The annual music charts: the communal musical taste mix in Israel

ABSTRACT

Radio is a cultural producer and a main player in the music industry. Radio operates a system that determines which music will be broadcast and which music will not make it ‘on the air,’ functioning as gatekeeper for the general audience. Such a system gives radio significant influence on the music to which listeners are exposed. By way of offering a comprehensive picture of the diverse tastes, styles and trends of popular music in Israel, this article examines the mix of the common musical taste in Israeli society as reflected in the audience votes for the annual music charts that were broadcast on Gal Galatz radio station for 15 years. Findings show that pop music is the most common music in the charts and accounts for 45%, in contrast to rock music, which shows a declining trend. Mediterranean music has grown in popularity in recent years to become an integral part of mainstream music and accounts for a significant proportion of the mix of popular music according to Israeli listeners.

KEYWORDS:

• Israel popular culture
• radio
• music industry
• mass communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Negus, Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, 16.

2. Laor, “Alternative broadcasting? Not here. Educational radio programs,” 20–3; idem, “Journalist 2.0?”

3. Shwiki, “Listening Habits Survey”; Laor, Lissitsa, and Galily, “Online digital Radio Apps Usages in Israel”; Laor, “How Does It Sound? Audiences, broadcasters and managers on visual radio in Israel” and Moshe, Laor and Fridkin, “Gendered Online Listening?”

4. Nielsen, “Music U.S. Report.”

5. Ibid.

6. Adorno and Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry.”

7. Regev, Culture Sociology.

8. Negus, Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, 14.

9. Peterson and Anand, “The Production of Culture Perspective”; Peterson and Berger, “Cycles in Symbol Production”‏; Regev, Culture Sociology.

10. See note 6 above.

11. Ibid.

12. Negus, Music Genres and Corporate Cultures, 47.

13. Peterson and Berger, “Cycles in Symbol Production,” 170.

14. Peterson and Anand, “The Production of Culture Perspective,” 316.

15. Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 37–42.

16. Ahlkvist and Fisher, “And the Hits Just Keep on Coming,” 318–9‏; Lopes, “Innovation and Diversity in the Popular Music Industry”; Peterson and Anand, “The Production of Culture Perspective,” 326–7; Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 37–40.

17. Regev, Culture Sociology, 95–116.

18. Hendy, “Pop Music Radio in the Public Service,” 745–7.‏

19. Peterson and Berger, “Cycles in Symbol Production,” 164–5.

20. Berry and Waldfogel, “Public Radio in the United States,” 192–3; and Lopes, “Innovation and Diversity,” 69–70.

21. Berry and Waldfogel, “Public Radio in the United States,” 209–10.

22. Lee, “Predicting Cultural Output Diversity in the Radio Industry,” 338–40.‏

23. Ahlkvist and Fisher, “Music Programming Standardization”; Hendy, “Pop Music Radio,” 758–60; Lee, “Predicting Cultural Output Diversity,” 333; Lopes, “Innovation and Diversity,” 66; and Peterson and Anand, “The Production of Culture Perspective,” 326–7.

24. Bourdieu, Distinction, 5–6.

25. Hennion, “An Intermediary Between Production and Consumption,” 419.

26. Hendy, “Pop Music Radio,” 745–7; and Rothenbuhler, “Commercial Radio and Popular Music.”‏

27. Jones and Rahn, “Definitions of Popular Music,” 13.

28. Kaplan, “Programming and Editing as Alternative Logics of Music Radio Production,” 761.

29. Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 21.

30. Ibid.; Shuker, Popular Music Culture, 110.

31. Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 21–42.

32. Denzin, “Problems in Analyzing Elements of Mass Culture.”

33. Regev, “Articulate or Hopeless,” 117.

34. Ibid.

35. Bennett, Shank, and Toynbee, The Popular Music Studies Reader, 250; and Frith, “The Industrialization of Popular Music,” 120.

