THE MARKETING OF BLACK MUSIC

James R. Mitchell¹

Abstract

Today's black musicians are challenged not only to master their art, but also the business side of what has become a multi-million dollar consumer market. The author argues that little has changed since the days when black talent was paid with liquor and Cadillacs. Some new groups and young performers have begun to learn from the mistakes of their elders and are managing to hold on in a treacherous marketplace.

Mitchell, James R. (1980) "THE MARKETING OF BLACK MUSIC," Contributions in Black Studies: Vol. 4, Article 3.
Available at: http://scholarworks.umass.edu/cibs/vol4/iss1/3

Making Friends with Jarvis Cocker: Music Culture in the Context of Web 2.0

David Beer
York St John University, d.beer@yorksj.ac.uk

The movement toward what has been described as Web 2.0 has brought with it some significant transformations in the practices, organization and relations of music culture. The user-generated and web-top applications of Web 2.0 are already popular and widely used, the social networking site MySpace already having more than 130 million members worldwide. By focusing specifically upon the presence of the popular music performer Jarvis Cocker across various Web 2.0 applications, this article seeks to open up a series of questions and create opportunities for research into what is happening in contemporary music culture. This exploratory article lays out an agenda for research into music culture and Web 2.0 that is not only concerned with the implications of Web 2.0 for music, but which also attempts to understand the part played by music in making the connections that form the collaborative and participatory cultures of Web 2.0 and the flickering friendships of social networking sites.


Key Words: friendship • music • music culture • MySpace • social networking sites • Web 2.0 • Wikipedia • Youtube