Chapter 1 Table of Contents Chapter 2 Epigraph Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 1 The Struggle for Autonomy Chapter 5 2 Commercial and DIY Labels Chapter 6 3 The Problem of Distribution Chapter 7 4 Punk Labels and Social Class Chapter 8 5 The Dynamics of Record Labels Chapter 9 Conclusion: What about the Music? Chapter 10 Appendix A: Interview with Lengua Armada Chapter 11 Appendix B: Record Labels Interviewed and Statistical Data Chapter 12 Bibliography Chapter 13 Index Chapter 14 About the Author
Alan O'Connor is associate professor in the cultural studies program at Trent University in Canada.
Alan O'Connor's Punk Labels and the Struggle for Autonomy is an
important, detailed, and long overdue account of the business of
hardcore and punk music in North America. By focusing on the
business and personal relationships, and the ethics, that govern
the labels that put out the music, and by telling the story through
personal narratives, O'Connor puts a human face on businesses
integral in the emergence and growth of the hardcore scene.
Particularly significant and groundbreaking in O'Connor's research
is his examination of the relationships among occupation, class,
race, and gender in the American punk scene, and what these
relationships portend for the possibility of social change through
DIY values in punk. Using the work of Pierre Bourdieu as a guide,
this book views the problematic punk identity through the prism of
the labels that produce it and the companies that distribute it,
and it is a must-read for anyone interested in the struggle for
independence in the business of cultural production.
*Holly Kruse, University of Tulsa, author ofSite and Sound:
Understanding Independent Music Scenes*
There is a fascinating amount of history around punk labels written
here and make the book read as well as any historical account of
punk....This book covers it all.
*Equalizing X Distort*
O'COnnor examines how DIY record labels behave socially, then
plots, graphs, and explains his findings. It's an interesting
take.
*Razorcake, December 2008*
O'Connor has come up with an intelligent and insightful analysis on
what makes a DIY Punk Label not just something that exists as a
counter-culture venture sitting outside the recognized music
industry, but something that is the epitome of the Punk movement; a
movement that still has the desire to smash the music industry
rather than be a part of it. . . . The book takes an original and
inspired direction by analysing the social structure of a label and
how each style of label fits into a self-imposed, social Punk Rock
network.
*Scanner Zine, October 18, 2009*
O'Connor's contribution to this scholarship is his emphasis upon
the persistence of such DIY punk-inspired labels during the 1980's
and, perhaps most surprisingly, their enormous growth during the
1990's.
*Journal of Popular Music Studies*
Too many of those writing about punk merely gesture towards
independent labels and their importance. Alan O'Connor delivers the
full and detailed story. Punk Record Labels and the Struggle for
Autonomy is a comprehensive look at what independence means for
punk music in economic, social, and cultural terms. O'Connor has
done his homework, expertly tracing the relationships between
record companies, distributors, musicians and the music press over
a thirty-year period. The book is analytical without being
pedantic, and O'Connor has found a style which is both elegant and
accessible. One of the book's many strengths is the way it brings
the story of punk labels into the present, rather than stopping,
like others do, when punk seemed to lose pre-eminence. O'Connor is
up front about his personal commitments to cultural autonomy, but
never loses his clear-headedness here. The result, in my view, is
the first full-length political economic study of punk music, a
very useful and well-researched work, which is never dull.
*William Straw, professor of communication studies, McGill
University*
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