by Author Nick Wilsdon

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Is Austerity Killing Creativity?

Youth Music’s Nick Wilsdon reflects on the University of East London’s ‘Music, Creativity and Capitalism’ conference

For the last year or so, the Centre for Cultural Studies Research at University of East London have provided an exciting platform for discussion in the form of their Music, Politics and Agency Seminars, covering a smorgasbord of topics from ‘Gender, Sexuality and Sound’ to ‘Sonic Radicalism’. Youth Music was pleased to be invited to take part in this fourth instalment, with Research and Evaluation Specialist Douglas Lonie taking part in a panel discussion about ‘Musicianship, Capitalism and Cultural Policy’. 

Some of the key themes emerging with regards to cultural policy were around how changes in government can result in changes to how funding is made available to musicians (through both public and private means).  In an era of spending cuts the panel discussed whether non-traditional forms of music will continue to receive funding, and if innovation will continue to be supported. Whilst the value of an outcomes approach was noted by the some on the panel, it was also recognised that in the current political climate there is a constant pressure on artists to justify their work and demonstrate its impact to funders. This raised a question as to whether a focus on the results of funding is dominating over an exploration and understanding of the process and value of music making.

Tim Lawrence expanded the debate by reading from his forthcoming book on the downtown New York Disco Scene from 1979-1984.  This encouraged a stimulating debate about the ability of artists to bring about the regeneration of a less salubrious area of a city, often creating scenes that thrive to the point that they can no longer afford to inhabit the vibrant cultural centres they helped create. This raised yet further discussion about whether artists should be more aware of the potential impact of their practice within confined localities. 

The closing session was a discussion between Mark Fisher (author ‘Capitalist Realism’) and Jeremy Gilbert (author of ‘Anticapitalism and Culture’). Commencing with the provocation that “the rate of innovation in music culture has gone into massive decline since 2000” – Fisher began by laying out seven factors he saw as directly contributing to this. Some elements echoed discussion from earlier in the day - decreasing welfare state, rise of property prices –suggesting that the ‘work to live’ model is ultimately counterproductive to creativity.

It was also argued that the rise of technology has impacted on several elements of music making, for example that the mp3 has led to the de-commodification of music, and equally, changing attention spans and access to technology has dramatically altered the way we consume music. To put it more concisely, Fisher quoted Simon Reynolds: “Everyday life has sped up, but culture has slowed down.” This is of course propped up by the austerity ideology demanding that we should not waste time and we should not waste money. More generally, Fisher detailed what he described as the Cyberspace Time-Crisis – that music scenes that can be supported within a locality cannot live and flourish to the same extent whilst hosted online and do not yield the same experimentation, collaboration or influence.

The discussion that grew from this raised some stark but fascinating questions, not least the suggestion that “maybe capitalism doesn’t need culture anymore?” This particularly referenced the wealth of music available to the consumer, and the idea that the music industry (in its broadest sense) is now supporting the circulation of culture, rather than the production of culture. Undoubtedly the discussions could have continued long into the night – indeed we had already overrun by a good half hour and the enthusiasm of the audience and panel did not seem to be waning.

Although there were moments throughout the day where a variety of bleak outcomes for the future of music as an industry were hinted at, the passion for music as an art form were self-evident. Throughout all the discussion the question raised at the beginning of the day remained.  There is obviously a very complex relationship between capitalism and how music is made and consumed, but is austerity really killing creativity?  And if so, what can we do about it?

A special thanks to Jimmy Seagull for supplying the artwork that accompanies this blog.