Struggle and Change in the
Field of Dutch Popular
Music Journalism
Name: Daan Hofstee
Date: 21-02-2017
Student number: 1880055
Supervisor: Dr. R. (Robert) Prey
Second Reader: Dr. M. P. (Michael) Stevenson
TABLE OF CONTENT 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Theoretical Framework 2 1.2 Methodology 3 1.3 Thesis Relevance 4 1.4 Thesis Structure 5
2. Theoretical Framework: Pierre Bourdieu’s Field Theory 6
2.1 Field 7
2.2 Capital 10
2.3 Habitus 15
2.4 The “Old” versus the “New” 16
2.5 Conclusion 17
3. Popular Music Journalism 19
3.1 A Brief British and American Account 19 3.2 Popular Music Journalism in the Netherlands 22
3.3 Theorizing the Music Journalist 31
3.4 Conclusion 36
4. Methodology 37
4.1 Qualitative Research Design 37
4.2 Semi-Structured Interviews 38
4.3 Interviewees 38
4.4 Coding, Categorization, and Data Analysis 41
5. Analysis of Interviews 45
6. Discussion 50
7. Conclusion 57
8. Bibliography 61
9. Appendix 66
9.1 Interview with Vince Triesscheijn 66 9.2 Interview with Joris Rietbroek 75
9.3 Interview with Jan Vollaard 88
9.4 Interview with Peter Bruyn 102
9.5 Interview with Jean-Paul Heck 124
9.6 Interview with Jasper Willems 130
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1. INTRODUCTION
“Most rock journalism is people who can’t write,
interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.” - Frank Zappa.
Popular music journalism, like any other genre of journalism, is struggling to cope with the changes brought about by digitalization. Circulation rates of music magazines are decreasing, leading to harsh times for music journalism producers. To give an example: the oldest, still standing Dutch music magazine OOR, reached a circulation rate of around 70.000 during the 1970’s. Today this number is floating somewhere around 15.000. Technological waves have transformed both popular music journalism and popular music itself in profound ways. Radical change has created a disconnect that is as much generational as technological: a divide that music journalists must bridge in order to stay relevant (McLeese, 2010).
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Thus, as new forms of journalism emerge, as audiences become more skilful, as other sources of information become commonplace, and as access to music itself is transformed, the nature of the relationship between popular music and journalism stands at a critical point (Inglis, 2010).
This thesis aims to reveal how developments in the field of popular music journalism has altered practices, values, and role perceptions of both the traditional music journalist and the online music blogger in the Netherlands. Thus, the research question that will guide this thesis is the following: “To what extent can Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory explain how traditional Dutch popular music journalists and Dutch music bloggers perceive their jobs differently?”
This first chapter serves as a quick introduction of all the elements which are important for the formation of this thesis. Firstly, it provides the theoretical framework that guides this study; field theory, as developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourd ieu. Secondly, there is attention for the methodology that is used to conduct the research, one which consists of the qualitative method of semi-structured interviewing. Thirdly, it devotes some space to the relevance of the topic under study, and fourthly and lastly, it provides the structure of the thesis.
1.1 Theoretical Framework
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For this, field theory, as developed by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, offers a suitable theoretical framework. The essence of field theory is the explanation of individual actions by relying on the positions actors take in relation to others actors. Positions in the field are in turn considered to indicate the potential for a force exerted on the person, but a force that impinges “from the inside” through motivation as opposed to through external compulsion (Levi Martin, 2003). The great advantage of Bourdieu’s thought is that it can be applied to any social object and is powerful enough to analyse forms of social practice (Marlière, 1998).
Bourdieu’s field theory can offer an explanation for individual behaviour. Furthermore, Bourdieu stresses the dimension of struggle and competition in and between fields in his works, and pictures a person who constantly seeks to be better than others (Meyen and Riesmeyer, 2012). This is relevant because this thesis essentially deals with a struggle, a struggle between the “old” and the “new” music journalist in light of the constantly changing journalistic field. The next chapter will intensively deal with Bourdieu’s field theory.
1.2 Methodology
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journalists give meaning to their work, which is a helpful guideline to structure this thesis’ methodology around. The fourth chapter of this thesis will elaborate further on the methodology, the interviewees, and the process of categorization and coding.
1.3 Thesis relevance
The relevance of this thesis as a whole lies first and foremost in the fact that there has been relatively little research on the subject of music journalism. This is surprising, since music journalism and journalists still continue to play a central role for both music fans and musicians (Jones, 2002). More specifically, there has been even less research done on the professional role perceptions of the journalists working in that field. When one also considers the variety of online media, ranging from news-groups to chatrooms to websites, where one can find writing about popular music, the lack of scholarly work is even more surprising (Jones, 2002).
