Independent to What? An Analysis of The Live Music Scene in Milan

280 Pages·2012·2.44 MB·English

by  Silvia Tarassi

UNIVERSITA’ CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE
MILANO

Dottorato di ricerca in Culture della Comunicazione
Ciclo XXIV
S.S.D.: SPS/08 Sociologia dei Processi Culturali e Comunicativi

Independent to What? An Analysis of The
Live Music Scene in Milan

Tesi di Dottorato di: Silvia Maria Tarassi
Matricola: 3710771

Anno Accademico 2010/2011

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UNIVERSITA’ CATTOLICA DEL SACRO CUORE
MILANO

Dottorato di ricerca in Culture della Comunicazione
Ciclo XXIV
S.S.D.: SPS/08 Sociologia dei Processi Culturali e Comunicativi

Independent to What? An Analysis of The
Live Music Scene in Milan

Coordinatore: Ch.mo Prof. Aldo Grasso

Tesi di Dottorato di: Silvia Maria Tarassi
Matricola: 3710771

Anno Accademico 2010/2011
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Summary
1. Introduction ........................................................................ 6
1.1 Thesis Topic: Independent Live Music Scene ................................................................. 6
1.2 Research Interest .............................................................................................................. 9
1.3 Structure Of Thesis ......................................................................................................... 11
2. The Music Scene Perspective ............................................14
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 14
2.1 Sub-Culture And Post Sub-Culture Studies ................................................................... 14
2.2 Affirmation Of The Music Scene Perspective ............................................................... 19
2.3 Local Music Scene ......................................................................................................... 20
2.4 Theorization Of The Music Scene Perspective: Music Scene Going Beyond Locality . 23
2.5 Music Scenes: Local, Trans-local and Virtual ............................................................... 25
2.6 Critics To Music Scene Perspective ............................................................................... 27
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 32
3. Art Worlds, Fields And Networks: New Ways Of
Theorizing Music Scenes .......................................................36
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 36
3.1 Becker’s Art World ........................................................................................................ 38
3.2 Bourdieu’s Field of Cultural Production ........................................................................ 43
3.3 Adoptions of Art World and Field in the Analysis of Music Production ...................... 48
3.3.1 Finnegan’s Musical Worlds and Pathways ............................................................ 48
3.3.2 Kruse’s Notion of Scene and Field of Practice ....................................................... 49
3.3.3 Webb’s Milieu And Field ........................................................................................ 51
3.4 Intersections and Differences Of Art World And Fields ................................................ 54
3.5 Understanding Music Scene through Art World and Field ............................................ 57
3.6 Art Worlds, Fields And Networks .................................................................................. 60
3.7 Social Network Analysis and its Critics ......................................................................... 64
3.8 Looking at Networks as Mobile and Unequal ................................................................ 68
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 73
4. Independent To What? Investigating The Complexity Of
The Notion Of Independent ...................................................75
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 75
4.1. The Complex Understanding Of Indie As A Genre-Based Category ........................... 76
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4.2 The DIY Ethic And The Narratives Gravitating Around Independent Music ............... 79
4.3 Critics To The Social Discourses Gravitating In The Independent Music Culture ....... 83
4.4 Independent Music And Its Connection To Music Scenes ............................................ 85
4.5 Independent Modes Of Production And Interrelations To The Mainstream Music
Industry ................................................................................................................................. 87
4.6 Theorizing Independent. Looking At The Interplays Between Independent Cultures,
Modes Of Productions And Relations With The Music Industry ........................................ 92
4.7 Applying Bourdieu’s Theory To The Notion Of Independent ....................................... 97
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 101
5. An Analytical Model ....................................................... 103
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 103
5.1 An Attempt To Provide A Multi-Layered Model To Analyze Independent Music
Scenes ................................................................................................................................. 103
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 112
6. Research Design And Methodology ................................ 113
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 113
6.1 Research questions ....................................................................................................... 114
6.2 Sample and Sampling ................................................................................................... 115
6.3 Methods ........................................................................................................................ 120
6.3.1 Interviews .............................................................................................................. 120
6.3.2 Ethnography: Participant Observation, Conversations and Document Analysis . 123
6.4 My Involvement ........................................................................................................... 127
6.5 Research Ethics ............................................................................................................ 131
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 133
7. The first layer of the model: The Circuits Of Independent
Music Production ................................................................. 134
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 134
7.1 The Contradictory Understanding of Independence .................................................... 135
7.2 Looking at Music Scenes as Circuits of Cultural Production ...................................... 148
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 167
8. Second layer of the model: The Five Dimension of the
Social Terrain ...................................................................... 169
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 169
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8.1 Media Environment ...................................................................................................... 170
8.2 Economic Dimension ................................................................................................... 182
8.3 Regulations And Policies ............................................................................................. 192
8.4 Political Dimension ...................................................................................................... 206
8.5 Cultural and Social Context ......................................................................................... 216
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 220
9. Third Layer: mobility and space in independent music
production ............................................................................ 221
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 221
9.1 Investigating The Mobile Networks Connections Of Independent Music In Milan .... 222
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 237
10. Conclusion ..................................................................... 238
10.1 Summary of the project .............................................................................................. 238
10.2 Weaknesses In Research ............................................................................................ 241
10.3 Suggestions For Future Research ............................................................................... 242
11. References ..................................................................... 244
Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 244
Websites used in the document analysis ............................................................................ 263
List of songs mentioned ..................................................................................................... 265
12. Appendix ....................................................................... 266
12.1 List Of Interviews ....................................................................................................... 266
12.2 Structure of The Interview ......................................................................................... 269
12.3 List Of Main Events, Meetings, Places Attended For Participant Observation ......... 271
12.4 Participant Observation .............................................................................................. 273
12. 5 Some Example Of Drawings Of The Networks Made By Respondent .................... 274
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1. Introduction

