Local conference of the Research Network on the Music Industry
Department of Communication, Media, and Culture (Panteion University)
School of Journalism and Mass Media Studies (Aristotle University)
Athens, November 2, 2007
Abstract
For more than 30 years now the literature records the efforts of many researchers to operationalize the concepts of innovation and diversity in music. However, a general agreement has not been achieved yet. The development of the empirical research to test several views and hypotheses about the recording industry produced the pressure to define these concepts. Nowadays, this discussion continues in the light of new facts: convergence among different media and forms of communication, development and domination of the global multimedia conglomerates, reengineering of their different sectors (including their music sectors) and synergy among them, new cycles of concentration in the mass media, alternative forms of cultural production, unprecedented possibilities for its disintermediation, changes in the social roles of the musicians, while their relation with the recording industry is also under transformation, as well as their access to cultural resources and their audiences, development of the access to music, its uses and reception.
Under these circumstances, testing the hypotheses about cultural homogenization and conservatism, as well as about the contribution of the recording industry to the democratization of the artistic communication, the enrichment and development of the musical culture is of particular importance.
This paper discusses the complexity of the problem about diversity and innovation in the arts, focusing on the case of the recording industry. The objectives of the paper are to summarize the approaches so far and to enhance the discussion about the methods of research. On the other hand, its purpose is to contribute to the agenda setting of the research network for the music industry, focusing on the Greek case, which has not been studied thoroughly.