5 1.4 Thesis structure
In order to get a fruitful answer to the main research question (“To what extent can Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory explain how traditional Dutch popular music journalists and Dutch music bloggers perceive their jobs differently?”), this thesis needs a clearly specified structure. The second chapter of this thesis deals with the theoretical framework; Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. It first explains the overarching principles that underlie Bourdieu’s theorizations, and then discusses different elements of the theory. Furthermore, there is attention for the topic of struggle between “old-timers” and “newcomers” in a field.
To get a better grasp of the context in which the interviewed music journalists and bloggers operate, Chapter Three deals with the field of popular music journalism. An historization of the emergence of (Dutch) popular music and music criticism is part of this, but also a characterization of how the Internet impact music journalism, and a theorization of the roles of the music critics.
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1. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:
PIERRE BOURDIEU’S FIELD THEORY
“[(habitus)(capital)] + field = practice”
- Pierre Bourdieu, 1986
This second chapter lays down the theoretical framework that will serve as the basis of this thesis. It probes into field theory, as introduced by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. His contributions to the field of social sciences are enormous, and are relevant in numerous fields of research. Given the fact that this research is essentially inquiring the social world, Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory is highly applicable. Bourdieu’s field approach is highly relational and allows us not to think of “journalism”, but of a profession and practice that is structured by complex cleavages (Neveu, 2007). One place where Bourdieu provides extensive analysis and application of field theory is in a collection of essays published in 1993, The Field of Cultural Production. In this book, he is primarily interested in literature and art, but it seems that the field approach can be fruitfully applied to a wide range of cultural phenomena (Little, 2011). Furthermore, this chapter relies on the works of other scholars, in particular those who have addressed field theory within the context of journalism. Rodney Benson and Erik Neveu are the most important scholars herein.
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social world and social relationships. Building on these concepts, the chapter also discusses that part which is particularly relevant to this paper, namely Bourdieu’s ideas about how struggle between old and new actors in a field leads to a change of the field. After that, there is a short conclusion, including a discussion of the relevance of Bourdieu’s field approach with regard to this particular research.
2.1 Field
Let us start off with the definition that Pierre Bourdieu himself provides of a “field”. In a translated article included the book Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field by Rodney Benson and Erik Neveu, Bourdieu defines a field as:
A field of forces within which the agents occupy positions that statistically determine the positions they will take with respect to the field, these position-takings being aimed either at conserving or transforming the structure of relations of forces that is constitutive of the field.
(Pierre Bourdieu in Rodney Benson and Erik Neveu, 2005)
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Bourdieu claims, following the works of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim, that modernity involves a “process of differentiation into semi-autonomous and increasingly specialized spheres of action”. This can for example include an artistic sphere, a scientific one, a political, an economical, or a journalistic sphere (Benson and Neveu, 2005). These spheres, or “fields”, are structured systems of social relations (Neveu, 2007). In other words, society is divided into a number spaces, which consists of sub-spaces - the fields. Both between and within the fields, power relations fundamentally structure human action. This element of “relationality” is key to understanding cultural production in a field (Little, 2011). What is “real” is “relational”, and to exist socially is to mark one’s difference vis-à-vis others in an ongoing process that is enacted for the most part unconsciously without strategic intention (Benson and Neveu, 2005).
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Social fields as thought of by Bourdieu consists of agents and the objective relations between them. The agents in the field are defined by their relative position to one another, and the relations between the agents exhibit the deployment of various forms of power, or capital, which either act singularly, or in accord with each other (Khartanovich, 2015). Capital here refers to the variety of resources, both tangible and intangible, through which agents in the field achieve their “success” in the field (Little, 2011). Drawing upon and expanding on Karl Marx’s definitions of capital, the four main types of capital in Bourdieu’s work are economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital. These forms of capital tends to operate in all fields in society, whereas there also exist specialized forms of capital that have value only within a particular field (Khartanovich, 2015). In the next section the notion of capital will be elaborated further.
However, capital is not the only structuring factor that determines the relative positions that agents take vis-à-vis one another. Another important structuring factor is the habitus of an agent, which can be defined as a “structuring structure, which organizes practices and the perception of practices”. The notion of habitus boils down to the assumption that individuals’ predispositions, assumptions, judgements, and behaviours are the result of a long-term process of socialization. This socialization takes place most importantly in the family, and secondarily via education (Benson and Neveu, 2005). Later on in this chapter, habitus is further discussed.
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for granted, and to which all agents within the particular field agree – the “rules of the game”, so to speak. This set of commonly accepted presuppositions is related to the notion of illusio, which refers to an agent’s emotional and cognitive investment in the stakes involved in the field, or simply, the belief that the game is worth playing (Benson and Neveu, 2005).
