Alexandros Baltzis

Εδώ και πάνω από τριάντα χρόνια καταγράφονται στη διεθνή βιβλιογραφία προσπάθειες να καταστούν λειτουργικές οι έννοιες της καινοτομίας και της ποικιλομορφίας στη μουσική, χωρίς ακόμη να έχει επιτευχθεί ομοφωνία. Η ανάγκη να προσδιοριστούν οι έννοιες αυτές προέκυψε από την ανάπτυξη εμπειρικών ερευνών με στόχο να ελεγχθούν ισχυρισμοί και υποθέσεις που διατυπώθηκαν κατά καιρούς για τη βιομηχανία των ηχογραφημάτων. Σήμερα, η σχετική συζήτηση διεξάγεται με νέα δεδομένα: σύγκλιση διαφορετικών μέσων και μορφών επικοινωνίας, συγκρότηση παγκόσμιων βιομηχανικών συμπλεγμάτων πολυμέσων, αναδιοργάνωση και συνέργεια των επιμέρους τομέων τους (συμπεριλαμβανομένης της μουσικής), νέοι κύκλοι συγκέντρωσης των μέσων επικοινωνίας, εναλλακτικές δυνατότητες παραγωγής, πρωτοφανείς δυνατότητες αποδιαμεσολάβησης, μεταβολές στους κοινωνικούς ρόλους των μουσικών, καθώς μεταβάλλονται οι σχέσεις τους με τη βιομηχανία ηχογραφημάτων, η πρόσβασή τους σε πολιτισμικούς πόρους, αλλά και στα ακροατήρια, εξέλιξη της πρόσβασης στη μουσική, εξέλιξη των χρήσεων και της πρόσληψής της.

Σε αυτές τις συνθήκες, αποκτά ιδιαίτερη σημασία ο έλεγχος των υποθέσεων περί πολιτιστικής ομογενοποίησης και συντηρητισμού, αλλά και περί συμβολής της βιομηχανίας ηχογραφημάτων στον εκδημοκρατισμό της καλλιτεχνικής επικοινωνίας, στον εμπλουτισμό και την ανάπτυξη του μουσικού πολιτισμού και της κουλτούρας.

Στην ανακοίνωση παρουσιάζεται η πολυπλοκότητα του προβλήματος για την ποικιλία και την ποικιλομορφία (και κατ' επέκταση για την καινοτομία), εστιάζοντας στην περίπτωση της βιομηχανίας των ηχογραφημάτων. Στόχοι της ανακοίνωσης είναι αφενός να συνοψίσει τις μέχρι τώρα προσεγγίσεις και να επεκτείνει τη συζήτηση για τις μεθόδους διερεύνησης, και αφετέρου να συμβάλει στη διαμόρφωση της θεματολογίας του ερευνητικού δικτύου για τη μουσική βιομηχανία, εστιάζοντας στην ελληνική περίπτωση, για την οποία δεν εντοπίζονται ανάλογες μελέτες.

The view about music as a science is analyzed in a sociological perspective. This view is maintained by the need to overcome a main stereotype that appears to be dominant during modernity. It is the cliché about art as luxury. The article argues that alienated social relations in cultural life generate both this cliché and the view about music as a science. They both have serious negative implications for the musical education and for the cultural life in general (particularly in Greece). In this context, the article analyzes the paradoxes of the musical education in Greece. It emphasizes on the fact that the cultural and the educational policy are based on the stereotype about the arts as luxury. This fact is verified by the data collected from a field research in institutes of music education and by a quantitative analysis of the public music schools curriculum. Finally, the article argues that contemporary cultural development requires a type of educational and cultural policy th...

This paper - which presents only a part from a broader research - analyzes the dominant institutions of private music education in Greece from 1971 to 2000 (conservatories and private music schools). The analysis extends to the social groups involved in this particular institution of Greek musical life, with an emphasis on the educators. The second part presents the results of a sociological research carried out on 20 institutes of music education in 9 prefectures of Northern Greece. Two types of questionnaire were used along with the method of participant observation. The structural changes of the social groups involved in this important institution (its history is longer than 130 years) have not been clarified so far. Moreover, most of the features of these social groups are still unknown. This shortcoming could hardly prevent mistakes in music education policy with unpredictable effects on the musical culture in Greece. Even though it is clearly stated that further analysis and r...

