Institutional Economics and the Formation of Preferences: The Advent of Pop Music

175 Pages·2004·3.05 MB·English

by  Wilfred Dolfsma

Institutional Economics and the Formation
of Preferences
NEWHORIZONS IN INSTITUTIONALAND EVOLUTIONARY
ECONOMICS
Series Editor: Geoffrey M. Hodgson
Research Professor, University of Hertfordshire Business School, UK
Economics today is at a crossroads. New ideas and approaches are challenging the
largely static and equilibrium-oriented models that used to dominate mainstream
economics. The study of economic institutions – long neglected in the economics text-
books – has returned to the forefront of theoretical and empirical investigation.
This challenging and interdisciplinary series publishes leading works at the fore-
front of institutional and evolutionary theory and focuses on cutting-edge analyses of
modern socio-economic systems. The aim is to understand both the institutional struc-
tures of modern economics and the processes of economic evolution and development.
Contributions will be from all forms of evolutionary and institutional economics, as
well as from Post-Keynesian, Austrian and other schools. The overriding aim is to
understand the processes of institutional transformation and economic change.
Titles in the series include:
Globalization and Institutions
Redefining the Rules of the Economic Game
Edited by Marie-Laure Djelic and Sigrid Quack
The Evolutionary Analysis of Economic Policy
Edited by Pavel Pelikan and Gerhard Wegner
The Evolution of Scientific Knowledge
Edited by Hans Siggaard Jensen, Lykke Margot Richter and Morten
Thanning Vendelø
Evolutionary Economic Thought
European Contributions and Concepts
Edited by Jürgen G. Backhaus
Economic Institutions and Complexity
Structures, Interactions and Emergent Properties
Karl-Ernst Schenk
The Economic of Knowledge Sharing
ANew Institutional Approch
Edited by Ernst Helmstädter
The Economics of Energy and the Production Process
An Evolutionary Approach
Guido Buenstorf
Institutional Economics and the Formation of Preferences
The Advent of Pop Music
Wilfred Dolfsma
Institutional Economics
and the Formation of
Preferences
The Advent of Pop Music
Wilfred Dolfsma
Economist and Philosopher, Erasmus University, Rotterdam
and University of Maastricht, the Netherlands
NEWHORIZONS IN INSTITUTIONALAND EVOLUTIONARY
ECONOMICS
Edward Elgar
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Wilfred Dolfsma 2004
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
Glensanda House
Montpellier Parade
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 1UA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
136 West Street
Suite 202
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
Acatalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data
Dolfsma, Wilfred.
Institutional economics and the formation of preferences: the advent of pop music/
Wilfred Dolfsma.
p. cm.—(New horizons in institutional and evolutionary economics)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Popular music—Economic aspects. 2. Popular music—Social aspects.
3. Institutional economics. 4. Economics—Sociological aspects. 5. Consumers—
Psychology. I. Title: Advent of pop music. II. Title. III. Series.
ML3470.D64 2004
306.4´8424—dc22
2004041565
ISBN 1 84376 233 1
Typeset by Cambrian Typesetters, Frimley, Surrey
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall
Contents
List of figures viii
List of tables ix
List of boxes x
Preface xi
Acknowledgements xii
1. The amazing advent of pop music 1
2. How notto explain the advent of pop music 18
3. Consuming symbolic goods 36
4. Radio and magazines: valuing pop music through institutional
changes 63
5. Consuming pop music/constructing a life world 94
6. The social construction of value 121
7. Conclusion: forming preferences, valuing pop music 137
References 144
Index 157
vii
Figures
1.1 Astylized picture of the music industry 9
2.1 Different learning paths 24
3.1 The standard prisoner’s dilemma 43
3.2 Why people learn 45
3.3 The social value nexus 49
viii
Tables
1.1 The radio audience for pop music 3
1.2 Sales of LPs and singles, the Netherlands 6
1.3 The ten biggest music markets, 2002 7
1.4 Some economics of pop music 8
A1.1 The five major record companies 16
A1.2 Economies of scope in entertainment industries 17
2.1 Relative prices of LPs and singles compared to the relative
general price and income levels in the Netherlands 20
2.2 The spread of radio, television and record players 21
2.3 Decline of cable radio – ‘draadomroep’ 22
3.1 Socio-cultural values and character ideals in Western Europe,
1965 41
4.1 Tuney Tunespopularity poll, 1961 68
4.2 Categories of radio programmes, Dutch broadcasters, 1958 81
A5.1 Consumers of pop music – the survey 115
A5.2 Group interviews 117
ix
Boxes
1.1 The study of pop music 11
2.1 Does technological change explain the advent of pop music? 21
2.2 Pop music and Baumol’s disease 29
3.1 The mountain of experience: how people learn in a complex,
evolving environment 53
3.2 Values and the Veblenian Dichotomy 57
x
Preface
This text, like a pop song (and its valuation), emanates from a social process.
Every word is ‘mine’, of course, but the influence of others is apparent through
the whole of the text. Influence is not synonymous with responsibility, and so
I should emphasize immediately that I am the only one responsible for the
views expressed and any mistakes or omissions remaining. There are widen-
ing circles of identification and interaction as far as my work on issues related
to this line of research is concerned. Closest are, of course, Paul Bush, Metin
Cos¸gel, John Davis, Mark Granovetter, David George, Geoff Hodgson, Hella
Hoppe, Elias Khalil, Arjo Klamer, Jürgen Lange-von Kulessa, Dick Langlois,
Fieke van der Lecq, Deirdre McCloskey, Lanse Minkler, Bert Mosselmans,
Juliet Schor, Irene van Staveren. A William R. Waters Summer Research
Grant, generously provided by the Association for Social Economics, allowed
me to visit some of them in the summer of 2002 to discuss how best to reori-
ent my argument on institutional economics, consumption theory, values,
rhetoric, and pop music (symbolic goods).
Inspiration and intellectual stimulus have also come from Hans Abbing,
Ash Amin, Ellen Bal, Wim Blauw, Theunis Ijdens, Albert Jolink, Jeroen de
Kloet, Edith Kuiper, Berend Jan Langenberg, Tony Lawson, Judith Mehta,
Monika Mokre, Mary Morgan, Klaus Nielsen, Martha Paas, Ester-Mirjam
Sent, Fred van Raaij, David Throsby, Marc Tool, Ruth Towse, Andrew
Tylecote, Olav Velthuis, Rudi Verburg, Geert de Vries, and Peter-Wim
Zuidhof.
I would like to thank each of them for kind, yet critical comments, and for
their support.
Institutional logic has it that personal remarks come last in the acknowledg-
ments. One should have good reasons to break with well-established institu-
tions, formal or informal – reasons I do not have. Thanks very much to
Marion, Marnix and Jorinde. For being there, and more.
Rotterdam and Maastricht, August 2003 Wilfred Dolfsma
xi