2.2 Capital
As already mentioned, a key concept that Bourdieu builds on in field theory is the concept of capital, or power. Over the course of his theorizations, he distinguishes between different types of capital, namely economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital. It must be noted that in his essential contribution on capital, an essay named The Forms of Capital (1986), he only distinguishes between the first three types of capital. He also mentions the fourth, symbolic capital, but he sees that form of capital as not able to exist independently from the other forms of capital (Bourdieu, 1986).
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Economic capital is everything that is immediately and directly convertible into money and may be institutionalized in the form of property rights (Bourdieu, 1986). This can thus be an individuals’ income or an inheritance. In other words, it simply refers to money or assets that can be turned into money (Benson and Neveu, 2005). It can therefore be argued that this form of capital is the most straightforward form of capital of Bourdieu’s conceptualizations about capital. Inside the journalistic field, economic capital is expressed via circulation, or audience ratings, or advertising revenue (Benson and Neveu, 2005). Bourdieu posits that economic capital is at the root of all other types of capital, and that all other forms of capital are transformed and disguised economic capital. However, with this he also notes that all other sorts of capital – whether cultural, social, or symbolic – can never be entirely reduced to economic capital, despite the fact that they are essentially economic at their root (Bourdieu, 1986). Imagine, again, the metaphor of the football game. In a fan shop, a football fan buys all sorts of items to express his support for the club he loves. For example a cap, or a t-shirt of his favourite player. Because of this, he gains social capital: he now belongs to a fan group. However, none of his fellow football fans in that group will see this membership as a result of a purely economic investment; to all of them it is just a matter of group feeling (Van Woerden, 2012).
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form of educational qualifications (Bourdieu, 1986). Cultural capital can exist in three basic forms: in the embodied state, in the objectified state, and in the institutionalized state. First, in the embodied state, cultural capital is essentially acquired through work on oneself – self-improvement – and can therefore not be acquired at second hand. Bourdieu argues that in most cases cultural capital is acquired unconsciously, depending on period, social class, or society. In the embodied state, capital becomes an integral part of the agent, and can therefore not be easily transmitted to another agent (Bourdieu, 1986).
The second state of cultural capital, the objectified state, refers to cultural capital that is objectified in an object, such as writings, paintings, or monuments. Because in this state the capital consists of material objects, capital can be transmitted easily, just as with economic capital. However, Bourdieu notes that in the objectified state, no object is separable from a certain form of embodied capital (Bourdieu, 1986). If an agent possesses a material object, it does not necessarily mean that that agent has the embodied skill or knowledge to use that object correctly or efficiently. In the institutionalized state, cultural capital refers to recognition that is institutionalized. This can for example be through the acquirement of certain diplomas or academic credentials. Because this acquirement grants agents a form of recognition, it is able to neutralize some of the embodied shortcomings of an agents (Bourdieu, 1986).
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In order to understand Bourdieu’s ideas on social capital, one must understand that Bourdieu was interested in the ways in which society is reproduced and how the dominant classes maintain their position. His work Distinction (1984) is the prime example of this. It explores the ways in which the trappings of middle-class taste and cultivation are used by people as cultural signifiers, as they seek to identify themselves with those ‘above’ them on the social ladder, and demonstrate their difference from those ‘below’. Distinction was groundbreaking as a detailed study of the ways in which cultural artefacts and knowledge were brought into play, alongside basic economics, in the dynamics of social
class relations (Gauntlett, 2011).
In his work An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology (1992), Bourdieu provides the following definition of social capital: “social capital is the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition ” (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992). In more simple words, social capital refers to being a member of a group. Where other writers see social capital as a fundamentally heart-warming network of social connections, Bourdieu uses it to explain the cold realities of social inequality (Gauntlett, 2011). In other words, this definition of social capital reflects the very worst side of saying: “It is not what you know, but who you know”. Social capital in this sense can thus be a constraining factor on an agents’ actions and behaviour.
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volume of capital – be it economic, cultural, or symbolic – that is owned by those the agent is connected to (Bourdieu, 1986). This indicates that social capital is composed of two things: firstly, being a member of a group, and secondly, having a social network at one’s disposal. Membership in groups, and involvement in the social networks developing within these and in the social relations arising from membership can be utilized in efforts to improve the social position of an agent in a field (Siisiäinen, 2000).