Ample evidence suggests that people prefer types of music that allow them to portray an image to others, yet less is known about the process through which listeners’ characteristics influence musical preferences. This study, therefore, examined the association between values and musical preferences, and whether uses of music mediate, at least in part, this association in a sample of 364 participants. Multiple regressions revealed that values contributed differentially to the prediction of musical preferences. We also found that cognitive use of music partially mediated the association between openness to change values and preferences for music emphasizing both complexity and rebelliousness. Moreover, the association between conservation values, as well as self-transcendence values, and a preference for music emphasizing positive emotions was partially mediated by emotional use of music. These findings underscore the importance of accounting for specific uses of music when examining ...

In the last decades various social movements developed, the international movement against the neoliberal globalization being their spearhead. In the international and local literature very little can be found about the functions of the arts in the context of these movements. On the other hand, the dominant mass media treat the arts in the context either of the infotainment, or of the mainly escapist forms of entertainment. In this way they support and reproduce certain notions about the artistic communication and its functions, as well as about the social roles of the artists in modern developed societies. This feature is embedded in the latent cultural agenda of the dominant mass media. However, using photography, music, performing arts and several other forms of artistic expression, many artists involved in various social movements express and they state with their practice a different notion about the functions of the art, contrasting the ideas disseminated by the dominant media...

This study examines the particular interest in the diversity and otherness shown for several years now by the global cultural industries - with the multimedia industry being their spearhead. This interest can be better understood in the context of the globalized market of cultural goods. The article argues that although to the listener's ear or the viewer's eye reaches an unprecedented diversity of cultural and artistic products, it still stays out of the sight and systematically suppressed the fact that the terms and the conditions of this achievement keep functioning at the expense of the less developed societies and the less favored social strata (in the economic, social and cultural sense). At the same time, the illusion about art as a universal or global "language" that might resolve more easily the asymmetries and the social contradictions of our time is supported by artistic means too. Finally, the study argues that these developments might advance a policy ...

The paper focuses on some aspects of the complex relation between music as collective action and politics. It analyses certain functions of the major institutions for production, dissemination and reception of music in the context of the structuring and reproduction of cultural hegemony. It gives emphasis to issues concerning the management of innovation and cultural diversity, as well as to the global aspects of the cultural hegemony worldwide. In this context, the paper introduces a brief review of the discussion on the political consequences of the strategy and the tactics implemented by the major recording industry in an environment where major changes in the mass media occur and new forms of social interaction appear. The paper suggests that the contemporary issues at stake concern the cultural policy both on a local and a global level.

The disparities and the ambivalence of the music industries are the focus of this paper where the recording industry is considered a part of a larger system within the socio-economic formation. Taking into account the facets of the production of culture, the intention is not to examine a sector in its particularity, but a system revealing the contradictions of the socio-economic formation. Hence, the micro-level is seen through a societal perspective. In the first part, the notion of a single music industry is challenged based on relevant arguments developed over the past decades (especially by Williamson and Cloonan). The functions of this notion when used in the public sphere, are briefly explained and it is outlined a far more complicated and contradictory system of music industries, adding to the existing literature and discussion. Considering the realities of the production and circulation of music, relevant research, and the uses of the notion of a single industry, the paper i...

Objective: The international university ranking lists as reported in the public discourse in Greece, fuel arguments for making important decisions about higher education. This paper detects the main principles of these lists and their methodological problems. It also analyzes their reconstruction by the mass media to highlight the ways that the issues on the universities reform are included in their agenda influencing the public debate, as well as the attitudes of various fragments of the academic community, and contributing to the reorganization of the higher education system. Methods: The most publicized ranking systems and their basic methodological problems were analyzed, considering the relevant literature and research. The ways in which these rankings were presented in the public discourse during the last two years have been analyzed, focusing on the daily and weekly press. The quantitative and qualitative methods of content and critical discourse analysis were employed, and i...

