Hey DJ, don’t stop the music: Institutional work and record pooling practices in the United States’ music industry

Abstract

Heeding calls to generate a creative synthesis between business history and organisation studies, this article analyses the emergence, institutionalisation and digitalisation of record pooling practices through the lens of institutional work. By developing an ‘analytically structured history’, this article contributes to the field of business history by demonstrating the value of practice and boundary work as organising categories. Practice and boundary work capture the continuous, recursive relations between structure and agency when constructing narrative explanations. It also contributes to neo-institutionalist history by demonstrating the embeddedness of institutional work – the everyday motivations and actions to revise practices and boundaries are shown to be intimately shaped by the conditions and affordances of historically-situated technologies.

Keywords:

• Neo-institutionalist history
• practice and boundary work
• record pooling
• music industry

Notes

1. Negus, Producing Pop.

2. In general, performing DJs are different than radio DJs in that they do not simply compile recordings for radio, but perform live using an artistic style called ‘turntablism’. Turntablism uses a DJ mixer, an amplifier, speakers, and various other pieces of electronic music equipment to enact various techniques, such as ‘scratching’ and ‘beat juggling’, to create a unique sound by the combining sounds of two separate songs. Moreover, a performing DJ is not the same as a producer of a music track, although there is considerable overlap between the two.

3. Judy Weinstein (famous record pool director and manager) explained: ‘I got the McFadden and Whitehead record Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now by mistake, in a box of some other records. I thought it was great, brought it to [influential DJ] Larry Levan at the [Paradise] Garage, and said, “You’ve got to hear this.” Then Frankie Crocker [DJ at New York’s WBLS] walked into the club that night, took that record off the turntable, and it became his theme song. That’s how the Record Pool could break a record.’

4. Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

5. Brewster and Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.

6. Negus, “The Work of Cultural Intermediaries.”

7. Record pooling was recently showcased in the Netflix series The Get Down, an American musical drama set in the South Bronx in 1977. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Get_Down

8. Clark and Rowlinson, “The Treatment of History”; Godfrey et al., “What is Organizational History?”

9. MacLean, Harvey, and Clegg, “Conceptualizing Historical.”

10. Rowlinson and Hassard, “Historical Neo-institutionalism.”

11. Rowlinson, Hassard, and Decker, “Research Strategies.”

12. Lawrence and Suddaby, “Institutions and Institutional Work,” 215.

13. Ibid.

14. Godfrey et al., ‘What is Organizational History?

15. Rowlinson and Hassard, “Historical Neo-institutionalism.”

16. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies.”

17. Lawrence, Leca, and Zilber, “Institutional Work”; Smets, Morris, and Greenwood, “From Practice to Field.”

18. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies.”

19. Jones and Massa, “From Novel Practice”; Raviola and Norbäck, “Bringing Technology”; Gawer and Phillips, “Institutional Work.”

20. Jones and Massa, “From Novel Practice”; Raviola and Norbäck, “Bringing Technology”; Gawer and Phillips, “Institutional Work.”

21. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies”; Rowlinson and Hassard, “Historical Neo-institutionalism.”

22. Meyer and Rowan, “Institutionalized Organisations”; DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited” ; Tolbert and Zucker, “Institutional Sources of Change” ; Ranson, Hinings, and Greenwood, “The Structuring of Organisational Structures” ; I define an organisational field following DiMaggio and Powell as ‘sets of organisations that, in the aggregate, constitute a recognised area of institutional life; key suppliers, resource and product consumers, regulatory agencies, and other organisations that produce similar services or products’.

23. Scott, Institutions and Organizations, 48.

24. Meyer and Rowan, “Institutionalized Organizations,” 341.

25. DiMaggio and Powell, “Introduction,” 9.

26. See Buckley, Cross, and Horn, “Japanese Foreign Direct Investment.”

27. Such as McGaughey, “Institutional Entrepreneurship”; Recent studies have conceptualised institutions cooperative banking practices in Haiti’s nascent banking field (Cruz et al., 2015 ), harvesting practices in the British Columbia coastal forest industry – Zietsma and Lawrence, “Institutional Work” and changing teaching and research practices in universities – Granqvist and Gustafsson, ‘Temporal Institutional Work.” This concentration on institutions at the organisational field level focuses analytical attention on concrete practice and boundary work by interacting individuals and organisation, but does not preclude bringing in broader societal institutions, such as labour market or international banking rules, where they are relevant.

28. DiMaggio, “Interest and Agency”; Hardy and Maguire, “Institutional Entrepreneurship.”

29. Beckert, “Agency, Entrepreneurs, and Institutional Change”; Greenwood and Suddaby, “Institutional Entrepreneurship”; Hensmans, “Social Movement Organizations”; Garud, Hardy and Maguire, “Institutional Entrepreneurship.”

30. Lawrence and Suddaby, “Institutional Work” and “Institutions and Institutional Work.”

31. Zietsma and Lawrence, “Institutional Work”; Smets et al., “From Practice to Field.”

32. Lamont and Molnar, “The Study of Boundaries,” 168.

33. Ibid.

34. Gieryn, “Boundary-work.”

35. Ibid.

36. Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes.”

37. Jones, “Finding a Place in History.”

38. Whittington, “The Practice Turn”; Miettinen, Samra-Fredericks and Yanow, “Re-turn to Practice.”

39. Schatzki, “On Organizations as They Happen.”

40. Jarzabkowski, “Strategy as Practice”; Nicolini, Practice Theory.

41. Schatzki, “A Primer on Practices” and The Site of the Social.

42. Smets et al., “From Practice to Field.”

43. See Zietsma and Lawrence, “Institutional Work.”

44. MacLean et al., “Conceptualizing Historical.”

45. Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies.”