Also, differences in the control of social capital may explain why the same amount of economic and cultural capital can result in different degrees of profit or influence in a field (Siisiäinen, 2000). In other words, an agent without a social network, but possessing a large amount of economic and cultural capital, may not be as influential in the field as an agent who does have a large social network. Bourdieu posits therefore that social capital can have a “multiplier effect” on other forms of capital. Social capital is based on mutual cognition and recognition, and is a result of an individual or collective process of investment. This is how it acquires an symbolic character, and eventually transforms into symbolic capital (Bourdieu, 1986).
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and recognized into the structure of power distribution (Bourdieu, 1985).
Symbolic capital is closely connected to the notion of legitimacy; symbolic capital defines what forms and uses of capital are recognized as legitimate, which forms a basis for the position of an agent in a field. It exist and grows only in the intersubjective and can be recognized only there. Economic and cultural capital have their own modes – e.g. money or academic degrees – while symbolic capital only exists in the “eyes of others” (Siisiäinen, 2000).
2.3 Habitus
The notion of habitus is another central element of Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. It is probably his most widely cited concept, and it has been used in studies of a wide variety of practices and contexts. Yet, it is also one of Bourdieu’s most misunderstood, misused and hotly contested ideas, and remains difficult to define (Maton, 2008).
Formally, Bourdieu himself defines habitus as a property of social agents that comprised a “structured and structuring structure”. It is “structured” by one’s past and present circumstances, such as family upbringing and educational experience, and it is “structuring” in that one’s habitus helps to shape one’s present and future practices. It is a “structure” in that it systematically ordered rather than random and unpatterned. And this structure comprises a system of dispositions which generate perceptions, appreciations and practices (Maton, 2008). Thus, it can be said that habitus refers to each individual agents’ set of own skills and traits, which it has gained through experiences in life.
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social class structure, shape the experiences that follow. By incorporating the element of time, habitus combats naïve assertions of structural determinism. In other words, any explanation of an agents’ attitudes, discourses, or behaviour, draw on an analysis of both the agent’s position in the field and the particular historical trajectory by which an agent arrived at that position – its habitus (Benson and Neveu, 2005).
2.4 The “Old” vs. the “New”
Bourdieu argues that transformations of the journalistic field matter, precisely because of the central position of the journalistic field in the larger field of power (Benson and Neveu, 2005). Essentially, Bourdieu claims that fields are arenas of struggle in which individuals and organizations compete, consciously or unconsciously, to valorise those forms of capital which they possess. In the ongoing struggle that is society, two forms of capital are crucial: economic capital and cultural capital (Benson and Neveu, 2005). That is to say, the agents in the field with the highest amounts of capital, tend to be dominant in that particular field.
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claims that journalists from a high cultural or economic backgrounds are most likely to have the motivation and capacity to change the field based on the experience of their “deviant trajectories” (Benson and Neveu, 2005). This notion of deviant trajectory refers to the “downward” mobility of an agent, which is to say that an individual enters a fiel d in which he or she was not “raised”, for example the son of a doctor becoming a journalist (Bourdieu, 1996). These newcomers are thus the most likely to change the existing structures in that field.
Now, let us return to the notion of doxa, which was referred to earlier in this chapter as the ‘rules of the game’ to which all agents in a field agree. When talking about the struggle between ‘old’ and ‘new’ agents in a field, one basically could see this as the agents entering the field combatting the existing doxa of that field. Bourdieu himself refers to terms as ‘orthodoxy’, ‘heterodoxy‘ and ‘heresy’. In the case of a struggle, the dominant, established agents in a field turn to orthodoxy, trying to preserve the old doxa, while the newcomers turn to heterodoxy, that is to say changing the existing rules. And it is the ‘heresy’ of the newcomers that breaks the doxa. (Bourdieu in Pels, 1992).
2.5 Conclusion
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Since this thesis is aimed at the understanding the professional identities and perceptions of popular music journalists, a number of Bourdieu’s theorizations are of special importance. More specifically, this thesis is interested in how ongoing digitalisation affects the way in which both the traditional music journalist and the music blogger perceives his profession and role. Therefore, Bourdieu’s thoughts on struggles in a field between old and new agents are the crux of the matter. To stay with Bourdieu’s terms, the ‘doxa’ of the field of music journalism thus must be set out, as well as the ‘habitus’ and the ‘amount of capital’ that Dutch music journalists or bloggers have. The next chapters aim to do so.
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3. POPULAR MUSIC JOURNALISM
This chapter defines what is meant by popular music journalism. In doing so, it goes into the history of the field of music journalism by sketching out the major developments that it has gone through. The first part of this chapter provides a short contextualization of the development of popular music journalism in both the United States and Britain. The second section of this chapter sheds light on the developments of popular music journalism in the Netherlands. Despite very little academic research on this particular subject, it tries to mark out the history of the Dutch music press based on the main popular music media outlets throughout the years. In the third and the fourth parts of this chapter, the profession of music journalist is theorised, probing the questions of what a music journalist is, what constitutes a good music journalist, and what the role of the music journalist is in the wider society.
