structure but also on the number of employers. The commercial and small management companies may be

11 IDEM, p. 11. 12 IDEM, p. 9. 13 MYSPACE THE GALACTICOS. The Galacticab op do 23/4. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=79378332&blogId=484358748 Date of consultation: 29/06/2010 14 VALCKENAERS (H). Op. Cit ., 2009, p. 104.

11 looked upon as more indirect competitors of Keremos although they operate in the same segment of the music industry. This, especially, because these types of management company have another target group and another legal structure. A small company consists mainly of one manager who works with very young bands that do not generate a lot of money. The manager has to divide his time among his bands, which often means that the bands have to do a lot themselves. The commercial managers want to make a profit and thus focus on a few successful bands. 15 Based on this, we may say that the direct competition between these kinds of management agency and Keremos, is rather small. Both strive for different goals and aim at different types of bands.

Next to this, there are also other players in the music industry that operate in the same segment –the pop/rock sector - as Keremos. On the one hand there is the live circuit with, for instance, the festivals, cultural centres, clubs, youth clubs, and, on the other, there are the bookers and (independent) labels. 16

H. Conclusion

Keremos is a company that is characterized by its very passionate and driven managers who work really hard with limited resources and budget. They always try to achieve the maximum for each band at the appropriate time. If we look at the past of Keremos, we can see a few huge successes with Sioen and Absynthe Minded. School Is Cool is currently on his way to follow the same path. Apart from Bolchi, Keremos has not really had a failure up till now. Of course, some bands achieve more than others, but Keremos always tries to aim for the highest goal. They are known for signing bands from a very early stage and guiding them through every step. They educate their bands about the way the music business works. Keremos works closely together with the bands and always respects their wishes and characteristic style.

In addition to these strong points, Keremos also has to deal with some weaknesses. First of all, they manage ten bands with only three managers. The workload is thus very high. On top of that, Keremos has a limited budget to work with. They have to be very creative and innovative in getting the most out of this. They have been receiving subsidies from the Flemish Government for some time now, but every time this period ends, they have to re-apply and are thus never sure of this money. In general, the music industry is being faced with some difficulties and with difficult times, but Keremos succeeds to survive by following its own course.

15 IDEM, p. 49 – 50. 16 KEREMOS VZW. Op. Cit. , 2009, p. 9.

12 III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

A. Introduction and motivation

This theoretical framework consists of three parts: culture, culture and communication and intercultural communication. This last topic is the main focus of this dissertation. We thus proceed deductively and descend from the very broad concept of culture to the key concept of this work. This choice was made based on my main task during my internship at Keremos (which will be handled in detail in the next chapter). In the run-up to the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts, I was responsible for the communication with the Serbian community in Ghent. The main goal of the Tabii concerts is to bring two different cultures together within a musical framework. The main idea is to expose different cultures to one another in a musical setting. In the first and second edition of the Tabii concerts, a Belgian and Turkish band shared the stage and created a musical encounter between these two cultures. The third and fourth edition, brought a Belgian and Serbian band together in Ghent and Antwerp. More detailed information about the Tabii concerts, will be provided in the next chapter. It was my responsibility to find the right ways and channels to reach as many Serbian people in Ghent as possible in order to lure them to the Tabii concert. Clearly, the Serbs cannot be reached with exactly the same message and through exactly the same channels as the Flemish people in Belgium. The communication aimed at the Serbian community, is therefore a rather obvious example of intercultural communication.

First of all, a closer look will be taken at the concept of culture and at the different definitions that have been formed over the years. Next, the different cultures that a person may possibly belong to are explained. In a second paragraph, culture is linked to communication. These two concepts cannot exist without each other and it is the cultural differences that often lead to communication problems. In the last paragraph of this theoretical framework, the concept of intercultural communication itself is explained in detail. First we take a look at the different definitions of and approaches to the concept. To end this chapter, the possible barriers to Barna’s intercultural communication are explained.

13 B. Culture

1. Attempt at definition

Culture is a concept that has been defined over and over again in the course of time. In general these different approaches to culture start with the Roman period and go on until today. 17 Within the scope of this dissertation it would lead us too far to make mention of every single definition from the past. That is why we will take a look only at more recent definitions of culture. A recent one, according to De Meyer (quoting a certain De Schrijver) is the definition of culture as:

‘‘brood en spelen’ (…) cultuur geassocieerd met alles wat voor de homo ludens een goede en zinvolle vorm van vrijetijdsbesteding kan worden.’ 18

A lot of definitions of culture can be reduced to the definition by Raymond Williams, which is considered a milestone in cultural studies:

‘Culture [is] a whole way of life.’ 19

Claes and Gerritsen refer to this as culture with a small c, which has over 300 definitions according to Victor. They distinguish this from Culture with a capital C: music, theatre, art of painting, etc - the different things that art and science produce and that characterise a country. 20 De Meyer also talks about this distinction:

‘De term cultuur valt vandaag de dag dan ook binnen één van volgende opties: ofwel een algemeen proces van intellectuele, spirituele en esthetische ontwikkeling, ofwel een bepaalde levenswijze van een volk, een periode of een groep, ofwel de werken en praktijken van intellectuele en vooral van artistieke activiteit.’ 21

From now on, culture will always refer to the definition with a small c.

The definition by Williams can be linked to Jandt, who claims that culture is the element that makes a large group of people unique. Culture brings forth norms and rules that spell out how to behave inside a culture. Culture thus teaches us what is considered to be ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and is part of one’s identity. We might say that people are programmed to behave appropriately in accord with their

17 DE MEYER (G). Populaire cultuur . Leuven, Garant, pp. 9 - 12. 18 IDEM, p. 11. 19 BARKER (C). Making sense of Cultural studies . London, Sage Publications, 2002, pp. 66 – 69. 20 VICTOR (D.A). International Business Communication . New York, Harper Collins, 1992, p. 2. ; CLAES (M-T), GERRITSEN (M). Culturele waarden en communicatie . Bussum, Coutinho, 2007, pp. 11 – 12. 21 DE MEYER (G). Op. Cit. , p. 12.