46. Roe, Waller and Clegg, Time in Organizational Research.

47. MacLean et al., “Conceptualizing Historical,” 610.

48. ABC, CBS, EMI, PolyGram, RA and Warner Communications.

49. Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

50. Melting Pot, “NAAD Members Soon a Must.” 1975, 6–7.

51. McCloy quoted in Melting Pot, “NAAD Members Soon a Must.” 1975, 6–7.

52. D’Acquisto quoted in Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

53. Mancuso quoted in Brewster and Broughton, The Record Players.

54. D’Acquisto quoted in Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

55. Benford and Snow, “Framing Processes.”

56. Brewster and Broughton, The Record Players.

57. Mancuso quoted in Szathmary and Truscott, “Inside the Disco Boom,” Village Voice 1975 .

58. Jones, “Finding a Place.”

59. 12th Sun, “Daily Double.” 1975.

60. Interview with Judy Weinstein, Tantum, “She Was There: The Record Pool Founder on Her Life in Music.” 2016.

61. Brewster and Broughton, The Record Players.

62. Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

63. Brewster and Broughton, The Record Players, 130.

64. Aletti, “Disco File,” Record World 1975, 190.

65. Ibid.

66. Gieryn, “Boundary-work”; Suddaby and Greenwood, “Rhetorical Strategies.”

67. Mancuso quoted in Szathmary and Truscott, “Inside the Disco Boom,” Village Voice 1975 .

68. Mancuso quoted in Brewster and Broughton, The Record Players.

69. Mancuso quoted in Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

70. Brewster and Broughton, The Record Players.

71. Szathmary and Truscott, “Inside the Disco Boom,” Village Voice 1975 .

72. Interview with Judy Weinstein, Tantum, “She Was There: The Record Pool Founder on Her Life in Music.” 2016.

73. Lawrence, Love Saves the Day.

74. Brewster and Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.

75. Billboard, “Closer Industry Unity is Attempted by Pocono Pool,” 1978, 71.

76. Billboard, “Hot Seat Session Sizzles on Spirited Topic,” 1978, 58.

77. Ibid.

78. Ibid.

79. Billboard, “Pool Members Advised to ‘Clean House’ at Conclave,” 1979, 63.

80. Billboard, “Pools Lacking Unity,” 1980.

81. Lawrence and Suddaby, “Institutions and Institutional Work.”

82. Penchansky, “Maturity Brings New Challenges to Flourishing Dance Industry,” Billboard, March 1979, 76; Interview with Judy Weinstein, Tantum (2016), 47.

83. Billboard, “Pools Lacking Unity,” 1980, 76.

84. Penchansky, “Maturity Brings New Challenges to Flourishing Dance Industry,” Billboard, March 1979, 76.

85. Billboard, “Pools Lacking Unity,” 1980, 47.

86. Billboard, “Pool Members Advised to ‘Clean House’ at Conclave,” 1979, 76.

87. McCloy quoted in “Discos Move Ahead to Changing Beat,” Billboard 1979, 13.

88. Billboard, “Discos Move Ahead to Changing Beat,” 1979, 13.

89. Radcliffe, “Pool Service Closer Ties to Company Promotion,” Billboard 1982, 56.

90. Billboard, “Positive Voice: Judy Weinstein,” 1980, 59.

91. Ibid.

92. Katz, Groove Music.

93. Brewster and Broughton, Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.

94. Jones and Massa, “From Novel Practice”; Raviola and Norbäck, “Bringing Technology”; Gawer and Phillips, “Institutional Work.”

95. Wikström, The Music Industry.

96. Peck, “Out of the Groove.” Cueing involves preparing one record to mix in with another by matching tempo, musical phrasing, or similar musical properties. Beat juggling manipulates two or more sounds using pauses, scratching, backspins, and delays in order to create a unique composition.

97. Interview with XClass.

98. Ibid.

99. I use the DJs’ calling names here as this is their preference.

100. Smets et al., “From Practice to Field.”

101. Interview with Corey Llewellyn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSuwxABR08w).

102. Interview with Quickie.

103. Interview with Phenom.

104. Interview with Quickie.

105. Ibid.

106. Interview with Corey Llewellyn (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSuwxABR08w).

107. Crosley, “Real Talk.”

108. Ibid.

109. Interviews with Phenom, Quickie and XClass; Crosley, “Real Talk.”

110. Interview with XClass.

111. Interview with Phenom.

112. Ibid.

113. Bruno, “Digital Offers New Digital Means.”

114. Market Wire, “Digiwaxx Media Partners With Technology Giant Microsoft to Enhance Zune’s Reach to Urban Music Tastemakers,” May 1 2007.

115. .Interview with Phenom.

116. Although the creation of record pooling was heavily influenced by disco as a genre, most digital record pools try to service all the needs of DJs by providing selection of many genres. However, there are variations among them with some having more promotions from country, rock or hip hop.

117. MacLean et al., “Conceptualizing Historical.”

118. Godfrey et al., “What is Organizational History?”; Rowlinson et al., “Research Strategies.”

119. MacLean et al., “Conceptualizing Historical.”

120. Jones and Massa, “From Novel Practice”; Raviola and Norbäck, “Bringing Technology”; Gawer and Phillips, “Institutional Work.”

121. O’Mahony and Bechky, “Boundary Organizations.”

122. Lawrence and Suddaby, “Institutions and Institutional Work.”