Radio and Popular Music Reading Diary Assignment One - Week Three

Assignment One - Reading Diary

Week Three: Political Economy

The topic in popular music concepts that we studied this week was the impact of political economy, with my related readings being “The Political Economy of Internet Music Radio” by Tim Wall and “From Independent to Corporate: A Political Economic Analysis of Rap Billboard Toppers” by Letrez Myer and Christine Kleck. Reoccurring ideas throughout our lecture and the readings include explanations of the role and implications of political economy, the constantly evolving dynamic effects that political economy has on editorial and broadcasting guidelines and on industry and participant functions and engagement.

My first reading from Wall is based on the introduction of internet radio, due to constantly evolving new and digital media. He analyses the political economy considerations of this, for example, the use of money and profit generation in this new radio format and the regulations to contemplate and scrutinise in regards to publicly available content, and reflects on, from a political economy stance, whether these new digital technologies are beneficial to the public. Meanwhile, my further reading from Myer and Kleck focusses on specific genres, hip-hop and rap, and, using an industry study of the successful music in these genres in the Billboard chart, examines the effects of institutional proprietors on the success of these genres, considering a comparison to independently produced music.

Although Wall’s work would now be considered outdated, I was reassured to see his acknowledgement of possible further developments in technology that may affect his arguments – often mentioning to possible capabilities of the technology, for example the “Internet’s potential for interactive texts” (Wall, 2004, pp.39) being the most significant difference from previous mass media. Another slight positive I found in Wall’s reading was his use of a table of numerical figures as one of his secondary research sources – generally showing a more accurate analysis (although considerations of reliability would still come into account, for example, the participants used, the source of the data and the calculation methods used). A main positive feature of Myer and Kleck’s reading was the recurring inclusion of their analysis and review of existing work, with their comments then inspiring a further development in their study – for instance “media owners involved in corporate mergers did not consider the implications of such agreements of corporate realignment” (Myer & Kleck, 2007, pp.140).

Based on my learning, if I were to study the topic of political economy in radio and popular music I would focus on how the political economy considerations and effects change throughout the growth of a company. I may do an industry study into a successful and long-running music festival, for example, Glastonbury, and consider what effects the growth and increase in popularity had on the organisations political economy practices, as well as taking into account historical and technological factors due to the differing time-periods.

References:

Wall, T, (2004). The Political Economy of Internet Radio. Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media. 2 (1), pp. 27-44

Kleck, L. M. (2007). From Independent to Corporate: A Political Economic Analysis of Rap Billboards Toppers. Popular Music and Society, Volume 30, Issue 2: Record Charts, pp. 137-148.