14 culture. Thoughts, experiences, myths, language, the way of communicating, dress codes, economic systems and so on, are all defined by our culture. As a child, we start learning about the norms and rules of our culture in our family. Later on, this learning process also takes place in school, streets, youth clubs, work places and in the environment where we live. Within a specific culture, all these things are shared and passed on to the next generation. We do not chose the culture we belong to consciously, contrary to, for instance, subcultures. We are born into it and are part of it. It helps us define who we are as a member of a group.22

Culture influences how we perceive the world and the things around us:

‘Everyone is able to sense the world in the same way, but cultures teach us how to process and understand the information obtained from our senses.’ 23

The perception process consists of three stages: selection, organization and interpretation. First of all, we cannot respond to all the stimuli around us, so our physical senses unconsciously make a selection of the relevant ones. Our culture, needs and interests play an important role at this selection stage. People from different cultures will select different things. The stimuli we select from our environment, must then be organized. Our perceptions are encoded and stored with the use of the conceptual categories that, among other things, language creates. Cultures may differ, for instance, in the number of categories they have for colours. Some can be very elaborate, others not. Interpretation is the last stage in the perception process. During this phase we attach meaning to the stimuli that we first selected and organized. One single situation can be interpreted totally differently by two people and culture often plays an important role here.24

Culture is one of the three levels that Hofstede and Hofstede distinguish within the mental programming of a person. Human nature and personality complete this model. Human nature refers to the aspects of life that all people on this planet have in common: the ability to talk, the need for food to survive, etc. The second layer, personality, can be divided into two components. On the one hand, a personality has inherent generic characteristics like, for instance, the way somebody laughs or talks. On the other hand, a personality is also formed through personal experiences. The line between these two components is very thin and hard to define. The third level of mental programming, culture, fits in between human nature and personality and makes the mental programming of an individual complete. 25

22 JANDT (F.E). An introduction to intercultural communication. Identities in a Global Community. California, California State University, 2004, pp. 26 – 27. ; CLAES (M-T), GERRITSEN (M). Op. Cit. , 2007, pp. 13 – 14. 23 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, p. 66. 24 IDEM, pp. 52 – 57, pp. 65 – 66. 25 HOFTEDE (G), HOFSTEDE (G). Allemaal andersdenkenden. Omgaan met cultuurverschillen. Amsterdam/Antwerpen, Contact, 2005, pp. 20 – 22. ; CLAES (M-T), GERRITSEN (M). Op. Cit. , 2007, pp. 13 – 24.

15 2. Different cultures

People are members of different cultures at the same time. This may oscillate between a culture with a lot of other members and one or more smaller ones.

First of all, we are all part of a national culture. This involves people that are born within a certain nation, like for instance the Belgian or the French people. Of course there can be, and there very often are, cultural differences between the regions in one particular state. City versus countryside is a good example of this. Furthermore, a national culture does not always stop at the borders: the Belgian culture, for instance, shows a lot of resemblance with the French one. Two or more nations can thus differ a lot from each other, but can also show some resemblances. Also, linguistic borders do not always coincide with a certain culture. On the other hand, people that speak (nearly) the same language, do not necessary belong to the same culture. English is a widely spoken language (America, England, Australia, etc.), but there are obvious differences in culture between these countries. All in all, we may conclude that national cultures often do not have well-defined borders.

In addition to our national culture, we are all part of one or more social cultures. Migration, social class, women and men, age differences, religion, etc. are all factors that create different social cultures within one and the same national region.

Thirdly, we are all members of one or more small groups that seem equal, but in fact are not. We all have parents and are part of a family. But this does not mean that the culture in each family is the same. If you look around, you will see that each family has its own culture (way of parenting, rules, etc.) The differences between these smaller groups are of course less significant and more subtle than, for instance, the cultural difference between two big nations. Nevertheless, these small differences may play an important role in intercultural communication. 26

26 IDEM, pp. 22 – 27.

16 C. Culture and communication

Jandt refers to Smith (1966) who states that culture and communication cannot exist without each other. In fact culture is a code that we learn and share as we grow up. For this, communication is necessary. 27

When we go back to the model of Hofstede and Hofstede that divides the mental programming of a person into three different levels, it is the cultural level that causes most problems when communicating with other people. The universal human nature implies that we all know what we can expect from another person when we communicate. Personality can of course cause some issues when, for instance, two personalities do not get along. Nevertheless, this would come to light very soon and you can adjust your communicational behaviour. Most of the time, it is the cultural differences between people, that cause problems in communication. 28 These will be discussed below.

1. Cultural differences

Claes and Gerritsen distinguish two main aspects in which cultures may differ: practices and values. Practices may be subdivided into symbols, heroes and rituals. These are the aspects that can easily be taken up by other cultures. This, in contrast to values.

Practices The practices of people, what they actually do, are in fact the translation of symbols, heroes and rituals. These are the visible and discussible aspects of culture that may be observed and taken up by people outside the culture. When you want to be part of a culture, symbols are the things you can most easily take up. Flags, clothing, gestures, language, food and drinks all reside in this category. Secondly, cultures may differ from each other by their heroes. These may be historical figures, but also television stars, musicians, sportsmen, etc. They all serve as an example to the people in the culture. Thirdly, rituals also set different cultures apart. Rituals are things that are essential to a culture, but that are not necessary in the strict sense. A good example of this is religious rituals, like Lent when people live charily for a period of time. People are not obliged to do this, it is thus not necessary, but they do this because it is part of their culture and it sets them apart from other cultures.

Although you may easily pick up the practices of a culture, it is often only the people who truly belong to that culture who understand the full meaning of their practices. Claes and Gerritsen conclude that practices are very often not the underlying reason when miscommunication arises between different cultures provided you are aware of the practices of a particular culture when you communicate with its members.

27 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit., 2004, p. 29. 28 HOFTEDE (G), HOFSTEDE (G). Op. Cit. , 2005, pp. 20 – 22. ; CLAES (M-T), GERRITSEN (M). Op. Cit. , 2007, pp. 13 – 14.

17 Values Values are in fact the essence of a culture. People constantly apply their way of thinking and thereby appeal to the worldview that characterizes the culture. Generally, people are not aware that they live by the values of their culture because they picked them up from their parents and their environment when they were children. People adopt the numerous values of a culture unconsciously and invisibly. That is why misunderstandings in intercultural communication are often caused by values.29

2. Cultural differences and communication

Communication is a lot more than words. We communicate with everything that we are. Our attitude, clothes, gestures, body language, etc. all express meaning and transmit a message. This non-verbal communication constitutes up to 80% of all communication. We are communicating all the time, even without using words. The means of communicating are also known as codes. The use of these codes and the meaning that is attributed to them, sets one culture apart from the other. When people from different cultures communicate, this difference in codes often leads to problems and misunderstandings. Based on Saville-Troike (1989), Claes and Gerritsen classify four kinds of codes based not only on their verbal or non-verbal characte, but also on whether they are vocal or non- vocal. Verbal communication between two or more parties from a different culture may lead to some problems, regardless of their vocal or non-vocal character. Vocal verbal communication is of course spoken communication, and non-vocal is, for example, written communication. 30 We will take a look at the possible problems that may occur in verbal communication in general. Non- verbal communication will not be discussed because the aim of the present chapter is to provide a frame for the case study discussed in the next chapter and this will deal with verbal communication only.

Language can be a first barrier in verbal communication between two or more cultures. Jandt defines language as ‘the set of symbols shared by a community to communicate meaning and experience’ .31 This ‘gap’ can be narrowed by learning the language of the other one’s culture. Unfortunately translating your message does not always come without problems. Three different scenarios may occur. First, it is possible that some cultures have only one word for a certain concept, whereas others have several. In this case, each one has a small difference in nuance. In colder countries, there are several words for ‘snow’ where the meaning of each one slightly differs, contrary to warmer countries where only the word ‘snow’ exists. If you translate your message word by word, particular shades of meaning will often gets lost. Hence, translation is always imperfect. Secondly, different languages do not have a precise word for each word that needs to be translated. Even when people speak the same language these vocabulary differences may occur.

