Despite the growth of digital media, traditional FM radio
airplay still remains the essential way for musicians to achieve
commercial success. "Climbing the Charts" examines how songs rise,
or fail to rise, up the radio airplay charts. Looking at the
relationships between record labels, tastemakers, and the public,
Gabriel Rossman develops a clear picture of the roles of key
players and the gatekeeping mechanisms in the commercial music
industry. Along the way, he explores its massive inequalities,
debunks many popular misconceptions about radio stations' abilities
to dictate hits, and shows how a song diffuses throughout the
nation to become a massive success.
Contrary to the common belief that Clear Channel sees every
sparrow that falls, Rossman demonstrates that corporate radio
chains neither micromanage the routine decision of when to start
playing a new single nor make top-down decisions to blacklist such
politically inconvenient artists as the Dixie Chicks. Neither do
stations imitate either ordinary peers or the so-called kingmaker
radio stations who are wrongly believed to be able to make or break
a single. Instead, Rossman shows that hits spread rapidly across
radio because they clearly conform to an identifiable style or
genre. Radio stations respond to these songs, and major labels put
their money behind them through extensive marketing and promotion
efforts, including the illegal yet time-honored practice of payoffs
known within the industry as payola.
"Climbing the Charts" provides a fresh take on the music
industry and a model for understanding the diffusion of
innovation.
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