"This is a review of the web radio and the research in this field from a perspective focused on the specific relation between radio and musical culture. The review identifies the main issues and presents the debates and the rationale of the empirical research on internet radio developed since the mid '90s. It underlines the subjects open to inquiry and suggests future directions of research. It also argues that the range of the issues, the number of the disciplines involved, the permanence of the debates and the inquiries, and the multiple directions in which future research might develop, show that the web radio is not a passing or circumstantial field. This is valid especially for those who maintain that the content specificity, the mode of its production, and a specific relation with the musical culture, define what radio is rather than transmission technologies. The study highlights the cultural importance of the RF radio, its catalytic impact on musical culture, and outlines the peculiarities of the Greek case from this point of view. It argues that this might be a framework for analyzing internet radio. In the same line of argument, the study includes also a critical review of several sociological approaches concerning the construction of culture by the RF radio as well as its construction by the culture (Adorno, Hirsch, Peterson, Hennion, and Negus). It concludes that the web radio challenges these approaches while its relation with the musical culture is still open to exploration. The analysis arrives at the conclusion, that while several studies have identified new trends and possibilities in this direction, the research has not yet gone far enough. As a result, although the internet radio does not seem to disrupt the relation with the musical culture, the peculiarities and extend of its impact have not been clarified yet while a re-examination and eventually a revision of the approaches challenged is still absent. Finally, the paper argues that research in this direction is crucial because it might lead to an enrichment of major theories and basic assumptions about both the production of culture and the culture of production."

This introduction outlines the main features of Walker's approach and analysis of the complex interactions between the visual arts and the mass communication phenomena. Although during the '70s and the '80s several researchers focused on this field of research, it remains hardly investigated. The introduction explores Walker's analysis in the context of the development of various approaches to the visual arts emphasizing its sociological aspects that are evident in this work. Finally, it underlines the significance of Walker's approach and the main directions for future research in the sociology of the arts. The paper argues that the scope of the research and the range of the issues not only have not been exhausted since Walker's book was published, but they become ever wider due to the new developments in mass communication by the beginning of the 21st century that have a significant impact on the visual arts.

Η έκθεση παρουσιάζει τα αποτελέσματα από την πρώτη ποσοτική έρευνα για τους εικαστικούς καλλιτέχνες στη χώρα μας, η οποία πραγματοποιήθηκε σε συνεργασία με τον Μητροπολιτικό Οργανισμό Μουσείων Εικατικών Τεχνών Θεσσαλονίκης (MOMus). Περιλαμβάνει πέντε θεματικές ενότητες: δημογραφικά χαρακτηριστικά και κοινωνική σύνθεση, εκπαίδευση (καλλιτεχνική και μη καλλιτεχνική), επαγγελματικό και εργασιακό προφίλ, συνθήκες εργασίας και συνθήκες διαβίωσης, καθώς και ερωτήσεις αναφορικά με απόψεις και αναπαραστάσεις των εικαστικών (βαθμός ικανοποίησης και αισιοδοξίας, και άλλες).

Στην έρευνα έλαβαν μέρος 591 εικαστικοί καλλιτέχνες (38% άνδρες, 62% γυναίκες), η ηλικία των οποίων κυμαίνεται κυρίως από 32 έως 57 ετών. Με διάστημα εμπιστοσύνης 95%, το περιθώριο σφάλματος υπολογίζεται στο ±3,82%. Στο συγκεκριμένο δείγμα αντιπροσωπεύονται όλα τα στάδια της κοινωνικής και εργασιακής διαδρομής, ενώ το ερωτηματολόγιο κάλυψε όλες τις διαστάσεις των συνθηκών εργασίας και διαβίωσης, υιοθετώντας κατάλληλα προσαρμοσμένες και εμπλουτισμένες τις μεθόδους που εφαρμόζονται σε παρόμοιες έρευνες τόσο σε άλλες χώρες, όσο και από διεθνείς οργανισμούς και τη EUROSTAT.

Τα ευρήματα συνάδουν με αποτελέσματα ερευνών σε άλλες αναπτυγμένες χώρες, όπου διαπιστώνεται ότι οι εικαστικοί καλλιτέχνες ανήκουν στις λιγότερο ευνοημένες και ευάλωτες κοινωνικές κατηγορίες, καθώς εργάζονται κάτω από ιδιαίτερα δυσμενείς συνθήκες και έχουν αξιοσημείωτα χαμηλά εισοδήματα, παρά το γεγονός ότι πρόκειται για πληθυσμό με αρκετά υψηλή ειδίκευση, ο οποίος εκτός από τις καλλιτεχνικές, συνήθως έχει και άλλες πανεπιστημιακές σπουδές και είναι ιδιαίτερα γλωσσομαθής. Από την έρευνα προκύπτει ότι η θεσμική κατοχύρωση και η προστασία της εργασίας και του έργου των εικαστικών καλλιτεχνών, χρειάζονται ουσιαστική αναθεώρηση και αναβάθμιση.