29 IDEM, pp. 13 – 14. 30 IDEM, p. 99 – 100. 31 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, p. 178.

18 Thirdly: idioms, grammar and syntax, experiences and concepts do not always have an adequate equivalent either, when they need to be translated from one language into another.

The difference in association may turn out to be another important barrier in verbal communication. If two cultures have a word for a concept that has the same meaning, like ‘cheese’ in English and ‘fromage’ in French, this does not necessarily mean that both cultures will associate it with exactly the same thing. A Frenchman will maybe think of ‘Camembert’ and an Englishman of a packet of cheese from the supermarket. They might also attribute a different affective value to a word so that the meaning might differ accordingly.

It is also possible that two cultures each have a code for a concept, but that it has a different meaning. Jandt refers to these language problems as one of the six barriers to be overcome when communicating with people from different cultures. 32 The other ones will be discussed later.

32 CLAES (M-T), GERRITSEN (M). Op. Cit. , 2007, pp. 100 – 106. ; JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, p. 91, pp. 146 – 158, p. 179.

19 D. Intercultural communication

1. Definition

In contrast with the other concepts already discussed, the research regarding intercultural communication has only boomed over the last 20 years, according to Gudykunst. Nevertheless, Jandt claims this concept goes back to Edward Hall’s ‘The Silent Language’ of 1959, where the author claims that culture is the key to understanding intercultural communication. 33 In more recent definitions by Gudykunst and Jandt, culture also plays a central role:

‘[Intercultural communication is] communication between people from different cultures ’. 34 And: ‘Intercultural communication refers not only to the communication between individuals of diverse cultural identifications but also to the communication between groups of diverse cultural identifications’. 35

The unbreakable link between culture and communication that has already been discussed, is important to bear in mind when communicating with someone from a different culture. Every culture has his own view, reasons, definition and way of communicating. By neglecting these characteristics, the chances of miscommunication increase significantly. 36 With intercultural communication, it is therefore the knowledge of the people, their culture and norms at whom your message is aimed, that determine whether they will decode your message the same way you encoded it. Encoding a message is the process of translating what you (the source) want to say or transmit into symbols, more specifically into words in the case of spoken or written communication. Of course, you may also encode your message into non-spoken symbols. The result of this encoding process is the message you want to pass on. This message reaches the receiver through a channel or medium. This can be anything from face-to-face communication to print, television and the internet. In this communication process, noise may occur. Jandt defines noise as ‘anything that distorts the message the source encodes’ . There are three sorts of noise: external, internal or semantic. External noise can be anything around you that diverts your attention from the message like, for instance, a child that is crying while you are talking to someone. Internal noise, on the other hand, refers to your inner thoughts and feelings that can interfere with a message. The different alternative meanings of the symbols (words) of a message can also cause distraction in the communication process, and this is known as semantic noise. When the message reaches the receiver, he or she decodes it. This means that the receiver

33 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, p. XV (introduction). ; GUDYKUNST (W.B). Intercultural Communication Theories, In: GUDYKUNST (W.B), ed. Cross-cultural and intercultural communication . California, California State University, 2003, p. 167. 34 GUDYKUNST (W.B). Cross-cultural communication, In: GUDYKUNST (W.B), ed. Cross-cultural and intercultural communication . California, California State University, 2003, p. 1. 35 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit., 2004, p. 4. 36 IDEM, p. 46.

20 also assigns meaning to the symbols that he receives from the source. It is thus possible that the encoded meaning is not entirely the same as the decoded one.37 Communication is never perfect and may lead to misunderstandings or conflicts. Guirdham defines several sources of miscommunication: noise, poor encoding by the sender, distortion by the medium, selection, inaccurate decoding, distorted interpretation and indiscriminate categorisation by the receiver.38

2. Approaches to intercultural communication

In his very detailed work ‘An introduction to Intercultural Communication’, Jandt states that there are two possible approaches to intercultural communication. Namely the ethnographic approach and the cultural approach. These will be discussed now.

When you observe, report and evaluate the customary behaviour of a culture, you are applying the ethnographic approach to intercultural communication. The goal of this approach is to develop a theory of the unwritten rules for appropriate cultural behaviors by analysing the cultural patterns of a group. To correctly develop this the following is necessary: knowledge of the language of a group, participation in some group activities and the use of a variety of observational and recording techniques. An ethnographer needs to be imbedded in the community while studying it. Ideally, this studying is done by observation instead of relying on questionnaires and interviews. Within the cultural approach to intercultural communication, a researcher aims at sketching an ideal personification of the culture. This is then used to explain the actions of people within that culture. These two different approaches are complementary in understanding the breakdowns in intercultural communication. 39

3. Barriers to intercultural communication

Barna sets out six barriers to intercultural communication: anxiety, assuming similarities instead of differences, ethnocentrism, stereotypes and prejudice, non-verbal misinterpretations and language problems. The first four barriers will be discussed here, the last two have already been looked at in the previous chapter.

When you communicate with someone from a different culture, you might not know what is expected from you. This may lead to an anxious feeling which obstructs your presence in the communication transaction. You will focus only on this anxiety, and will not be paying attention to what is being said to you. It is also possible that anxiety makes it impossible for you to express your ideas or feelings to other persons.

37 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, p. 5; pp. 30 – 32. ; PROCTER (J). Stuart Hall . London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 57 – 73. 38 GUIRDHAM (M). Communicating across cultures at work. New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p. 179. 39 JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, p. 73.

21 A second barrier to intercultural communication, is being unaware of differences in cultures and assuming similarities instead. When people have no knowledge of certain rituals in a culture, they generally assume that there are no differences with their own culture in that area, but very often there are. The reason for assuming similarities is a lack of knowledge about the other culture. The opposite is also possible: assuming that everything is different in cultures and ignoring some possible overlaps between them. Being unaware of these things may obstruct efficient intercultural communication . ‘It is better to assume nothing’ , states Barna, and to find out what the unwritten rules of a culture are by merely asking.

Ethnocentrism is a third possible barrier and refers to the belief that your own culture is superior to any other. In thinking this, you judge the aspects of another culture negatively based on the standards of your own culture. You ignore the richness and knowledge of any other culture, and this is rather restrictive and limiting - also in communication.

Stereotypes and prejudice are a fourth category of possible intercultural communication barriers. Both terms refer to making judgements about people based only on the fact that they happen to be members of a certain group or culture. Stereotypes are based on group membership. They are positive or negative judgements made about individuals in that group. When we stereotype, we assume that all the people within one group have the same qualities based only on their membership of that group. Stereotyping can be done by everybody and everybody can be stereotyped. According to Jandt, stereotypes can have a negative effect on communication. When stereotypes about another culture are often used or expressed, they may lead to a general belief that this stereotype is true although it might not be. When we then continue to use this stereotype (even when it is possible not true), this belief is only reinforced. An imbedded stereotype about a culture, for instance, that women can never put aside their feelings, may lead us to assume that every individual member of that group answers to that stereotype. This will obviously affect our communication towards that group. We will, for example, treat every woman as an over-emotional person. In the end, for the person who is being stereotyped, a stereotype can become a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ . This means that people within a certain culture start to believe the stereotypes that are in vogue about them. To conclude: stereotypes can be a barrier to intercultural communication when we only look at the behaviour of an individual in the light of a stereotype about a certain group to which this individual belongs. Contrary to stereotypes, prejudices are always negative. They can be defined as: ‘irrational dislike, suspicion or hatred of a particular group, race, religion, or sexual orientation’ . People within that group will be seen only in the light of these superficial characteristics, rather than as individuals with their own characteristics.