36. Adorno, “On Popular Music.”

37. Ibid.

38. Rothenbuhler, “Commercial Radio and Popular Music,” 78–80.

39. Ahlkvist and Faulkner, “Will this Record Work for Us?” 196–7.

40. Bonet and Fernndez-Quijada, “Public Service Radio Facing the New Competitive Environment in Catalonia,” 5–7; Chapman, “The 1960s Pirates,” 175–6; Kleinsteuber and Sonnenberg, “Beyond Public Service and Private Profit,” 90–1; Larson, “Presidential News Coverage,” 349; Rothenbuhler, “Commercial Radio and Popular Music,” 78–80; and Sabir, “Public Media and Multicultural Globe,” 223.‏

41. Berry and Waldfogel, “Public Radio in the United States,” 190; and Irvine, Nick, “Commercial Radio,” 38–9; and Rothenbuhler, “Commercial Radio,” 125–7.‏

42. Hendy, “Pop Music Radio,” 743; Kemppainen, “Channel Reform of Public Service Radio in the Nordic Countries,” 136‏; and Poindexter, “Radio in Paris,” 263–4.

43. Hendy, “Pop Music Radio,” 743.

44. Moshe, “Right-Wing Pirate Radio Broadcasting in Israel,” 71–2.

45. Sabir, “Public Media and Multicultural,” 236–7.

46. Laor, “The Added Value of College Radio”; and idem, ‘Milestones in the Development of Educational Radio in Israel.”

47. Soffer, Mass communication in Israel, 194–8.

48. Ibid., 194.

49. Soffer, “Galei Tzahal.”

50. Ibid., 97.

51. Regev, “Cultural in the Music Industry in Israel,” 117; and Soffer, Galei Tzahal, 50.

52. Soffer, “Galei Tzahal,” 108–9.

53. Ibid., 49.

54. Kaplan, “Neo-institutional Analysis,” 141–3; and Regev, “Cultural in the Music Industry in Israel,” 117.

55. Kantar, Exposer Data in Journalism and Radio.

56. Kaplan, “The rise in ‘light’ Middle Eastern music,” 141–3.

57. Ibid., 141.

58. Ibid., 153.

59. Ibid., 144.

60. Regev and Seroussi, Popular Music and National Culture in Israel, 26–49.

61. Kaplan, “The Rise in ‘Light’ Middle Eastern Music,” 148–50; and Regev and Seroussi, Popular Music, 26–49.

62. Dunch, “Beyond Cultural Imperialism,” 301–2; Galily and Sheard, “Cultural Imperialism and Sport,” 75–6; and Regev and Seroussi, Popular Music in Israel, 315.

63. Stokes, “Music and the Global Order,” 52.

64. Regev and Seroussi, Popular Music in Israel, 317.

65. Hall, “Encryption Decryption,” 391–2.

66. Ibid., 394.

67. Fiske, “Television: Polysemy and Popularity,” 173.

68. Hall, “Encryption Decryption,” 399–401.

69. Fiske, “Television: Polysemy and Popularity,” 186–7.

70. See note 68 above.

71. Regev and Seroussi, Popular Music in Israel, 26–49.

72. Ahlkvist and Fisher, “Music Programming Standardization,” 314–8; Hendy, “Pop Music Radio,” 745–7; Frith, “The Industrialization of Popular Music,” 49–50; and Peterson and Anand, “The Production of Culture Perspective,” 326–7.

73. Kaplan, “The Rise in ‘Light’ Middle Eastern Music,” 153–5.

74. See note 71 above.

75. See note 55 above.

76. Adorno, “On Popular Music”; and Regev, “Cultural in the Music Industry,” 117.

77. Frith, “The Industrialization of Popular Music,” 49–51; and Shuker, Popular Music Culture, 259.

78. See note 71 above.

79. Ibid.; Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 69.

80. Regev and Seroussi, Popular Music in Israel.

81. Ibid.

82. Ahlkvist and Fisher, “Music Programming Standardization,” 117; Hendy, “Pop Music Radio,” 745–7; Lee, “Predicting Cultural Output Diversity,” 338–9; Lopes, “Innovation and Diversity,” 75–6; and Peterson and Anand, “The Production of Culture Perspective,” 326–7.

83. Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 135–48.

84. See note 71 above.

85. Samuel-Azran, Laor, and Tal, “Who Listens to Podcasts, and Why?”

86. Regev, Rock: Music and Culture, 123.

87. See note 71 above.

88. See note 8 above.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tal Laor

Tal Laor is a Senior Lecturer and Founding Head of ‘Radio, Broadcast and Content Production Studies’ at the School of Communication, Ariel University, Israel.

Yair Galily

Yair Galily is Head of Sport, Media, and Society (SMS) research lab, and Co-head of ssport psychology specialisation, Ivcher school of Psychology, IDC, Israel.