Sustainable live music ecologies for artists, music venues and cities (POPLIVE) and two student intersections
Staging Popular Music: Contemporary Research on Ecologies and Inequalities in Live Music
Pauwke Berkers
with Erik Hitters, Arno van der Hoeven & Rick Everts, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Paul Rutten & Martijn Mulder, Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences
From recorded music to live music
Live music has become increasingly important for musicians, venues and festivals, and the local urban environment. First, audiences have arguably changed from loyal fans of specific artists or venues to unpredictable consumers constantly looking for unique musical experiences at unexpected locations. Second, new digital technologies have increased the turnover of taste, while decreasing consumers’ willingness to pay for recorded music. As such, the international music industry is changing its focus–albeit slowly–from recorded music to live music revenues. These developments have consequences for live music ecologies, that is the live music sector as an (inter)local network of different social actors (e.g., musicians, bookers, policy makers) as well as materialities (e.g., venue size, urban setting). To put it succinctly, in order to support popular music as a viable cultural industry, it is vital to have strong local music ecologies that add value (economic, cultural and social) for various stakeholders. The challenge is to create the conditions for a live music ecology that not only do justice to the development of artists and the diverse tastes of audiences but also has a solid financial base. To tackle these pressing issues, the POPLIVE research project (https://www.poplive.nl) addresses the question: How can local live music ecologies contribute to value creation in the careers of pop musicians, the position of music venues and festivals, and the local (urban) society in general?
Strengthening the position of musicians and venues in urban environments
Finding an answer to this question is important for makers, venues and festivals, and cities. First, due to limited rights revenues, makers (pop musicians) increasingly depend on live concerts to earn a living in an already precarious labour market. Such a business model requires an extensive and changing skillset in order to make a sustainable career in popular music. POPLIVE aims to improve the position of musicians, examining the role of live music ecologies in skill development and the nurturing of new talents. Second, materially-fixed pop venues experience increasing competition from new and often temporary stages, like festivals and popup locations, leading to a more dynamic and fluid live music infrastructure. This project aims to enhance the position of both music venues and festivals, working towards a sustainable balance between permanent and temporary live music infrastructure which caters to diverse audiences. Third, live music industries are also increasingly expected by local governments to have economic and sociocultural benefits for their urban environments. POPLIVE aims to expand the position of live music by researching its economic, cultural and social value for cities.
Live music ecologies
As its theoretical background, this project uses an ecological perspective on live music, which has been developed by British music researchers Adam Behr, Matthew Brennan, Martin Cloonan, Simon Frith and Emily Webster (2016). This perspective focuses on the changing ways in which different actors (e.g., musicians, bookers, policy makers) contribute to the qualities of the live music sector. The ecological perspective pays due attention to the material aspects of live music, such as the music venue size and the urban setting in which music events take place. These material aspects affect, for example, acoustics and the kinds of bands that can be booked. The intangible aspects of live music ecologies concern, among other things, the musical experience and the histories associated with a specific venue. Taken together, these material and intangible dimensions of live music shed light on the health of specific live music ecologies. Healthy music ecologies include venues of varying sizes which cater to different music audiences and bring diversity to the local music culture.
Intersections: Rotterdam Arts & Sciences Lab x POPLIVE x student research
RASL research and POPLIVE meet each other at various intersections. First, they aim to critically examine and reflect upon current transformations and inequalities in arts and culture, which are the result of changing political, social, economic and technological conditions. This includes themes such as the precarity of creative labour and the sustainability of the arts in response to market forces. Second, both RASL and POPLIVE place a strong emphasis on combining research and education while establishing connections and collaborations with the diverse cultural institutions of Rotterdam. To illustrate how Rotterdam live music ecologies can be studied in the critical, inter/transdisciplinary and educational spirit of RASL, two examples of student research that embody these ambitions are presented below.