A fifth possible barrier, is non-verbal communication. There are some non-verbal behaviours that are used and interpreted in the same way by different cultures. Signs of pleasure or displeasure, likes or

22 dislikes, tend to share non-verbal cues. Nevertheless, assuming that all hand signals and bodily expressions are the same, is not right, for they may differ from culture to culture. Needless to say this can cause some misunderstandings while communicating.

Language is the sixth barrier that Barna distinguishes. 40 In the previous chapter, we have already discussed the importance of language and the possible problems that it can cause when two people of different cultures communicate with one another.

40 BARNA (L.M). Stumbling blocks in intercultural communication, In : SAMOVAR (L.A), PORTER (R.E), eds. Intercultural communication : a reader. Belmont CA, Wadsworth, 1997, pp. 337 – 346. ; JANDT (F.E). Op. Cit. , 2004, pp. 71 – 79; pp. 90 – 98; , p. 120; pp. 127 – 128.

23 IV. CASE STUDY: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION WITH THE TABII CONCERTS During my internship at Keremos, I mostly worked on very different and small tasks. I supported the managers of Keremos whenever needed and thus did not really have my own project. Nevertheless, the communication for the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts (aimed at the Serbian people in Ghent), was something that I worked on for a longer period of time. That is why this will be discussed in detail in this chapter.

A. Tabii concerts

1. Main idea and goals

From their expertise and know-how in booking bands and organizing concerts, Keremos and Democrazy noticed that very few allochthonous people attend concerts given by Flemish bands. In an attempt to change this, both organisations joined forces and organized four editions of the Tabii concerts in Antwerp and Ghent. 41 Tabii is the Turkish word for ‘yes indeed’.

Initially, Keremos and Democrazy wanted to set up 12 concerts in Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Mechelen and Genk with each time an autochthonous and an allochthonous headliner. Due to a lack of means, this project was reduced to four concerts, which took place in Ghent and Antwerp at the end of 2009 and in June 2010. 42

During a Tabii concert an autochthonous and an allochthonous band join the stage and create a musical cross-pollination in addition to playing their own music. The idea is to reach a mixed audience where both parts of the audience get to know the culture and the music of one another. Interculturality and a cross-pollination between the communities both on stage and in the audience are the main purposes of the Tabii concerts. The allochthonous community is the key figure in the organization and invites the Flemish one. Both in Antwerp and in Ghent, Keremos and Democrazy invited the biggest allochthonous community as well as a local organization to join them in organizing the Tabii concerts. In Antwerp De Roma co- organized the event, and in Ghent De Centrale did the same, so as to obtain a maximum involvement of those with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.43 The four editions were also made possible thanks to the participation fund of the Flemish Community.

41 DEMOCRAZY. Tabii | Democrazy. http://www.democrazy.be/nl/concepts/tabii/ Date of consultation : 07/07/2010. 42 DE PAUW (R), 08/07/2010. 43 DEMOCRAZY. Tabii | Democrazy. http://www.democrazy.be/nl/concepts/tabii/ Date of consultation : 07/07/2010.

24 2. First and second editions 44

As mentioned earlier, one of the goals of the Tabii project is to approach the local allochthonous community to co-organize the project. Because the Turkish community in Ghent is the biggest one, the first two Tabii concerts were concentrated on the Turkish people there. They took place in the autumn of 2009 in the intercultural centre De Centrale’ which co-organised the event with Keremos and Democrazy.

It was crucial to find a partner imbedded in the Turkish community to make sure that the allochthonous people would be reached in an appropriate way and through the right channels. For the first two concerts, the non-profit organisation C.D.F. (Cagdas Dernekler Federasyonu) became this partner. This federation of progressive societies strives for the recognition and acceptance of allochthonous people as full members of Flemish society.

The four partners (Keremos, Democrazy, De Centrale and CDF) decided that the Turkish band Haluk Levent was to be the first allochthonous headliner. This band has had an immense influence on the Turkish pop circuit and it was considered a great crowd drawer for the Turkish population. They shared the stage with the Belgian band Yevgueni. The communication for this first edition consisted of flyers, posters and a television commercial. The content of this commercial was a mixed Turkish and Dutch message aimed at both communities with a strong emphasis on the Turkish one. The mayor of Ghent, Daniël Termont, and alderman Resul Tapmaz who is Turkish by birth, appeared in the television commercial which was broadcast on AVS (regional channel of East-Flanders) and on a Turkish channel. In addition to this, it was also posted on Youtube and the online channels of each of the organizing partners in order to reach as many allochthonous people as possible. The result of all these efforts was satisfying. About 350 people attended the first Tabii concert. 50% of whom was allochthonous and the other 50 % autochthonous. Both communities also liked the multicultural acts on stage. These results were a great motivation to organize a second edition of the Tabii concerts that took place two months later.

Thanks to the success of the first edition and because the second edition would again concentrate on the Turkish community, the partnership from the first edition remained as it was (Keremos, Democrazy, De Centrale and CDF). Turkish headliner this time was Yüksek Sadakat, a band that mixes pop and rock influences with their authentic Turkish instruments. Together with the very successful Flemish band Absynthe Minded, they created a musical Flemish-Turkish cross-pollination. At the time, Absynthe Minded’s single ‘Envoi’ was very popular. To promote the Tabii concerts, a commercial was made where Bert Ostyn (singer of the band) sung a Turkish version of Envoi: ‘Yeter’. Kadir Balçi with Belgian/Turkish roots, directed the commercial. It was mostly distributed online and the commercial was shown before each concert by Absynthe Minded. Posters and flyers were also

44 DE PAUW (R), 08/07/2010.

25 distributed to promote the concert. The flyer of both editions is shown in the appendixes on page 38 and 39. The second Tabii Concert was sold out and had a very mixed audience and thus reached its goals again.

3. Third and fourth editions 45

The organization of the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts, did not go as smoothly as the first ones. Originally, the Turkish band Gevende was to share the stage with the well-known Belgian world music band, Jaune Toujours. These bands were to perform in May 2010 at Mano Mundo, an intercultural festival, and in June 2010 at De Roma in Borgerhout, Antwerp. The Tabii concept would thus make its debut in other cities than Ghent. The non-profit organization 0090 would replace CDF as the new partner imbedded in the allochthonous community. 0090 is a comtemporary platform that wants to contribute to the cultural diversity within the arts in Flanders with an emphasis on Turkey. The communication and promotion followed the same trend as before. A video message of politician Bart De Wever and Belgian comedienne with Turkish roots, Oznur Karaca was recorded. They both talk about the upcoming Tabii concerts in their own language. Due to the number of demands that the band Gevende kept making after all the necessary agreements had already been made, organizers Mano Mundo and De Roma no longer wanted to participate and both concerts were cancelled.

