Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-l9cl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-06T02:50:40.054Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Re-examining the concept of the ‘independent’ record company: the case of Wax Trax! records

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Stephen Lee
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the American record industry, independent record companies have long held a cultural status that far exceeds the actual economic impact they have in the market-place. Independent record companies, or ‘indies’, have become understood as innovative and creative oases for new or unconventional musicians in the midst of a capital-driven and profit-oriented record business. The development of a wide range of musical genres and styles – from rhythm and blues and soul to punk and industrial – are often attributed to the small companies that operated outside of the control of the larger ‘major’ labels.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 14 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 13 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Castro, J. 1989. ‘Pocketful of stars: Michael Ovitz and his cadre of agents are Hollywood's new power brokers’, Time, 13 02, pp. 58–9Google Scholar
Dannen, F. 1990. Hit Men: Power Brokers and Fast Money Inside the Music Business (New York)Google Scholar
Dyer, R. 1990 (1979). ‘In defense of disco’, in On Record, ed. Frith, Simon and Goodwin, Andrew (New York)Google Scholar
Eagleton, T. 1991. Ideology: An Introduction (London)Google Scholar
Fabrikant, G. 1992. ‘Thorn EMI to buy Virgin records’, New York Times, 7 03, p. 17Google Scholar
Fricke, D. 1991. ‘An earful of wax’, Rolling Stone, 18 04, pp. 37, 38, 104Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1981. Sound Effects: Youth, Leisure and the Politics of Rock 'N' Roll (New York)Google Scholar
Frith, S. 1988. ‘Picking up the pieces’, in Facing the Music, ed. Frith, Simon (New York)Google Scholar
Gillett, C. 1983. The Sound of the City, 2nd ed. (New York)Google Scholar
Goldberg, M. 1990. ‘The next generation: a slew of new labels want to grab a piece of the lucrative record market’, Rolling Stone, 14 06, pp. 15–17Google Scholar
Gray, H. 1990. Producing Jazz: The Experience of an Independent Record Company (Philadelphia)Google Scholar
Greenblatt, S. J. 1990. Learning to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture (New York)Google Scholar
Habermas, J. 1975. Legitimation Crisis (Boston)Google Scholar
Haring, B. 1990. ‘CBS seen near 50% buyout of Important dist.’, Billboard, 7 04, p. 1Google Scholar
Hebdige, D. 1979. Subculture: The Meaning of Style (London)Google Scholar
Jameson, F. 1981. The Political Unconscious (Ithaca)Google Scholar
Lee, S. 1988. ‘The strategy of opposition: defining a music scene’, paper presented at the International Communication Association conference(New Orleans)Google Scholar
Lyotard, J.F. 1987. ‘Judiciousness in dispute, or, Kant after Marx’, in The Aims of Representation: Subject, Text, History, ed. Krieger, Murray (New York)Google Scholar
Marcus, G. 1990. Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock 'N' Roll Music, 3rd ed. (New York)Google Scholar
Marcuse, H. 1978. The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics (Boston)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, T. 1992. ‘On excellence: even when they're big, companies should act small’, San Jose Mercury News, 5 07, p. 2EGoogle Scholar
Peterson, R. 1976a. The Production of Culture (Beverly Hills)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, R. 1976b. ‘The production of culture: a prolegomenon’, in The Production of Culture, ed. Peterson, R. (Beverly Hills)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peterson, R. 1978. ‘The production of cultural change: the case of contemporary country music’, Social Research, 45:2, pp. 292–314Google Scholar
Peterson, R. 1990. ‘Why 1955?’, Popular Music, 9/1, pp. 97–116CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Porter, M.E. 1980. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (New York)Google Scholar
Porter, M.E. 1985. Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance (New York)Google Scholar
Robbins, I. (ed.) 1991. The Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music, 4th ed. (New York)Google Scholar
Schatz, T. 1981. Hollywood Genres: Formulas, Filmmaking and the Studio System (New York)Google Scholar
Shermel, S. and Krasilovsky, M.W. 1985. This Business of Music (New York)Google Scholar
Vale, V. and Juno, A. (eds) 1982. ‘William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin and throbbing gristle’, RE/Search, 4/5 (San Francisco)Google Scholar
Vale, V. and Juno, A. (eds) 1983. ‘Industrial culture handbook’, RE/Search, 6/7 (San Francisco)Google Scholar
Wallis, R. and Malm, K. 1984. Big Sounds from Small Peoples (London)Google Scholar
Watrous, P. 1992. ‘The pop life: suddenly there's big money in alternative rock’, New York Times, 22 03, p. 13Google Scholar
Williams, R. 1976. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (New York)Google Scholar