The Promotion of Live Music in the UK--a Historical, Cultural and Institutional Analysis

这项研究是关于在英国推广现场音乐的。现场音乐在英国的文化生活中扮演着重要的角色，并且从许多方面引起了人们的兴趣：作为音乐产业的一个部门；作为国家监管和许可的对象；作为国家通过艺术委员会、发展机构、旅游局等活动进行投资的场所。现场表演对音乐家的生计和事业以及音乐爱好者的生活至关重要。因此，它可以通过多种方式进行研究。这个项目的重点是在过去的50年里，在技术变革和新型大众媒介娱乐传播的背景下，英国的现场音乐行业是如何发展的。长期以来，这些变化使现场音乐在经济上不可行，并且对公众的吸引力不断下降，因为公众面临着如此多的新的、个人的利用闲暇时间的机会。但是，尽管对现场表演的未来不断出现悲观的预测，现场音乐体验仍然是几乎所有音乐世界的核心，新的音乐活动、事件、奇观和场所已经出现，以满足公众的需求。事实上，在数字音乐存储和发行对唱片业构成“威胁”的背景下，现场音乐目前被视为音乐产业投资和增长的最佳机会。在研究英国现场音乐的近代史时，本研究将重点关注现场音乐推广者的活动和经验。推广人最终是决定什么时候、什么地点、在什么样的环境中可以听到什么样的现场音乐的人。音乐推广方最能理解塑造英国音乐世界的各种文化、社会、政治、地理和市场力量。他们与唱片公司、音乐家的经纪人和经纪人进行谈判；它们是造星机器的关键部分。他们与商业赞助商、音乐赞助人和艺术管理者打交道。他们必须了解付费用户不断变化的需求和期望。它们必须在国家和地方政策提供的范围内运作，并对其作出反应。他们必须了解不同音乐场所的文化潜力——足球场和酒吧，艺术学校和学生会，俱乐部，市政厅和社区中心。他们必须考虑到时尚的变幻莫测，怀旧的动态，票贩子的机会主义，酗酒和混乱的问题。因此，我们的研究旨在加深我们对现场音乐在其发起人术语中的意义的了解。毕竟，发起人是那些因为自己的音乐信仰而进入冒险事业的人，无论是爵士乐还是摇滚，古典还是传统表演者，早期音乐还是前卫音乐。从推广方的角度来理解现场音乐，是为了更好地理解当代音乐商业、英国的音乐文化，以及观众想从音乐体验中得到什么。

This research is concerned with the promotion of live music in Britain. Live music plays a significant part in Britain's cultural life, and is of interest from a number of perspectives: as a sector of the music industry; as an object for state regulation and licensing; as a site of state investment through the activities of arts councils, development agencies, tourist boards, etc. Live performance is vital for musicians' livelihood and careers and in the lives of music lovers. It could therefore be studied in a variety of ways. The focus of this project is on how the live music sector has developed in the UK over the last 50 years, in the context of technological change and the spread of new sorts of mass mediated entertainment. These changes have long been taken to make live music unviable economically and of ever decreasing appeal to a public faced with so many new, individual opportunities for the use of their leisure time. But despite the recurring gloomy predictions for the future of live performance, the live music experience remains central to almost all music worlds, and new kinds of musical activity, event, spectacle and venues have emerged to cater for public demand. Indeed, in the context of the 'threat' of digital musical storage and distribution to the record industry, live music is currently seen as providing the best opportunities for music industry investment and growth.In examining the recent history of live music in Britain this research will focus on the activities and experiences of live music promoters. Promoters are the people who, in the end, decide what live music is available to be heard when, where and in what sort of environment. Promoters are in the best position to make sense of the various cultural, social, political, geographical and market forces that shape the UK's music worlds. They negotiate with record companies and musicians' managers and agents; they are a key part of the star-making machine. They deal with commercial sponsors, musical benefactors and arts administrators. They have to understand the shifting needs and expectations of their paying customers. They have to operate within the confines and in response to the opportunities offered by national and local state policy. They have to understand the cultural potential of different musical sites--football grounds and pub rooms, art schools and student unions, clubs, city halls and community centres. They have to take account of the vagaries of fashion, the dynamics of nostalgia, the opportunism of ticket touts, the problems of drunkenness and disorder.Our research is designed, then, to deepen our knowledge of the meaning of live music in its promoters' terms. Promoters are, after all, people who go into a risky enterprise because of their musical beliefs, whether in jazz or rock, classical or traditional performers, early music or the avant-garde. To understand live music from promoters' perspectives is to get a better understanding of the contemporary music business, the UK's music culture, and what it is that audiences want and get from the musical experience.