In order to receive the rest of the subsidies from the Flemish Government, Keremos and Democrazy thus had to look for new bands for the remaining two Tabii concerts. Together with De Centrale and De Roma they decided to keep Jaune Toujours as the Belgian headliner and to focus on another authochtonous community than the Turkish one. De Roma introduced Keremos to a project of the European Commission: ‘Southeast Europe, A Cultural Journey’. With this project Europe wants to invite people to get to know all the facets of the Western Balkan and Turkey, two candidates to join the European Union. This project fits closely with the goals of the Tabii concerts and became a partner of the third and fourth edition of Tabii. It was at this stage that my internship at Keremos began.

This time it was the Serbian community that invited a Flemish band to Antwerp ( De Roma ) and to Ghent ( De Centrale ). The concerts took place at the end of June 2010, a week after my internship had finished. The Serbian band, Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar, is a Balkan Brassband from the south of Serbia. The band is famous in Serbia and is considered to be one of the most prominent Balkan brass bands of the moment. They have recorded over 12 CD’s and have travelled around the world with their music. Jaune Toujours was the Belgian band for these two last editions. Their music is a mix of rock, chanson, ska, gypsy, Balkan and brass band. They try to convey a strong social engagement to their audience with their poetic lyrics in different languages.

45 IDEM.

26 The communication and promotion of these last two concerts, will be discussed in the next paragraph.

In spite of all the difficulties that occurred during the organization of these last two editions, they were also a success. About 300 people attended the concert in De Roma and about 350 in De Centrale .

B. My contribution to the Tabii concerts

As mentioned earlier, I was responsible for the communication about the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts aimed at the Serbian people in Ghent. I was asked to find out how to reach these people, both online and offline. Although Keremos and Democrazy have a lot of experience in communicating about their concerts and bands, their traditional channels such as the fanpages of their bands, websites and so on, would not reach a lot of Serbian people. Of course these traditional ways were used to reach the Belgian crowd and the music fans in general and therefore they will be discussed in a second paragraph.

1. Communication vis à vis the Serbian community in Ghent

Similar to the previous editions, we wanted to communicate in the languages of the target communities, that is, in Serbian and Dutch. This choice was made because Serbian people would feel more personally addressed with a message in their own language, rather than in Dutch only. My first step was to find someone who could translate a short promotional text that had already been written in Serbian and this without being paid for it. Thanks to the many contacts in the Serbian community of co-organizer De Centrale , I was introduced to Dragana Van De Moortel, an interpreter from the translation agency TGV Ghent. She translated our text and the final (digital) flyer was made by an external company and will be found on page 40 of the appendixes. The goal of this digital flyer was to reach as many Serbian people as possible online. Hence I had to find, for instance, useful websites, communities and people with a lot of contacts in the Serbian community.

I quickly found out that it was very difficult to find websites or communities that guaranteed a Serbian audience. There is no real Serbian online community the way there is, for instance, an online music community. It was more a matter of finding the right people who were imbedded in the Serbian community in Ghent. De Centrale is an intercultural centre and thus has many contacts in this community. Jos Lootens, our contact person from De Centrale , passed on some useful people who could help me reach the Serbian community. First of all, our translater, Dragana Van De Moorten, distributed the flyer via mail and facebook to her many Serbian contacts and students. Ana Milosevic from the Serbian embassy in Belgian did the same and also posted the flyer on the website of the embassy.46 Sanela, a woman who used to have a big Balkan store also helped us circulate the flyer as did a number of other Serbian people. This first distribution of the flyer was carried out about three weeks before the concerts were to take place and

46 http://www.serbica.eu/

27 I contacted these very same people again about one week before the concerts to ask if they wanted to distribute the flyer again as a reminder.

In addition to this, I contacted some organizations which focus on East and Central Europe to inform them about the Tabii concerts and to ask if they could circulate that information together with our flyer via their network. On page 41 of the appendixes, you will read my message to these organizations.

The non-profit organization Kultura Balkanica 47 aims at integrating the Balkan culture in Belgium and distributed our flyer through its website, facebook and newsletter. Spartak Platform 48 , an interdisciplinary platform for Eastern Culture, and the non-profit organization Foyer 49 which strives for the integration of allochthonous people, did the same. Our flyer was also posted on Tropicalidad, a well-known blog about world music.50 Furthermore, I posted the flyer on some useful facebook pages: Belcika Balkan Folklor (a famous Balkan band), Kultura Balkanica, Spartak, Serbs in Belgium, DJ Gaetano Fabri (a well-known Balkan DJ), Centro Europeo and Srbi U Belgij (Serbian page for the Serbians in Belgium).

A poster, again containing a bilingual message, was the second medium used for the Tabii concerts. I had to find out where it would be useful for these posters to be put up and thus find the neighbourhoods where a lot of allochthonous people live or pass by. Examples of this are the Sleepstraat, the neighbourhood around Dampoort station, an Eastern-Europe bookshop, Turkish supermarkets and so on. Of course, I also put up the poster in as many locations as possible in Ghent to create visibility.

Furthermore, I was asked to come up with one extra medium that would guarantee exposure to the Serbians in Belgium. Vesti is a Serbian newspaper that appears in Belgium and has a circulation of 4,000 each day. It is sold in some newspaper stores in Ghent. I contacted the person who was responsible for the advertisements in the paper and asked for the possibilities, conditions and prices to advertise in Vesti. Based on those negotiations, we decided to advertise our flyer on Saturday June 12 th and Saturday June 19 th because Vesti has more readers during the weekend than on weekdays.

2. Communication in general

In addition to the communication aimed at the Serbian community, efforts were also made to reach the general public. All partners (Keremos, Democrazy, De Centrale en De Roma) used their traditional

47 http://www.kulturabalkanica.be/ 48 http://www.platformspartak.eu/log/categorieen/Nieuws 49 http://www.foyer.be/?page=article&id_article=870&id_rubrique=10&lang=nl 50 http://www.tropicalidad.be/pivot/entry.php?id=544

28 channels to reach their respective communities. Not only was the flyer spread online through facebook etc., it was also distributed to universities, schools, bars, concert places, and so on.

I sent a message to all the facebook friends of Keremos. To spread a message on facebook, you have to be brief and to the point, otherwise nobody will read it. The message that was sent a few days before the concert, is on page 42 of the appendixes. Furthermore, I also addressed all the press and organizational contacts of Keremos with the press release on page 43 of the appendixes.

In the run-up to the concerts, Radio 2 interviewed Maarten Decock in the programme ‘Koffers & Co’ where he explained the Tabii concept and lured people into coming and taking a look. Furthermore, Focus Knack published an article about the last Tabii editions.