“My independence which is my strength implies my loneliness which is my weakness.” (Pasolini, 1969)1

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When I have read this quotation projected during a musical and visual performance
organized by a famous independent Italian band, I Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, and dedicated
to Pierpaolo Pasolini, I have soon realized that much better than me Pasolini had been able to
explain the complexity and contradiction entailed in independent cultural production.
The quotation from Pasolini (1969), contained in an article titled My Provocative
Independence, explains, in a very clear and straightforward way, how the independence
actually generates a contradictory tension between being independent or not.
The notion of independent implies a continuous struggle between two contradictory tensions:
the need of being autonomous and different but at the same time the need of being
interconnected to an economic, political and cultural environment.
As Pasolini emphasizes independence is very linked to a relational issue, and this is the
crucial question that the thesis will address. In Pasolini’s example, the independence referred
to his contentious relationships with the media and the cultural industry (in particular film and
publishing), while in this thesis it is connected to independent music production.

1.1 Thesis Topic: Independent Live Music Scene

The term ‘independent’ in the context of music, it is commonly used to indicate forms of
grass-roots music production claiming their autonomy from the mechanisms of the music
industry but also more generally from the cultural, social, political environment in which are
located.
This thesis seeks to investigate the relationships existing in independent music production,
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analyzing the actions and interactions that characterize small-scale cultural producers in the

1 Translated from Italian: “La mia indipendenza che è la mia forza implica la mia solitudine che è la mia
debolezza”
2 The concert Pasolini l’incontro was held on 11th May 2011 at Teatro dell’Arte, Milano (Italy).
3 In the thesis the term ‘cultural or music producers’ is used to indicate, as Strachan does, “individuals involved
in the creation and distribution of various types of cultural artifacts and events including musical texts,
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context of Milan, but at the same time their independence or interdependence from the music
industry, media, policies, politics and cultural context. The thesis therefore seeks to analyze
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how music-making practices come into relationship with the urban area characterized by a
series of structural opportunities and constraints affecting circuits of independent production.
In this regard, the analysis focuses on the interactions within the circuits of micro production
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of live music , which bind more strongly to urban economies.
Attention will be directed particularly to the analysis of independent production and
performance of live music. The interest towards live music is justified by the growing
importance that this sector plays today in economic and cultural terms (eg Frith, 2007).
However it is important to notice that the field of live music is actually very interconnected
with other areas of music production and is thus impossible to analyze it without considering
its relationship with the recording industry, with music journalism, with nigh entertainment
and more general with cultural production of the urban environment.
Furth ermore, the main purpose of the thesis is to fill the gap existing, especially in the
academic Italian context, in a literature, that is instead widespread in the Anglo - American
context, and that relates to the analysis of grass - roots independent music pro duction and
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performance. In sociology of music and in popular music studies , this literature has widely
made reference to the notion of the ‘music scene’ (e.g. Straw, 2001; Peterson & Bennett,
2004), a highly debated and controversial concept used as a way of understanding either
music-making practices taking place in particular localities, or genre-based music formations.
The thesis wants to challenge the traditional way in which music formations have been
understood and particularly to provide a critical account of the notion of music scene,
pointing out its weaknesses and placing it in relation to other critical perspectives such as the
‘art world’ (Becker, 1982), field of cultural production (Bourdieu, 1993) and creative network
(van Heur, 2010).

performances, records, written publications, artwork and websites”(Strachan, 2003, p.11), and at the same way
‘music production’ is used in the thesis to indicate all music-related activities.
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The term ‘music-making practice’ is used in the thesis to indicate the wide range of activities related to the
production, performance, promotion of music.
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In the thesis, live music is used to include a wide set of performances which range from the live music
performances of people playing on instruments to DJs performances. By talking about micr o grass - roots
production in the case of live music, I mean that I will concentrate my attention upon small scale production and
upon small - medium size music venues and clubs.
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Popular music studies are an interdisciplinary field of studies, (combing musi cology semiotics, sociology,
anthropology, geography and cultural studies) who are united by a common interest in the study of popular
music. Popular music studies try to broaden to all genres, cultures, and repertories from whole over the world,
even Ital y, using for them the English expression ‘popular music’ (e.g. Fabbri, 2010).

