With just four record companies controlling nearly 80 per cent of the world market in popular music, issues of globalization are evidently significant to our understanding of how and why popular music is made and distributed. As transnational industries seek to open up increasingly larger markets, the question of how local and regional music cultures can be sustained is a pressing one. To what extent does the global music market offer opportunities for the worldwide dissemination of local music within and beyond the major industry? The essays in this volume examine the structure and strategies of the transnational music industry, with its deployment of mass communication technologies including sound carriers, satellite broadcasting and the Internet. The book also explores local and individual experience of global music and this music's dissemination through migration and communities of interest, as well as the ideological and political use of different kinds of music. In contrast to recent arguments which posit an American imperialist dominance of popular music, the contributors to this volume find that the global repertoire of the major labels no longer represents the culture of a certain country but is fed by different sources. The essays here discuss how we can characterize this vast de-centered industry, and offer perspectives on the so-called 'international repertoire' that calls for a melodic structure, ballad forms, unaccented vocalisation and an image that has global recognition.

With just four record companies controlling nearly 80 per cent of the world market in popular music, issues of globalization are evidently significant to our understanding of how and why popular music is made and distributed. As transnational industries seek to open up increasingly larger markets, the question of how local and regional music cultures can be sustained is a pressing one. To what extent does the global music market offer opportunities for the worldwide dissemination of local music within and beyond the major industry? The essays in this volume examine the structure and strategies of the transnational music industry, with its deployment of mass communication technologies including sound carriers, satellite broadcasting and the Internet. The book also explores local and individual experience of global music and this music's dissemination through migration and communities of interest, as well as the ideological and political use of different kinds of music. In contrast to recent arguments which posit an American imperialist dominance of popular music, the contributors to this volume find that the global repertoire of the major labels no longer represents the culture of a certain country but is fed by different sources. The essays here discuss how we can characterize this vast de-centered industry, and offer perspectives on the so-called 'international repertoire' that calls for a melodic structure, ballad forms, unaccented vocalisation and an image that has global recognition.

In der ersten Dekade des neuen Jahrtausends war Balkanmusik auf den Weltmusikfestivals, in den Jazzclubs und Tanzlokalen OEsterreichs allgegenwartig. Ein musikalischer Balkanboom hatte das Land erfasst. Doch wie kam es dazu? Welche Voraussetzungen waren noetig, damit sich Balkanmusik im oesterreichischen Musikleben etablieren konnte? Detailreich zeichnen die AutorInnen dieses Buches die Geschichte der Balkanmusik in OEsterreich seit 1990 nach. Dabei wird deutlich, dass es nicht nur professioneller MusikerInnen und der Unterstutzung am Musikmarkt bedurfte, sondern auch einer spezifischen Prasentationsform, die in der oesterreichischen Mehrheitsgesellschaft Resonanz erzeugte.

Am Beispiel musikalischer Vorlieben wird gezeigt, was eine Soziologie des Geschmacks leistet. Ausgehend von der klassischen Fragestellung der Musikasthetik, wie Urteile uber Musik zu begrunden seien, gelangt der Autor zu einer Definition des Musikgeschmacks, in der nicht nur die psychologischen Aspekte Berucksichtigung finden, sondern auch seine Funktion in sozialen Strategien thematisiert wird. Die zentralen, auf den Arbeiten von Pierre Bourdieu, Gerhard Schulze und US-amerikanischen Kultursoziologen basierenden Thesen werden am verfugbaren empirischen Material uberpruft. Die Analysen laufen letztendlich auf die paradoxe Feststellung hinaus, dass unter den aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Umstanden gerade die Uberschreitung von Geschmacksgrenzen, also ein breiter Geschmack, zur Grundlage der Reproduktion gesellschaftlicher Ungleichheiten wird."