Music Exports and Foreign Cultural Policy in France and Spain

Descripción del proyecto

Una nueva geografía de la producción y el consumo de música

Los avances en las plataformas digitales han transformado radicalmente la industria musical. Los canales de distribución han evolucionado desde los discos compactos y los discos de larga duración del pasado hasta los servicios de transmisión en continuo en línea y las redes sociales. El proyecto MEFCPFS, financiado con fondos europeos, estudiará la circulación inmediata y transnacional de la música. También considerará las políticas culturales exteriores de los Estados que, cada vez más, desempeñan un papel crucial en la exportación de música como parte de las estrategias de poder blando. En concreto, el proyecto llevará a cabo un estudio comparativo entre España y Francia, dos naciones no anglófonas con diferentes actitudes hacia el gasto público y el proteccionismo lingüístico. Los hallazgos arrojarán luz sobre la diversidad cultural de la exportación de música.

Objetivo

Digital platforms have dramatically accelerated the global circulation of popular music, creating a new geography of production and consumption in which the so-called ‘language barrier’ between ‘national’ cultures is constantly repositioned. Whilst English has been the dominant language of the global popular music industry since the 1960s, nowadays any artist can speak to a global audience in their own idiom through the use of streaming services and social media. However, despite the apparent immediate and transnational circulation of music, frontiers still exist between countries, and so export remains a crucial category of action for music professionals. Moreover, states’ foreign cultural policies increasingly play a crucial role in music export as part of soft power strategies, thus adapting and contributing to new definitions of national identities. Indeed, whether such policies are related to safeguarding supposedly ‘authentic’ or ‘indigenous’ musics or strengthening the infrastructures of a domestic musical industry, they are confronted with one crucial problem: the meanings and roles ascribed to ‘local’, ‘domestic’, ‘national’, ‘indigenous’ and ‘minorities’ in music. This environment necessitates thorough review of export models applicable to a variety of localised music industries, with a critical approach to contemporary relations between arts and politics. This project aims to examine the nature and characteristics of French and Spanish music export activity within contexts of digitalisation and globalisation, with a specific focus on cultural diversity and a critical stance on the market-driven vision of music export. A comparative study across two non-anglophone nations with official languages of international significance but substantially different attitudes to public spending and linguistic protectionism will serve as a pilot for greater awareness of the social impact of European and global music export.