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The ensemble of concepts and theoretical models which have been adopted to describe music
and more generally art formations can be regarded as a proof of the complexities which are
entailed in analyzing music collectivities.
These concepts and models all tend, from different perspectives, to answer to a general
question: how to look at the complexities of actions and interactions characterizing cultural
activities while still taking into account macro influences that can affect and be affected by
these activities? This is the theoretical challenge that my work wants to address, namely how
to take into account the complexity and mobility of actions and interactions or the members of
a music scene, while still considering the constraint and interdependency with structural
constraints?
The issue is much bigger than what this research is aimed to answer, but I think that there’s a
need of coming back to the questions in order to understand the better way of conceptualizing
the music scene perspective that this thesis is aimed to explore.
Besides the final result of this thesis has been the construction of a theoretical model to better
understand the relationships and interconnections within the circuits of music production, and
in particular to investigate how these circuits live in the intersections with a context that
cannot be reduced to the physical space of the city of Milan, but is rather a relational terrain in
which the various networks of independent music gravitate.
I think that it’s important to point out that the conceptual framework the thesis presents has
been theorized at the end of the fieldwork. That’s because most the of the assumptions I’m
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making are actually very much influenced by some understandings I had from the fieldwork .
This is connected to the exploratory nature of this research which was not aimed
to corroborate initial hypotheses but rather to explore the complex nature of the networks of
independent music production and performance gravitating around the context of Milan. For
these rea sons, the research has used a qualitative methodology (particularly through the use of
semi - structured interviews, participant observations and document analysis) because a
qualitative methodology could better suit to the exploratory nature of this study.

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The fieldwork has been conducted from January to July 2011, mainly within the context of the city of Milan,
but without restricting to the city boundaries.
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1.2 Research Interest

My PhD research interest builds on previous post-graduate work which examines practices of
cultural production and their interlinked relationships to urban environments and to dynamics
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of urban regeneration . At the beginning of my PhD I thought my project could be a
continuation of my postgraduate thesis in which I had analyzed a case of gentrification in a
quarter in Milan, applying the Anglo - American literature on this issue to the peculiarity of the
Italian context. Initially in the PhD, I was interested in looking at the role played by the music
production as key element in regeneration of cities, with a special concern given to cultural
policies adopted at a local level, which has been major focus of attention within popular
mu sic studies (e.g. Cohen, 2007). Hence I initially intended to undertake an analysis of music
policies applied at a local level in Milan aimed at supporting independent and emerging
music, and comparing this with the Anglo - American context.
Therefore start ing from the initial idea of analyzing the music policies adopted by the City
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Council of Milan at a comparative level with other cities, I conducted a pilot study following
the only initiative that at that time (March 2010) the City Council of Milan was o rganizing
aimed at supporting emerging musicians in Milan. This policy initiative, LiveMi, which
comprised public funded music performances of emerging artists in the city centre metro
station, ended up being a simple rebranding strategy aimed at re - imagin ing the city and
particularly the mayor as music - friendly in view of future elections.
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When I started to analyze my pilot study data , I began to see difficulty in working at a
comparative level between the British and the Italian context. In Milan there was no
awareness at an institutional level of the economic and cultural value of local music and of
possible ways of fostering the local music industry. I actually started to realize that while
classical music was funded for its cultural value, while main major mainstream popular music
acts were organized being a possible source of attractiveness to re - imagine the city and to

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My post-graduate thesis deals with a case of gentrification in a urban area of Pietrasanta (Milan), and is titled
Cultura e tessuto urbano: casi milanesi di gentrification (Culture and urban environment: case studies of
gentrification in Milan).
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The res ults of the pilot study are only partly contained in the PhD thesis, but they have been published in
Tarassi, S. 2011. LiveMI: Popular Music Policies and Urban Regeneration. Avalaible at:
h ttp://www.comunicazionisocialionline.it/2011/5/9/ .
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The data of the pilot study were collected conducted by using a qualitative methodology The case study
LiveMi was analyzed through a qualitative methodology. Ten events of LiveMi were held on Saturdays f rom 13
March to 8 May 2010: during this period, 26 semi - structured interviews were conducted to musicians,
councillors and organizers involved. Furthermore, participant observation was conducted to understand the role
of music performances In transforming subway stations into lively and sociable places for music consumption
and performance.
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increase tourism, while emerging artists were in the case of the pilot study primarily
supported as way of supporting social youth, there was a sort of ‘no man’s land’ which was
constituted by the independent music sector and which was no object of any public funding
and of any music policy. There was no interest in promoting a sector which was independent
by definition.
All these cases suggested me the need to change the perspective of my research project and
reframe it to try to understand how the independent live music sector was kept going despite
and the lack of support, and in some cases negative (non) interventions, of the City Council.
In focusing on the social problems of live music in the city I was then able to asses my new
research problem: how to deal with the fragmented and complex nature of activities and
relationships existing in the independent live music sector in Milan? How to consider
‘external’ interactions existing with the City Council and the music industry? How to look at
the ways local factors can shape or be shaped by the independent live music sector?
This pilot study has therefore been a starting point for considering the importance of
analyzing the actual interactions and activities existing within the independent music sector as
crucial starting point for the thesis.

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