Gatekeeping Night Spaces
My group and I lead the class discussion for week nine’s topic, ‘Live Music’. In our discussion we spoke about the different aspects of live music, and my part was focused on discussing two aspects of the concert hierarchy, the role of the booking agent and the role of the tour manager. I spoke on these topics based on what I had acquired from the week nine readings, as well my own research. In the first reading from week nine titled, “Gatekeeping Night Spaces: the role of booking agents in creating ‘local’ live music venues and scenes”, the author, Ben Gallan, tells us of the rise and fall of a live music venue, The Oxford Tavern. This reading related directly to my discussion on the role of the booking agent, and illustrated the immense
…show more content…
Holt first outlines the historical change in the economy of music and goes on to discuss the four components of the new economy of live music in connection with digital media. The first two elements discussed were live music as an economic driver and the categorical price change in concert ticket pricing. Public performances are largely marketing events and are emphasized as vital locations in finding, evaluating, and promoting popular music artists. This idea has directly impacted the new economy of music and for many artists they earn most of their money from these live events rather than recordings. Companies like AEG and Live Nation are the biggest concert promoters and they have created a monopoly, which exploits the consumer, as seen from the major increase of concert ticket prices since 1996. The third and fourth components are the new and renewed event genres and live experience in the digital information society. The arenas and festival locations development in ‘gentrification’ increased the interest to modern day audiences by broadening their appeal. The boom in media technologies had a huge impact on the economy of live music as it enhances communication. Digital media allows for flexible communication ‘in terms of the temporal and spatial dimensions’. While the atmosphere of live performances draw people in there is a limited form of communication physically. All four of these elements have largely influenced the new economy of live music and has been demonstrated from cultural and performance study
Holt first outlines the historical change in the economy of music and goes on to discuss the four components of the new economy of live music in connection with digital media. The first two elements discussed were live music as an economic driver and the categorical price change in concert ticket pricing. Public performances are largely marketing events and are emphasized as vital locations in finding, evaluating, and promoting popular music artists. This idea has directly impacted the new economy of music and for many artists they earn most of their money from these live events rather than recordings. Companies like AEG and Live Nation are the biggest concert promoters and they have created a monopoly, which exploits the consumer, as seen from the major increase of concert ticket prices since 1996. The third and fourth components are the new and renewed event genres and live experience in the digital information society. The arenas and festival locations development in ‘gentrification’ increased the interest to modern day audiences by broadening their appeal. The boom in media technologies had a huge impact on the economy of live music as it enhances communication. Digital media allows for flexible communication ‘in terms of the temporal and spatial dimensions’. While the atmosphere of live performances draw people in there is a limited form of communication physically. All four of these elements have largely influenced the new economy of live music and has been demonstrated from cultural and performance study