See the Sound, Hear the Style: Collaborative Linkages between Indie Musicians and Fashion Designers in Local Scenes

Abstract

Although economic geographers have paid significant attention to the competitive dynamics, organizational and employment structures of specific cultural industries, the existing research privileges large firms and established centres such as New York, London and Los Angeles. Moreover, despite the conceptual articulations of spillovers and “related variety” few attempts have been made to examine the collaborative linkages between two or more related industries and, more specifically, how changing macro-economic forces are affecting individual producers at the local scale. In this paper we address these gaps and argue that the growing prevalence of independent production is transforming the nature of the long-standing connection between music and fashion. Specifically, that strategic collaborations between indie producers are becoming crucial to competing in the contemporary landscape of cultural production and consumption. We also assert that the motivations and mechanisms of these contemporary collaborations differ from their historical counterparts in important ways. Indeed technological advancements and the demands of indie production are changing the networking practices that facilitate these partnerships and the ways in which indie producers value and exchange goods and services.

Keywords:

• Strategic collaborations
• independent cultural production
• music, fashion

Notes

¹ Cited at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford

² Cited at http://wiki.gmnext.com/wiki/index.php/1924,_%22A_Car_for_Every_Purse_and_Purpose%22

³ Although spheres of related sonic and visual styles are often characterized as scenes it is difficult to find a consistent definition of the concept in the literature (Straw, 1991). In this paper we define a scene as a set of related and mutually beneficial cultural performances which spillover and draw inspiration from each other.

⁴ In Canada, for example, 95 per cent of all musicians are not affiliated with a record label and are, therefore, by definition independent (Hracs, 2009).

⁵ The most prominent and lasting of these may be punk. Beginning in London in the 1970s the designer Vivienne Westwood teamed up with marketer Malcolm McLaren, and together they played an important role as creators of the punk scene. The symbolic facets of fashion were accentuated through McLaren's tenacious effort to tie in punk's anti-establishment attitude with matching clothes, mainly through his role as manager for the Sex Pistols. The result was a fashion style closely associated with the music scene (Hebdige, 1979; Breward, 2003; Breward et al., 2004).

⁶ True to their name, “The Magic” entertained the audience with their sonic and visual performance, which featured original clothing and dancing back-up singers.