3.1 A Brief American and British Account
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2004). However, a single, definitive chronology of the music press in the US and UK remains unwritten. Mapping out this history consists of the piecing together of information drawn from numerous texts which describe the historical developments in terms of ‘waves’ or ‘schools’, generally plotting out a professional and ideological migration from the underground press into the mainstream. This for example happened in the US with the rock press during the mid-1960s, and in the UK with punk during the late 1970s (Forde, 2001).
The founding of the British magazine Melody Maker in 1926 is commonly taken by scholars as the birth of the modern music press (Frith, 1978; Negus, 1992; Toynbee, 1993; Shuker; 1994). It was the first, nationally-distributed title which was devoted exclusively to the popular music of that time. Thus, the emergence of music journalism in Britain is commonly seen to pre-date developments in the US (Forde, 2001). Then, in 1952, the launch of the New Musical Express (NME) was of crucial importance. It coincided with the expansion of the popular music market and established the popular music press as a competitive and segmented market which developed together with music industry trends. During this early period, the music press was seen as a part of the music industry, because British music magazines and record companies shared the same interests: news of new releases ensured that the press sustained the expanding record market (Nunes, 2004).
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These magazines were concerned less with pop artists or single charts topics, as were most of the titles before then, and more with rock as a cultural shaper or mirror of those times (Warner, 2015).
Retrospectively, this period of ‘rock writing’ is seen as the natural and logical product of the rise of ‘New Journalism’. Rock writing was something that belonged to individual writers, with (in)famous names such as Lester Bangs, Hunter S. Thompson and John Landau among them. These writers emerged from the underground fanzine cultures, before forging a new journalistic approach within mainstream rock journalism (Forde, 2001). They became pioneers in the realm of a ground-breaking writing style in which the subjective voice, instead of the objective voice, became an acceptable strategy in a form of narrative where reportage met the literary (Warner, 2015). In this way they contributed to the legitimization of ‘rock’ as a cultural form (Forde, 2001).
In the UK, the New Journalism style would shape the writing approaches of titles such as the NME. Its impact would continue when punk, from the mid-1970s, overturned the received wisdom on rock and its place in society. In that period, a great number of new wave magazine appeared, many pursuing the DIY ethics of the punk genre they espoused. Titles such as Punk and New Yorker were notable in the US, and Sniffin’ Glue in the UK (Warner, 2015).
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to the present day, traditional music magazine formats became more and more endangered (Warner, 2015). Later on in this chapter, this will be discussed in more detail. 3.2 Popular Music Journalism in the Netherlands
There has been very little written on the history of Dutch music journalism, let alone academic research on the subject. Probably the only comprehensive work on the history of the Dutch field of music journalism is the book Gouden Tijden: Vijftig Jaar Nederlandse Popbladen1, written by (former) music journalists Henk van Gelder and Hester Carvalho.
Despite the fact that this work was published in 1994, it still provides a useful overview for analysing how the Dutch music press has developed into its current state. Based on the work by Van Gelder and Carvalho, this section is subdivided in to four periods: (1) from 1942 until 1965, (2) from 1965 until 1971, (3) from 1971 until present day, and (4) the current state of Dutch popular music journalism in the digital age.
3.2.1 Tuney Tunes, Muziek Expres and Muziek Parade (1942 – 1965)
For a long time, the Dutch popular music magazines have had a lead on Dutch popular music. When the latter was still in its infancy, there was already a long tradition of music magazines, publishing about music from overseas. Thus, the “Americanization” of Dutch culture, and in particular in the field of popular music, could be followed closely through the music magazines (Van Gelder and Carvalho, 1994).
The very first Dutch popular music magazine was published as early as 1942. During the Second World War it was prohibited in the Netherlands to listen to the latest English pop songs. Therefore, Tuney Tunes was an illegal magazine (Van Gelder and
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Carvalho, 1994). It was produced underground, and was very limited in its circulation. The content mainly existed of written lyrics and therefore did not resemble any music magazine as we know it nowadays. However, when the war ended, Tuney Tunes was able to expand its scope of circulation, and together with the rise of rock ‘n’ roll music and teenage-culture it became increasingly popular.
These essential developments in Dutch culture during the 1950s paved the way for other music magazines to gain a piece of the growing market for music press. At the end of 1955, the first issue of the monthly magazine Muziek Expres was published, and the first Muziek Parade came two years later. Together with Tuney Tunes, they attempted to meet the demands of a rising teenage culture; they were packed with short articles and countless big posters of popstars. Of the three music magazines in this period Muziek Expres was unquestionably the winner with regard to popularity and circulation rate. In the early 1960s its circulation had risen to somewhere around 350.000. It was Muziek Expres that was the first Dutch music magazine to write about that young and innocent Liverpool quartet (De Bats, 2014).
