The Popular Music Industry in Australia A study of policy reform and retreat 1982-1996 Thesis Submitted by- Marcus Breen Ph.D. Candidate Faculty of Arts Department of Humanities Victoria University of Technology Melbourne, Australia. July 19 96. FTS THESIS 338.4778163 BRE 30001005051760 Breen, Marcus The popular music industrv in Australia : a study of policy reform and retreat, 'The Age', 16 November, 1985. ABSTRACT This study examines the political economy of popular music policy initiatives during 1982-1996, when the Australian Labor Party was in government Federally and in the State of Victoria. Building on the cultural studies concept of articulation, the popular music formulation theory is proposed as the basis for examining the alignment of the fields of social and industry policy with the existing popular music industry. A series of case studies examine the ALP'S interest in popular music policy, the influence of Australian popular music achievements on the policy formation, the role of activists within the party and the subsequent inquiries and proposals that flowed from the party's concern to establish programs that would offer social provisioning outcomes. Using concepts derived from institutional economics, the thesis shows that the existing popular music industry, in particular multinational record companies, were disinclined to participate in and financially support the policies. Positive outcomes were realised in the creation of institutions such as Ausmusic, the Victorian Rock Foundation and The Push. Although dependent on public subsidy, some of the initiatives offered a new funding model, such as the failed blank tape levy. Alternatively, the examination of community music programs found that some local or micro projects generated industrial characteristics of their own, to become economically self-sufficient, rather than dependent on subsidies. Evidence that the private interests of the existing music industry determined their reluctance to participate in the policy programs became clear with the Prices Surveillance Authority's Inquiry Into the Prices of Sound Recordings in 1990. The research found that from 1982 until Labor lost power in 1996, no effective method had been established for engaging the existing music industry in funding and supporting the policy initiatives. With the possible exception of the evolution of industrial characteristics within community music programs, no resolution to this policy failure is apparent . Acknowledgments This study takes as its starting point, my personal involvement with popular music. After a decade as a journalist, and in the latter part of the 1980s, completely absorbed in writing about Australian popular music, I began to feel uneasy. The remarkable pressure to operate as an extension of a global publicity machine, managed and orchestrated by record company executives in head offices in London, New York and Los Angeles, was not what I set out to do. I wanted to maintain my original interest in the action that seemed to be historically associated with popular music. I wanted to have fun in Australia, with Australian rock - whatever that might have been. At about this time, a series of Victorian and Federal Government popular music initiatives were launched, on which I reported for various newspapers and ABC radio, in my capacity as a freelance journalist. They offered a counterpoint to the process of servicing the publicity machines of far-off head offices. The policies seemed to me to offer an opportunity for Australians, particularly young people, to receive support for and have access to popular music, without the self-interest of vast record company involvements. So this thesis came about out of a sense of abiding involvement in and enthusiasm for Australian popular music. I had thought about documenting the policies in a formal sense, but not in the detail involved in this thesis. I began the academic work after I met Dr Richard Collins at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He suggested that I put my enthusiasm for the music and my working knowledge of the record industry to use and pursue a study at this level. His enormous enthusiasm was the starting point for this project. Dr Collins introduced me to Professor William H. Melody, Founding Director of the Centre for International Research on Communications and Information Technology (CIRCIT), in Melbourne, who took an interest in my work and later was my second supervisor. After an initial few months as a researcher with the RMIT Media Industries Research Group (MIRG) based at CIRCIT, which Dr Collins initiated, this detailed study of popular music policy offered a stimulating and rewarding challenge. It also provided me with a means of changing my career and undertaking more detailed research. My engagement with the music did not wane. It merely moved on to a new tangent. Mick Counihan at RMIT was initially involved in the project and his knowledge of broadcasting policy, coupled with his long-held enthusiasm for popular music, was extremely helpful in the early stages of deciding how to approach my subject. Victoria University of Technology (VUT) provided support for my work in the music industry and cultural industries, which was hardly recognised within the accepted range of academic research areas in Australia in the early 1990s. Associate Professor John Sinclair at VUT, was one of the few people involved in detailed research and writing in cultural industries. He has provided detailed supervision of the thesis and accepted the rigours of reading and commenting on drafts, while providing encouragement while I have worked full time and completed writing. Professor Peter Sheehan has been a steady supporter of the work, bringing his industry experience and practical advice to bear on the task. Numerous other people have assisted me. Terry Dyson, Director of the Information and Communication Industries group within Multimedia Victoria (MMV), in the (non-Labor) Victorian Government, gave me a wonderful job working in multimedia industry development, where, unbeknown to him, I could apply some of the knowledge I had gained from my examination of popular music policy. He also recognised my interests in critical and academic pursuits. My colleagues at MMV occasionally saw me exhausted from the hours of writing late into the night and I thank them for their patience. I would also like to thank Chris Healy, Ken Ruthven, Simon During and Jody Brooks at The University of Melbourne for recognising my efforts and inviting me to teach From Rap to Rock: Cultural Formations , in the 111 English and Cultural Studies Department, in 1995-1996. I would also like to acknowledge the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, for recognising my contribution to the field of political economy and cultural policy, by inviting me to teach in the department beginning August 1996. Many of the people cited in references in this study are friends and have both inspired and prompted me to undertake this work, either directly or indirectly. Numerous others have made useful suggestions. In no particular order they are: Lawrence Grossberg, Meaghan Morris, Graeme Turner, Stuart Cunningham, Terry Flew, Sarah Cohen, Will Straw, Philip Hayward, Vicki Riley, Colin Mercer, Tony Bennett, Belinda Probert, David Lindsay, Gillian Harrison, Peter Duncan, Myles Ruggles, Martin Doddrell, Dianne Northfield, Phil Dwyer, Bruno Charlesworth, Elaine Whiteman, Pete ('academic wank') Steedman, David Bennett, John McLaren, David English, Jenny Hocking, John Robertson at Austrade, John Mikler at DIST, Mary Padbury at Blake, Dawson, Waldron, Victorian State ALP secretary John Lenders for permission to examine party files, librarians at the National Library, the National Archives in Canberra and the State Library of Victoria. My family always supported me and I especially thank my late father Stewart Breen and my mother Myrtle Breen (Staines) for their unstinting enthusiasm for my efforts. My brothers and sister also stirred the pot when necessary: Peter, Andrea, Leighton and David. My parents-in-law Ken and Emily Gardner saw me in various states of apprehension and elation. My children Hester and Aidan have lived almost their entire lives under the influence of this project. They will enjoy having their father back as much as I will enjoy being there for them. My best mate and partner Deborah has fought the good fight, even joined the ALP during the time I was researching and writing this thesis. Her commitment to me and to really useful knowledge is exemplary. For her, as for me, the cause of democratic socialism is not merely theoretical. Table of Contents Page Abstract i Acknowledgments ii Introduction 1 PART 1 Section 1; Establishing the study 1. Questions and strategies 6 - Appropriate political economy - A cultural studies approach - Selective case studies - Methodology and strategies Section 2; Approaching t)olicv 2. Institutional economics as a way forward 2 5 - Thorstein Veblen's machine of industry - Veblen's articulation - Systematic linkages - Culturalism - John Commons - Contemporary institutionalists 3. Social policy vision 51 - The commodification indicator - Australian policy recipe - The ALP cake mix 4. Industry policy 72 - Approaches to industry - Australian industry policy - Evaluating industry policy 5. Popular music policy formulation: a theory 93 - Cultural industries - The political economy commodity - Transcendent exchange - two theorists - The double movement - Policy as mediator