C. Other tasks during my internship

My internship mainly consisted of fairly different and smaller tasks, as already mentioned earlier. It is impossible to discuss them all. Therefore I have chosen to discuss the most relevant ones and the ones that kept cropping up during my three months at Keremos.

1. Press releases

On several occasions, I had to write and send out a press release. Writing is not one of my strong points and in the beginning I had some difficulties finding the right tone to address the press. All the necessary information has to be in the press release and you also have to promote yourself but in a professional way. Everything the press and organizers might want to know about the issue on hand but also some background information about, for instance, the band in question, has to be in a relatively short press release. Luckily I had some examples at my disposal written by Maarten and Reinout and this helped me to get the hang of it. On page 43 you will find the press release I wrote concerning the Tabii concerts. On page 44 of the appendixes, you will find a press release I wrote to notify the press about the first music video of the band School Is Cool.

2. Newsletters

During my internship, writing a newsletter for one of the bands or for Keremos itself, was a weekly activity. The newsletters of the bands are written from their point of view, as if they personally write to their fans. It is thus important to respect the ‘tone of voice’ of each band in their newsletters. School Is Cool, for instance, is a new band with five very energetic, dynamic people. Their newsletters thus have to be fluently written and funny. Roadburg, another band, uses a more neutral tone that does not always have to be particularly funny. In general, Keremos’s newsletters are quite short and to the point. I only had to fill in the text in the already existing lay-out for each band. You will find one of the many newsletters that I wrote (without lay-out) on page 45 of the appendixes.

29 3. Drawing up invoices and callsheets

Managing a band involves a lot of administration. A concert brings with it several administration documents. First of all, a contract is drawn up between the band, represented by Keremos, and the concert organizer. Based on the agreements in this contract, Keremos draws up an invoice to collect the artist fee and a management fee for the bands who do not have an external booker yet. Keremos also keeps track of which invoices are made up, sent and/or paid. Of course, the same is done for any other performance or activity by one of the bands. Drawing up invoices and sending them, was one of my regular tasks.

4. ‘Culture 2007’: programme of the European Union

One of the first tasks during my internship, was to find out whether it would be possible for Keremos to receive additional subsidies from Europe. After some research, I discovered that the European Union indeed has a special subsidy programme: ‘Culture 2007’. This programme had three goals: promote the cross-border mobility of people who work in the cultural sector, promote the cross-border exchange of artistic and cultural works and promote the intercultural dialogue. These goals could be reconciled with, for instance, the international promotion of a Keremos band and on top of that Keremos would be an eligible organization for the programme.51 To explore the options of Keremos in more detail, a colleague and I went to a workshop of the Culture 2007 programme on May 17 th in Brussels. The best option for Keremos seemed to be project subsidies. For this, they have to find three partners in different countries to jointly set up a project around a band. The conditions and different possibilities were still not totally clear to us, and that is why I arranged a meeting for Keremos with the Belgian contact person of this programme. This meeting took place after my internship, so I do not know the outcome.

5. Transition to non-profit organisation for each band

Just before I began my internship, Keremos had decided to start up an individual non-profit organisation for almost every band. This was done in order to obtain a better financial overview for each band and so that every band would have all the rights to everything that they created. Furthermore, this particular structure would be easier to work with. Until then, only Absynthe Minded and Sioen had had their own legal structure, that is, an own company with limited liability because of their size. For the other bands, a non-profit organisation fitted them better because they were all relatively small and some were still in their infancy at the time. When they grow, a switch to for instance a company with limited liability, can easily be made.

Although I did not have any specific tasks in this transition, I did learn a lot about it and could occasionally make a contribution myself thanks to our law course. All these legal documents and

51 VLAAMSE OVERHEID. Cultuur, jeugd, sport en media. http://www.cjsm.vlaanderen.be/ccp/cultuur_2007/index.html Date of consultance: 12/07/2010.

30 conditions were also new to the members of Keremos. I thus followed the same learning process as they did during the start up of the non-profit organisations. I attended some meetings in regard to this and helped to gather all the information necessary for the memorandum of association.

D. Evaluation of my contribution

1. Main tasks: intercultural communication and the Tabii concerts

It is very difficult to evaluate this kind of communication task, because there is no well-defined norm that makes it a success or a failure. Based on the 300 to 350 people from different origin that attended the concerts, I dare say that our communication efforts in general had reached their goals.

During the realization of the intercultural communication, it was very difficult to assess my performance and decide if I was on the right track or not. Especially because I was focusing on new ‘channels’ to reach the Serbian audience, the only way to find out whether these were the right ones, was the turnout at the concerts. I frequently asked for feedback from my mentors and updated them on the channels I found so that they could make adjustments if necessary. Based on this and the turnout at the concerts, I dare say that I did a good job. I contacted as many people as possible to inform them about our project and asked for their help to spread this message to the Serbian community. To my mind, the combination of the already existing channels of Keremos and the co- organizing partners, created a good communication mix.

2. Additional tasks

In general, I did my very best to acquit myself of every assignment I was given. I asked for additional information whenever there was something I did not quite understand and frequently asked for feedback. This was also one of the comments I got when finishing my internship. My mentors said that I quickly got the hang of the way Keremos worked and that I had not been afraid to ask for feedback or more information about something.

I had particular difficulties with the writing because committing ideas to paper is absolutely not one of my strong points in general. I had some problems finding the right tone for the different kinds of writing that were required of me (press releases, newsletters and so on). In the beginning I thus had to rewrite, for instance, a press release a few times before it was good enough to send out. But with the help of other already existing press releases and newsletters, I finally got the hang of it and could send out press releases and newsletters without radical modifications from my mentors.

31 V. FINAL CONCLUSION

A. Lessons learned professionally

The very reason why I chose an internship in a management company, was to find out for myself whether I was a ‘suitable candidate’ for the music manager world. It is a side of the music industry that I have always been fascinated with and this was a unique opportunity to really get to know it.

My opinion about the profession of manager is twofold. On the one hand (and based on my proper evaluation), I would say that I could be a good manager. I have learned a lot about the promotion, production and administration tasks that come with the job and these are aspects I could handle. On the other hand, being a manager, involves a lot of negotiating about money, for instance. This is something I obviously did not have to do during my internship. Nevertheless, based on my observations, I think this is an aspect of the job that I am not really cut out for. To begin with, I do not particularly like the negotiating business, because I do not think I have the capacity to be sufficiently hard and I think I would often give in when the other party refuses to listen or deviates from its goals. Maybe this could change over time with some additional experience in the field. A lot also depends on the other party and its attitude towards the ‘art’ of negotiating.

The thing I would like most about being a manager of a music band, is the diversity of the job. Of course the administration tasks reoccur frequently, but in addition you have a lot of contact with all sorts of third parties who work together with your band. One day you are helping out during a music video shoot and the next day you are present at a concert as the tourmanager. This diversity implies of course that being a manager can be a very demanding job that is not done from 9 to 5 from Monday till Friday. After office hours and during weekends, the Keremos crew often accompanies one of their bands to their concerts, which means a lot of evening work. In my opinion, a true passion for music and a strong belief in your band, may be considered to be prerequisites for being a manager in the music world.