24 3.2.2 Hitweek / Aloha (1965 – 1971)
During the 1960s, new magazines continued to emerge in the field of Dutch music journalism, all reacting to the constantly growing teenage culture. However, until 1965 this teenage culture was largely ruled by an older generation. For example, broadcasts from radio stations were still largely run by the older journalists, and the young ones were under supervision by their older colleagues who set the tone. It was only in the latter half of the 1960s that record labels, broadcasting stations and publishers began to realize that the new, younger public was also best addressed by younger journalists (Van Gelder and Carvalho, 1994). A real game changer, in this respect, was Hitweek (1965). Bernard Toet, founder of the Dutch music magazine OOR, writes about the emergence of Hitweek in his book Keihard en Swingend2 as follows:
And then, out of the blue, the first number of Hitweek arrived at the kiosk, a monumental media event for me and countless others who hankered - perhaps unconsciously - after a magazine by and for our own generation, a magazine that no longer was fully written by colourless people who know ‘it’ better. Provocation, irony and parody, complemented with an incredibly fresh approach to graphic design, these were the ingredients that Willem de Ridder [founder] used to invent an incredibly tasty publishing recipe. (Toet, 2011).3
2 Translation: Rock-hard and Swinging.
3 Translation: Onaangekondigd duikt dan het eerst nummer van Hitweek op in de kiosk, een monumentale
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Hitweek thus created a small revolution in the field of Dutch popular music journalism. It broke loose from the tradition of other music magazines through its deviant language usage and layout, all for which founder Willem de Ridder was mainly responsible (Van Gelder and Carvalho, 1994). Moreover, it was the first popular music magazine in the Netherlands that put content above trivial details and photos of popstars (De Bats, 2014). Hitweek was a platform for some of the best Dutch writers about popular music. It provided room for extensive reviews of new releases, both from the national pop scene – the Nederbietscene – and popular music from overseas, especially American west coast artists (Toet, 2011). Hitweek was the embodiment of youthful disobedience at the time. As time passed, the magazine become more and more politically engaged. Provo4 and the
war in Vietnam dominated the political agenda at the time, and in the eyes of Hitweek, popular music was essentially left-wing. Hitweek’s tone was the tone of its reader; together they joined forces against their parents and the establishment (Van Gelder and Carvalho, 1994).
However, in 1966 the first cracks began to appear in the popularity of Hitweek. Disagreements between members of the editorial staff were leading to the downfall of the magazine. Increasingly, music journalists of Hitweek began to make the transition to mainstream newspapers, dailies, or weeklies, because of the ‘expertise’ they had to offer about youth culture. Because of this, Hitweek-founder Willem de Ridder wanted to go back to the days where Hitweek did not have a permanent editorial staff, and where the content consisted of submitted pieces by the readers. He decided to continue under
4 ‘Provo’ was a movement during the 1960s in the Netherlands, mainly aimed at provoking everything that
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another name: Aloha. Aloha did not have the success that De Ridder envisioned. The circulation dropped from the envisioned 45.000 to under 30.000. The content of the new magazine was not confined to popular music. It began including texts about sexuality, drugs, philosophy, and politics. By 1974, the decreasing interest had resulted in Aloha ceasing to exist (Van Gelder and Carvalho, 1994).
3.2.3 Oor (1971 – present)
At the beginning of the 1970s, another revolution in the history of Dutch popular music journalism could be distinguished. On April 1 1971, the first issue of Muziekkrant OOR5
was published, inspired by overseas titles like Rolling Stone, Melody Maker, and the New Musical Express. The power of OOR, according to Toet, came from the fact that it never followed any trends, but was able to contextualize everything that became a trend. Equally important was it generic broadness. Whether it was rock, folk, country, blues, grunge, punk, dance, or rap, OOR wrote about it (Toet, 2011). Oor was born out of Toet’s realization that the average popular musician lacked societal insight. “They just write a song”, he said in 1972. “I started to become more interested in the individual behind the song, as well as in the corporate issues in popular music” (Van Gelder and Carvalho, 1994).
At first, OOR’s revenues were disappointing. However, Toet sold the magazine to its publisher Wim Verbei, who succeeded in turning OOR into a profitable and popular music magazine. It maintained its success over the years that followed, mainly because the magazine did not depart from its central focal point: popular music. OOR began to
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specialize in long, in-depth interviews with trendsetters and musicians, and started to have enormous influence as a tastemaker and explorer of new musical talent (De Bats, 2014).
