The Futures of Music 2006
IASPM, University of Birmingham
1-3 September 2006
Regulating the amateur: traditional music and cultural control
This paper examines the discourses of folk and traditional music within the ‘amateur’ network of folk clubs, music sessions and song sessions across the UK. It presents a case for research into the tensions between the largely unregulated practices of amateur performance and consumption and three distinctive external forces which appear to impinge upon them:
1. The music industry as a commercial enterprise which sets 'professional' standards in performance, organisational practices and technical resources and infrastructure. This force may be manifested through approaches to amateur event organisers by agents to set up tours, or approaches by would-be professional artists seeking to build up recognition from performances on the ‘amateur circuit’.
2. Administrative and bureaucratic practices of regulation ranging from the PRS, local authority licensing, etc. to cultural agencies seeking to promote, fund or otherwise encourage folk as a form of creative or community artistic expression.
3. 'Mainstream' popular culture and its transformation of 'folk' culture into commodity forms, e.g. for Irish theme pubs, medieval banquets, etc. Thus popular music as defined by the media provides a context that establishes very specific criteria on tastes and forms.
The paper argues that these forces constitute an ideological framework, experienced as a form of cultural control regulating not only the practices of amateur music but also the ways in which performers and audiences experience these practices.
The paper considers how discourses of commodification and political management are present in interactions between participants and asks whether these undermine the perceived integrity of amateur music as a genuine form of cultural expression.
Filed under:
IASPM research proposal
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