IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hig/wpaper/71hum2014.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Plastic Beach Utopia: Gorillaz’ Multimedia Concept Project In The Context Of Contemporary Popular Music Culture

Author

Listed:
  • Natalia Samutina

    (National Research University Higher School of Economics)

Abstract

The paper aims to provide analysis of the most general problems of the music industry in the digital age. It poses a question about the possibility of innovation and conceptual development in contemporary popular music, overflowed with retromania. A growing popularity of such form as a “concept album” and its transformation into concept multimedia projects is regarded as a positive sign of the changes in music production and distribution. Detailed cultural analysis of one particular case, the multimedia concept project by the British band Gorillaz, demonstrates how a substantial cultural and musical innovation can exist today in the framework of popular entertainment. The last studio album by Gorillaz, called Plastic Beach (2010) works with the concept of Utopia and utopian imagery, presenting music as a space for free and meaningful collaboration among musicians and for the creation of the diverse community of listeners.

Suggested Citation

  • Natalia Samutina, 2014. "Plastic Beach Utopia: Gorillaz’ Multimedia Concept Project In The Context Of Contemporary Popular Music Culture," HSE Working papers WP BRP 71/HUM/2014, National Research University Higher School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:71hum2014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.hse.ru/data/2014/10/21/1099017110/71HUM2014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian J. Hracs, 2012. "A Creative Industry in Transition: The Rise of Digitally Driven Independent Music Production," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 442-461, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arthur Price, 2016. "Leveraging Technology to Bridge the Gap between Independent Artists and Reaching the Right Consumer," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 2(2), pages 136-160, July.
    2. Amitrajeet A. Batabyal & Peter Nijkamp, 2016. "Digital technologies, knowledge spillovers, innovation policies, and economic growth in a creative region," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(5), pages 470-484, July.
    3. Brian J Hracs & Doreen Jakob & Atle Hauge, 2013. "Standing out in the Crowd: The Rise of Exclusivity-Based Strategies to Compete in the Contemporary Marketplace for Music and Fashion," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(5), pages 1144-1161, May.
    4. Rémy Guichardaz & Laurent Bach & Julien Penin, 2019. "Music industry intermediation in the digital era and the resilience of the Majors’ oligopoly: the role of transactional capability," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(7), pages 843-869, August.
    5. Øiestad, Sara & Bugge, Markus M., 2014. "Digitisation of publishing: Exploration based on existing business models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 54-65.
    6. Boons, Frank & Bocken, Nancy, 2018. "Towards a sharing economy – Innovating ecologies of business models," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 40-52.
    7. Xu Chen & Chunhong Liu & Yao Jiang & Changchun Gao, 2021. "What Causes the Virtual Agglomeration of Creative Industries?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-18, August.
    8. Rémy Guichardaz & Laurent Bach & Julien Penin, 2016. "Music industry intermediation in the digital era and the resilience of the majors’ oligopoly: The role of transactional capabilities," Working Papers of BETA 2016-47, Bureau d'Economie Théorique et Appliquée, UDS, Strasbourg.
    9. Dina Dellyana & Nina Arina & Tribowo Rachmat Fauzan, 2023. "Digital Innovative Governance of the Indonesian Creative Economy: A Governmental Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-14, November.
    10. Messick, Kyle J., 2020. "Metal for the masses: how indie metal labels have adapted for the digital era," OSF Preprints a758b, Center for Open Science.
    11. Robin Steedman & Taylor Brydges, 2023. "Hustling in the creative industries: Narratives and work practices of female filmmakers and fashion designers," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 793-809, May.
    12. Teemu Makkonen, 2014. "Tales from the Thousand Lakes: Placing the Creative Network of Metal Music in Finland," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(7), pages 1586-1600, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    popular music; cultural studies; Utopia; concept album; multimedia projects; Gorillaz;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z - Other Special Topics

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hig:wpaper:71hum2014. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamil Abdulaev or Shamil Abdulaev (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/hsecoru.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.