In the years that followed, many Dutch music magazines came and went, but as mentioned before, OOR was the only traditional Dutch music magazine that has survived until present day. The only exception to this is possibly Lust for Life6, which first appeared
in 2005, and can be seen as the biggest competition for OOR (Ploeg, 2010). As with many other traditional magazines and newspapers, OOR’s circulation rate has decreased every year for nearly two decades. Where in 2000 OOR sold around 30.000 magazines each years, this number was halved ten years later7.
3.2.4 Dutch Popular Music Journalism in the Digital Age
As the section above suggests, the current market for popular music journalism has not been looking rosy for the Dutch traditional music media in recent years. In order to get a better understanding of that, this section will explain how Dutch popular music journalism has developed on the Internet. In doing so, much of the work of journalist and new media scholar Theo Ploeg is used. He is one of few that has made efforts to analyse how traditional popular music journalism in The Netherlands has coped with the rise of the Internet. Also, in his works he is concerned with how Dutch popular music journalism on the web developed. However, first, some quick, general remarks are made about the impact of the Internet on traditional popular music journalism, and in particular the
6 Formerly Revolver Magazine.
7 Tijdschriftcijfers.tumblr.com, 2012. From 2011 on, Oor’s circulation rate has not been checked by
28 profession of music journalist.
Music journalism basically depends on two big industries: the music industry, which provides the journalist with material and access; and the news industry, of which music journalism is a part. Both these industries have been – and still are – in steady decline due to the rise of new technologies (Katz and Schüren, 2012). The Internet has brought those traditionally in charge to their knees, so has it given rise to a DIY workplace for amateurs who now have the dame space and opportunities available to them as professionals (Katz and Schüren, 2012). The profession of popular music journalist, thus, has changed in recent decades. The give an example: before the rise of the Internet, many music listeners based their choices on what music to listen to on the opinions of music journalists. Nowadays, this is completely different. Katz and Schüren (2012) list four general catalysts for the process in which the Internet has changed music journalism.
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Now let us return to the case of Dutch popular music journalism, Theo Ploeg argues that it is the ‘big democratisation of popular culture’ during the 1990’s that is important for analysing how music journalism on the web formed itself, both nationally and internationally. This democratisation he describes as a time where ‘high and low cultures flirted with each other’, and where intellectualism and popular culture went hand in hand. This resulted in the emergence of hip, avant-garde titles as Frame, Wired, Face, I-D, or De:Bug. However, Ploeg states that this democratisation seems to have gone passed The Netherlands (Ploeg, 2007).
According to Ploeg, Dutch web-based music journalism, in its early days, surpassed traditional music journalism in every aspect: professional images, interesting angles, and exciting content. It is because of the marginality that the traditional media cannot put their mark on Dutch popular music journalism anymore, as they did in the past. Ploeg roughly identifies two strategies that the Dutch traditional music press has used to cope with its struggle with Internet and new media: placing a stripped -down of the magazine online as a teaser for the older medium, or exactly doing what is ‘popular’ on the web at that moment. Moreover, in spite of the large amounts of money that have been invested in new media, the content is often a weak reflection of the traditional core business (Ploeg, 2010).
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popular music, which were later replaced by a blog (Ploeg, 2010). After the millennium Dutch popular music journalism began to grow more serious in tone. Especially KindaMuzik, which had started off 1999, established itself as an important blog, resulting in a number of award nominations in 2005. However, with regard to Dutch popular music journalism on the web, VPRO’s 3voor12 can be seen as the most important pioneer. Since the late 1990s it has combined multiple journalistic disciplines online, such as web radio, news, and concert recordings. Both nationally and internationally, 3voor12 is unique and ground-breaking (Ploeg, 2010).
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Netherlands, Ploeg states, popular music journalism on the web seems to resemble the traditional music media too much (Ploeg, 2010).
3.3 Theorizing the Music Journalist
What being a popular music journalist exactly entails is hard to pin down in a couple of clearly defined sentences. When one thinks of an architect, one thinks of a person who designs buildings, and when one thinks of a dentist, one thinks of a person who fixes people’s teeth. With the popular music journalist it does not work this way. This section tries to overcome this problem, by providing briefly a picture of what different roles can be assigned to the profession of music journalist. To do so, it will rely on the four characterizations of popular music journalists as made by Katz and Schüren (2012). These roles are that of (1) the gatekeeper, (2) the promoter, (3) the consumer guide, and (4) the cultural intermediary (Katz and Schüren, 2012). All four are discussed briefly, and with each, attention is paid to the changes the role has undergone due to the rise of the Internet. Naturally, these are not the only roles that can be assigned to the music journalist, but in light of this research they can help to get towards a better understanding of the profession.