In general, I learned a lot of things that will come in handy in almost every future job. I now have some experience in writing newsletters and press releases, for instance, and these are things that reoccur in a lot of communication positions. I also built up some economics knowledge because I had to draw up a lot of invoices and prepared the bookkeeping. In my opinion, it is always useful to have some background knowledge of these things even though one might not use it directly. In addition to all of this, I also learned a lot about the way the music industry works from observing the other Keremos members and from the team meetings.

32 B. Lessons learned personally

For me it is always a sort of challenge to enter a new group of people, in this case a work environment with only three people who work very closely together. I have the tendency to take on an observing attitude and I am rather timid in the beginning. During my first days at Keremos I thus mostly observed and was rather quiet. I have to feel at ease to lose this timidity and to really be ‘myself’. As soon as I got to know the corporate culture and the employees of Keremos, this problem evaporated. I really became part of the team and felt appreciated for my input. Nevertheless, I discovered that from the beginning I did not refrain from asking for more work or for additional information. When it came to the work itself, I could get over my shyness and this was somewhat surprising to me.

In general, the evaluation of my internship was similar to the one after my internship during my Master in Communication Sciences at Poppunt. My mentors at Keremos told me that I am somebody who works in a really structuralized fashion and who keeps good track of the work that needs to be done. On top of that, I quickly understand what is being asked of me and I am not afraid to ask questions. My internship thus reconfirmed these qualities that, after all, may turn out to be very useful in my professional future. I also learned that I was not afraid to admit I did not understand something or that I wanted more work when I had finished something. My internship also reconfirmed that I am a true team player. I function best in a group of people that is complementary and that works together in search for the same goals.

C. Link with Multilingual Business Communication

There is an obvious overlap between the responsibilities of a management company (in this case Keremos) and the subjects that are treated within Multilingual Business Communication. The different managerial tasks can be divided into administration, promotion and production tasks. Different aspects of the first two categories were handled during the different courses and guest lectures that were held during the academic year. The production side was not, but in my opinion these are things that cannot possibly be taught in a school context, but have to be learned on the job.

The economics knowledge that I have built up during the year of MTB, came in handy most during my internship. On one of the first days, I had to prepare the bookkeeping of one of the bands. This meant I had to put the right number of the right item on each invoice, contract, and so on. Because of the course in bookkeeping, I could do this and understand what I was doing without too much help from my mentors. The same can be said for drawing up invoices, contracts and so on. Without the economics courses during MTB, I would have had much more difficulties with these tasks. During my three months at the company, Keremos was forming separate non-profit organisations for each band. I attended some meetings with respect to this transition, although I did not have any significant tasks in this area. Thanks to the law course, I understood the work that had to be done to complete this transition and, on occasion, could even contribute because all this was also new to the

33 members of Keremos. I could help them draw up the status of the non-profit organization because I had learned some things about, for instance, the number of members in the board of directors and the general meeting.

Obviously the communication component of the MTB programme, in combination with my previous degree in Communication Sciences, was very useful for the different promotional tasks I had to complete. As already mentioned, I very often had to write letters, press releases and newsletters. Thanks to the different guest lectures and courses during MTB, I had some knowledge as to how these communication tools had to be written, what they had to look like and what information they had to contain. I mostly remembered the different formalities in writing these things from the courses, because these never really change in contrast to the content and tone of what has to be written. Without this knowledge, I would not even have known how to begin to write a newsletter or press release. In addition to this, I also picked up a lot from the practical language courses. The formalities in mailing and writing in English are not the same as in French or even in Dutch. On occasion I had to communicate in English or French and this knowledge thus also came in handy.

Thanks to my internship, I appreciated more the very different courses and the wide scope that MTB provided us with. I also better understood why these courses and guest lectures were given, which sometimes I did not during the academic year itself. Working for three months also made me realize that MTB offers in fact a very good preparation for working in the real world, because I was able to use a lot of knowledge I had built up during the year. Of course not every course and guest lecture was of interest and of use to me personally, but based on the very different professional options MTB is suitable for, this is understandable. Nevertheless, I sometimes felt that MTB concentrated a bit too much on big and international companies, and I sometimes missed a focus on the cultural industries and the non-profit sector because these are more my cup of tea. We only had one guest lecture about cultural communication and I am convinced it would be far more useful for some to take a much closer look at the cultural and non-profit world.

34 VI. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A dissertation is never the work of the author alone. That is why I would like to thank a few people for their contribution and support.

First of all, I would like to thank Maarten Decock, Reinout De Pauw and Tom De Clercq from Keremos for giving me the opportunity to do my internship in their company and for their confidence in me. They made me feel a part of their team and I learned a lot during this three months. On top of that, I had a very good time indeed.

Secondly, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unconditional support. This gave me the courage to go on, even when I doubted that I could ever finish on time. My friends gave me the necessary distraction from time to time, so that I could recharge my batteries whenever necessary. I would also like to thank Didier Goyvaerts for his patience and occasional help.

Last but not least, I would like to thank our coordinator Tom Bruyer, for answering all my question and for his guidance during the early stages of this dissertation and of my internship in general.

35 VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY

MONOGRAPHS BARKER (C). Making sense of Cultural studies . London, Sage Publications, 2002, pp. 244.

BARNA (L.M). Stumbling blocks in intercultural communication, In : SAMOVAR (L.A), PORTER (R.E), eds. Intercultural communication : a reader. Belmont CA, Wadsworth, 1997, pp. 337 – 346.

CLAES (M-T), GERRITSEN (M). Culturele waarden en communicatie . Bussum, Coutinho, 2007, pp. 294.

DE MEYER (G). Populaire cultuur . Leuven, Garant, pp. 135.

GUDYKUNST (W.B) (ed). Cross-cultural and intercultural communication . California, California State University, 2003, pp. 302.

GUIRDHAM (M). Communicating across cultures at work. New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 360.

HOFTEDE (G), HOFSTEDE (G). Allemaal andersdenkenden. Omgaan met cultuurverschillen. Amsterdam/Antwerpen, Contact, 2005, pp. 20 – 22.

JANDT (F.E). An introduction to intercultural communication. Identities in a Global Community. California, California State University, 2004, pp. 462.

KENDALL (G), WICKHAM (G). Understanding Culture. Cultural studies, order, ordening. London, Sage Publications, 2001, pp. 179.

PROCTER (J). Stuart Hall . London, Routledge, 2004, pp. 170.

VICTOR (D.A). International Business Communication . New York, Harper Collins, 1992, p. 2.

DOCUMENTS FROM GOVERNMENT, PUBLICATIONS KEREMOS VZW. Aanvraag van een meerjarige subsidie voor het geheel van de werking . Gent, Vlaams Ministerie van Cultuur, Jeugd, Sport en Media, 2009, pp. 29.