RASL student Joyce Lapworth examines:
Equal but different ecologies? An interview with Panda Lassow and Sander Sandeep for a research project about re-interpreting the gender image of the DJ
In every occupational field, women face different obstacles from men when making a career; the issue—gender inequality—is still a discussion in today’s society (Farrugia, 2012). In the electronic dance music (EDM) scene, the stereotypical image of a successful DJ is highly gendered (read: male). This raises the question: How does gender affect the career paths of Dutch female EDM DJs? In the interviews, DJs Panda Lassow and Sander Sandeep mention a notable difference from ten years ago: the percentage of female DJs has increased. This increase has been the result of positive discrimination, a rise in role models and the digitalization of the field, opening up opportunities for women. Yet, gender expectations from within the music industry (and society in general) often constrain women’s potential—sometimes through direct discrimination, sometimes through unconscious biases which also affect the thoughts of Panda Lassow herself. She explains, “If I see a female DJ who is really beautiful, I have to tell myself: Whoa! Just listen for a moment what she can do.” It also happens the other way around. When she was performing, a man came to her and said, “You are doing it great for a woman.” If we want DJ scenes to be more equal, we need to change society, the music industry and individual biases!
RASL student Joyce Lapworth examines:
Equal but different ecologies? Gender in the Rotterdam DJ Scene
ACS honours students Mariya Bakhmach, Anna Nesterenko and Juanita Willemsen, with a little help from Sascha Roth (Pantropical), explore:
Parallel ecologies? Rotterdam as a hub of Cape Verdean live music
Rotterdam is home to the largest community of Cape Verdeans in the Netherlands (Choenni, 2004). The first Cape Verdeans left for the Netherlands in the 1950s, especially for maritime work in the Rotterdam harbour. Following the independence of Cape Verde from Portugal in 1975, many teachers, soldiers and other lower officials of the former government migrated to Rotterdam, finding work at Shell and the Van Nellefabriek. The third migratory wave occurred in the early 1990s with the first multiparty elections in Cape Verde. The vast majority of young people arrived in the Netherlands with a full secondary education.
The city of Rotterdam is known worldwide as a hub of Cape Verdean music. A key figure has been João Silva, better known as Djunga de Biluca, who first arrived as a sailor in Rotterdam shortly after the war. In 1965, he founded Morabeza Records at his home on the Beukelsdijk and produced the very first Cape Verde vinyl ever: Caboverdianos na Holanda, a collection of the various musical styles of the islands. Cape Verdean musicians came to Rotterdam by boat to record LPs in small studios or at Silva's home (Jorritsma, 2017). Cape Verdean musicians have regularly returned to the islands for extended periods of time, resulting in the hybridisation of musical forms. For example, when the Rotterdam-based band Bulimundo travelled back to Cape Verde, their luggage contained an assortment of synthesizers and MIDI instruments.
Today, Cape Verdean music is, on the one hand, part of the larger Rotterdam live music ecology; contemporary acts such as funaná band Tabanka play at mainstream festivals (e.g., Metropolis), the concert hall De Doelen hosts an annual Cape Verdean music festival called Sodade and various “tropical” music series like Pantropical regularly book Cape Verdean acts. On the other hand, Cape Verdean music remains a parallel ecology with concerts organized at venues such as Club Empire, a downtown dance club, tickets sold at local Cape Verdean barbershops and a unique visual aesthetic particular to the scene. Music, as a crucial part of culture itself, acts as a reminder of Cape Verde and reinforces the shared identity between Cape Verdeans in Rotterdam and abroad. In the words of Stuart Hall (1990), each song is “an act of imaginary reunification'' (p. 224).
[illustrations might be his map, picture of students presenting or music or flyers]
References
Behr, A., Brennan, M., Cloonan, M., Frith, S., & Webster, E. (2016). Live concert performance: An ecological approach. Rock Music Studies, 3(1), 5-23.
Choenni, C. (2004). Kaapverdianen in Nederland [Cape Verdeans in the Netherlands].
Report prepared for Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved from
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/achtergrond/2004/36/kaapverdianen-in-nederland
Farrugia, R. (2012). Beyond the dance floor: Female DJs, technology, and electronic dance music culture. Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.
Hall, S. (1990). Cultural identity and diaspora. In J. Rutherford (Ed.), Identity: Community,
culture, difference. (pp. 222-237). London, UK: Lawrence and Wishart.
Jorritsma, E. (2017, January 20). Hoe Rotterdam de muziekstad van Kaapverdië werd [How
Rotterdam became the music city of Cape Verde]. NRC Handelsblad. Retrieved from https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/01/20/hoe-rotterdam-de-muziekstad-van-kaapverdie-werd-6306232-a1542061
