A Review of an Article About New Orleans

In describing the effects on the musical industry by the presence of economic pressures, and therefore, certain demand for specific musical styles, due to New Orleans tourism, Atkinson neglects to acknowledge that such pressures must always exist in any situations that involve the intertwinement of music and business, and are not specific to New Orleans. Atkinson's inattention to stating this reality, while suggesting how tourism has hindered the New Orleans musicians' freedom in creativity implies the negative argument, that a decline or removal of the New Orleans tourism would result in a removal of the economic influence on New Orleans music. Referring to Dunbar, Stokes, and Adorno, we can observe that the dilemma faced by the music industry is not only not unique to New Orleans, but inevitable, so long as said music industry encompasses some business-related aspect. Indeed the very use of the term music 'industry' implies such influences, regardless of whether or not such economic pressures are brought from incoming tourists, the locals of a region, or international purchasers of music.

Atkinson offers anecdotes from New Orleans locals on both sides who agree that tourism has had an undeniable impact on the music industry: a tourist board director states that "music is integral to [the tourist board's] marketing plan" (Atkinson, 96); and two musicians both describe the unavoidable obligation to conform to the style being demanded (Atkinson 100-101). There exists an understood cooperation between musicians and policy-makers, and really any form of business selling music, that is not unique to New Orleans.

Although Atkinson does cite a few other "music cities" (Liverpool, in particular) that have encountered the question of who should hold power and influence on the cultural musical productions within a city (Atkinson, 103), she acknowledges these cities in the very last portion of the article and quickly points out, with little argumentative support, that most of these cities are in fact, quite unlike New Orleans in their situations. But the fact is, the question of who defines the musical style, of New Orleans or anywhere, is inevitable in any situation that intermingles business and music, and this can be seen in cultures throughout. Dunbar-Hall and Gibson's case study on the Jawoyn people of Nitmiluk provides a similar example of circumstances of New Orleans.

Atkinson explains the function of jazz music to define the place and history of New Orleans (Atkinson 92, 95) and the call for New Orleans musicians to adhere to this musical style. Dunbar similarly focuses on the significance of Blekbala Mujik's joining of two contrasting musical styles and languages, to appeal both to the Jawoyn people as well as the non-Aboriginal residents in Mujik's song 'Nitmiluk,' which illustrates the historical and current tension and misunderstandings between the Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals of the Nitmiluk region:

Analysis of the ideas presented in 'Nitmiluk' demonstrates how elements of place, history, language, and ownership are linked in a musical statement about a site, acting as a signifies o identity and the implications of that identity in current policies of Jawoyn cultural revival...the dependence of the present and the past on each other can be heard in the ways that musical styles interact with each other throughout the song... (Dunbar, 220).

The success of this song is largely due to its deliberate effort to appeal to the demand, as it is quoted as being "catchy, airplay friendly Aboriginal pop" (Dunbar 218). Thus, as long as musicians are playing for anyone other than themselves-are playing for money-there will be the obligation of the musician to in some way conform his musical creativity to the demand.

Adorno illustrates this reality in his "Popular Music." He notes the effects of economic pressures, which can be witnessed in reviewing the extinction of the operetta, in that the decline of the existence of a certain social stratum that had been responsible for the demand of operettas resulted in call for more streamlined popular styles of music-an increasing demand for "lower art" by "the people kept out of the cultural establishment" (Adorno, 21). Adorno criticizes this lower art form of popular music for its being "custom-built," holding to a strict structural format to appeal to the masses. Surely Adorno would consider the standardization of the New Orleans musical styles, formatted for tourism, to be an unsurprising and familiar example of musicians appealing to the demand.

Finally, Stokes offers yet another setting for the described circumstances. In his "Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity, and Music," Stokes illustrates how, as with the Nitmiluk scenario, the use of music to define place social order in Ireland has influenced the styles of music produced, describing how people use music to "locate themselves." Stokes states, "places constructed through music involve notions of difference and social boundary," which can be seen through "the insistent evocation of place in Irish balladry or the 'Country and Irish' heard on juke-boxes in bars in Ireland and amongst migrant communities in England and the United States," (Stokes, 3). This proliferation of a specific style of music (here, the 'Country and Irish' styles), ubiquitously across the region to represent the sentiments and boundaries among the diverse identities of Ireland is remarkably similar to both Blekbala's use of his 'Nitmiluk,' and the New Orleans tourist boards' use of jazz.

In conclusion, the interlock and codependence expressed in Atkinson's case study, between the tourist boards and the musicians-or more generally, between employer and employee-is one that is inherent in any form of musical business and is neither unique to New Orleans, or specifically to the presence of tourism. As one musician was quoted by Atkinson, "They [the tourism industry] don't require you to do anything, they are just not going to hire you if you don't play what they want to hear," (Atkinson, 101). This behavior of appealing to the demand is universal, as demonstrated to the examples referenced. However, today, musicians are finding ways to conduct their music business independently, as the 'middle-man' record labels; policy-makers, etc. begin to be eliminated through the establishment of online networking of music. With this, we can observe the beginnings of a disconnect between music demands and music produced, as musicians gain the ability to be artistically creative, without the consequences of unemployment. Only time will tell whether this disconnect truly liberates the artist from the tastes and demands of his on-line audience and fosters unprecedented creative freedom, or merely recreates the scenario Atkinson describes in New Orleans as artists continue to cater to their audiences tastes to optimize economic gain.

Works Cited:

Adorno, Theodor. 1976. "Popular Music." In Introduction to the Sociology of Music, 21-

38. New York: Seabury Press.

Atkinson, Connie Zeanah. 1997. "Whose New Orleans? Music's Place in the Packaging

of New Orleans for Tourism." In Tourist and Tourism: Identifying with People

and Places, eds. Simone Abram, Jacqueline Waldren and Donald V. L. Macleod,

91-106. Oxford: Berg.

Dunbar-Hall, Peter, and Chris Gibson. 2004. " In Deadly sounds, deadly places :

contemporary Aboriginal music in Australia, 212-227. Sydney: Univ. of New

South Wales Press.

Stokes, Martin. 1994. "Introduction: Ethnicity, Identity, and Music." In Ethnicity and

Identity: the Musical Construction of Place, edited by Martin Stokes, 1-36.

Oxford: Berg.