36 VALCKENAERS (H). Een beleidsaanbeveling voor het subsidiëren van alternatieve managementbureaus: de noodzakelijkheid en wenselijkheid binnen het Vlaams pop-rockcircuit. Brussel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2009, pp. 122.

INTERVIEW DE PAUW (R), 08/07/2010.

WEBSITES DEMOCRAZY. Tabii | Democrazy. http://www.democrazy.be/nl/concepts/tabii/ Date of consultation : 07/07/2010.

KEREMOS. http://www.keremos.be/site/ Date of consultation: 25/06/2010

MYSPACE THE GALACTICOS. The Galacticab op do 23/4. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=79378332&blogId=484358748 Date of consultation: 29/06/2010

VLAAMSE OVERHEID. Cultuur, jeugd, sport en media. http://www.cjsm.vlaanderen.be/ccp/cultuur_2007/index.html Date of consultance: 12/07/2010.

ZAMU MUSIC AWARDS 2006. http://www.zamu.be/awards/watzijndezamuawards.php Date of consultation: 28/06/2010

37 VIII. APPENDIXES

A. Poster of first edition of the Tabii concerts

38 B. Poster of second edition of the Tabii concerts

39 C. Digital flyer of the third and fourth editions of the Tabii concerts

40 D. Mailing to organizations - Tabii concerts

Tabii concerts In Belgium with Serbian Band (Boban I Marko Markovic Orkestar)

Dear,

On the 25th and 26th of June, we are organizing the Tabii concerts. These are combined concerts of; on the one hand, a Belgian band and, on the other, a Serbian band. They will play once in Ghent and once in Antwerp. We are now looking for the right channels to let the people of the Balkan countries who live in Belgium know about this concert and that is why I'm contacting you.

Is it possible to send our flyer to your relevant contacts, post it on a website/facebook/newsletter so that we can reach as many people from the Balkan countries as possible?

In attachment you will find the flyer in jpg format. Thank you very much for your help!

Kind regards, Pauline Delaruelle – Keremos vzw

41 E. Facebookmessage to all Keremos-friends

Nieuwe editie van de Tabii Concerten in De Centrale & De Roma

Op 24 en 25 juni organiseren Keremos vzw en Democrazy de derde en vierde editie van de Tabii concertenreeks, deze keer in De Roma (Antwerpen) en in De Centrale (Gent).

In deze editie staan een in Servië erg succesvolle band en een in eigen land geprezen Brusselse band samen op het podium. Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar ( http://www.myspace.com/bobanimarko ) en Jaune Toujours ( http://www.myspace.com/jaunetoujours ) zorgen deze keer voor een muzikale ontmoeting tussen de Servische en Vlaamse Gemeenschap.

Voor het volledige programma en tickets, kan je terecht op de websites van De Centrale (http://www.decentrale.be/default.aspx ), De Roma ( http://www.deroma.be/ ), Uitbureau Gent en Fnac.

Groeten, Het Keremos-team

42 F. Press release - Tabii concerts

Beste,

Op 24 en 25 juni organiseren Keremos vzw en Democrazy de derde en vierde editie in de Tabii concertenreeks , deze keer in De Roma (Antwerpen) en in De Centrale (Gent). Een in Servië erg succesvolle band en een in eigen land geprezen Brusselse band staan deze keer samen op het podium. Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar en Jaune Toujours zorgen voor een muzikale ontmoeting tussen de Servische en Vlaamse Gemeenschap.

Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar is een dertienkoppige Balkan Brassband afkomstig uit het zuiden van Servië. Met hun gypsy-muziek trok deze band al de hele wereld rond en namen ze al meer dan 12 cd’s op. Alle info over deze band vind je hier .

Jaune Toujours staat garant voor een explosieve mix van rock, chanson, ska, gypsy, balkan en brassband en heeft een uitstekende internationale livereputatie. Hun poëtische teksten in verschillende talen getuigen van een sterk sociaal engagement dat ze met hun muziek willen overbrengen naar hun publiek. Meer info over Jaune Toujours vind je hier .

De Tabiiconcerten worden mede mogelijk gemaakt door het participatiefonds van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap . Deze derde en vierde editie van de Tabiireeks kaderen in het project ‘Southeast Europe: A Cultural Journey’ van de Europese Commissie . Het volledige programma van Tabii concerten kan je vinden op de website van De Centrale en De Roma . Tickets zijn te verkrijgen via De Centrale , De Roma , Uitbureau Gent en Fnac.

43 G. Press release – School Is Cool

Persbericht Videoclip “School Is Cool – New Kids In Town”

School Is Cool kan meer dan alleen muziek maken en dat bewijzen ze met hun eerste home made videoclip voor de single ‘New Kids In Town’. De videoclip van de Humo’s Rock Rally-winnaar werd helemaal door de band zelf bedacht en opgenomen. Michael Van Ostade, bassist van de band en student Audiovisuele kunsten aan de Sint-Lukas Hogeschool in Brussel, nam de regie en de montage voor zijn rekening.

In de clip is te zien hoe de bandleden als ‘New Kids’ de speelplaats van de Antwerpse school ‘De Spiegel’ veroveren. Ze zetten de achtervolging in op enkele nietsvermoedende, spelende kinderen en verpulveren ze. Geen bloederige taferelen, maar kleurrijke confetti-explosies. Benieuwd? Check de videoclip hier .

Bij de release van de single ‘New Kids In Town’ kon de band al snel op veel positieve reacties rekenen. Nadat het tot hotshot werd gebombardeerd op Studio Brussel, kwam de single als hoogste nieuwkomer binnen in De Afrekening. Een week verder staat deze single als sterkste stijger al te kloppen aan de deur van de top 10. School Is Cool live aan het werk zien kan op onderstaande concertdata:

Concertdata

19/05/2010 Café Video (Gent) 22/05/2010 “Vlaamse Reuzen, Hollandse Leeuwen” 013 (Tilburg, Nl) 26/06/2010 ParkCity Live (Heerlen) 26/06/2010 Genk on Stage (Genk)

44 H. Newsletter - Roadburg

Beste Roadburg-fans,

Verkiezingen of geen verkiezingen, ook deze week heeft Roadburg jouw stem nodig om terug wat te stijgen in De Afrekening. Er is vandaag geen uitzending door de staking van de VRT, maar de lijst van deze week is wel bekend en 'Sequences Of Small Town Kings' zakt van 25 naar 27. We hebben jullie stemmen dus nodig en dat kan nog steeds hier. Roep iedereen rondom je op om hetzelfde te doen! Eeuwige dank!

De bandleden zijn tijdelijk van de aardbol verdwenen en hebben zich opgesloten om te blokken, want dat moet af en toe ook eens gebeuren...

Groeten en tot volgende week ! Het Roadburg-team

Roadburg Live : 25-06-10 Zonhoven Trapt Door 26-06-10 Grensrock Menen

Management Roadburg: vzw Keremos: [email protected] 0494 80 90 30 Boekingen België & Luxemburg: Peter Verstraelen: [email protected] Promo: Carolien De Bie: 0032 479 97 1330 / [email protected]

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