Gatekeeper
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(Shoemaker, Bos and Reese, 2009). By doing this, the journalist has a role in deciding which information is relayed to the audience (Abbenes, 2014).
This process of gatekeeping is also applicable to music journalism. In that sense, it basically means that the music journalist determines what information, what musicians and what albums reach the audience, and what do not (Katz and Schüren, 2012). Or, in Dave Laing’s words, the music journalist as a reviewer or an interviewer is a ‘relay’ between producer (musician or music industry) and consumer (the audience) (Laing, 2006). This could be an editor who selects what records will be reviewed by the staff, but also a journalist who makes decisions by determining what music news to publish, what acts to interview and which artists to feature in the magazine. This process depends on availability, time, newness, popularity of the artist, or ties with labels or artists (Abbenes, 2016).
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out (Katz and Schüren, 2012). And as Nineham (2009) rightfully states: “we can bypass the critics if we want to aimlessly wade our way through the seeps and the Internet as we search for our next fix of new music. Or we can seek out those we trust to guide us straight to the good stuff”(Nineham, 2009). This, all in all, means that both traditional music journalists and music bloggers can still play an important role as gatekeeper, even today. Promoter
Another role of the music journalist can be that of a promoter. As Klein (2005) claims in her work, music journalists are the ‘cheerleaders’ of the music industry, rather than critics. One can see music journalism as a type of journalism that has close ties with an industry, namely the music industry. For example, the financing of music magazines may partly rely on advertisements from records companies, which to a certain extent could affect the content of reviews (Abbenes, 2016).
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decide to use that space for critical reviews, it could function as counterargument against the view that the music journalist is a cheerleader of the industry (Abbenes, 2016). Consumer Guide
Supposedly, music journalists help consumers to sort out their needs and determine what the consumer will like and what he or she will ultimately buy (Katz and Schüren, 2012). This role is closely related to consumer journalism and service journalism. These types of journalism: “provide the reader with guidance on matters of consumption [...] in an increasingly complex society and everyday life, and thus addresses the reader as an individual rather than a member of the public and as a consumer rather than a citizen” (Kristensen and From, 2012). In other words, a music fan assumedly bases his or her decision of what to listen to on the opinion of a music critic. But the role of consumer guide is more than merely being a guide in a record store. It also includes criticising, showing insight into trends and tastes of the audience. Additionally, it entails informing
and entertaining (Abbenes, 2016).
35 Cultural Intermediary
A fourth role that a music journalist can take is the role of cultural intermediary. The concept was coined by Pierre Bourdieu to refer to those occupations involved in the production and circulation of symbolic goods and services. He viewed the cultural intermediary in the context of the expanding cultural economy in post-war Western societies, and included in it “the producers of cultural programmes [...] or the critics of quality newspapers and magazines” (Adkins, 2011). The concept of cultural intermediary has been widely used by journalism and media scholars, and thus it is also relevant for the field of popular music journalism (Katz and Schüren, 2012).
Music journalists as cultural intermediaries play a part in producing and circulating meaning. They provide judgements and interpret the music for their audiences (Laing, 2006). To a certain extent, the roles of the consumer guide and cultural intermediary are connected. In both functions, the music journalist comprises the link between the music industry and the consumer. However, when it comes to the role of consumer guide, there is more emphasis of commercial aspects. With the cultural intermediary, however, cultural elevation of the audience is the key aspect (Abbenes, 2016; Katz and Schuren, 2012).
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The Internet, again, has change this role. Nowadays, both music and information about music are widely available online to everyone, and listeners no longer h ave to rely on journalist for background information. This leads to the role of the music journalist as cultural intermediary becoming less important. Nevertheless, in historicizing, legitimizing, giving meaning, and discussing, both journalist and bloggers can play an important role today (Laing, 2006; Abbenes, 2016).
3.4 Conclusion
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4. METHODOLOGY
This chapter sets out the methodological considerations that were made with regards to the research. This research leans on a qualitative style of methods, hence the fact that the first part of this chapter explains why this research fits in the tradition of qualitative research methods. The second part of this chapter dedicates more attention to the specific method for conducting the interviews: a semi-structured style of interviewing. The third part of the chapter introduces the seven interviewees, all of whom are active in the Dutch field of popular music journalism; three traditional journalists and four bloggers. The fourth section dives into the processes of transcribing, coding and categorizing the interviews after they were conducted.
4.1 Qualitative Research Design
In order to get an understanding of the professional identities and perceptions of both traditional music journalists and music bloggers, a qualitative research design is employed in this research. To clarify: the research and its findings will not be arrived at by means of statistical procedures or other means that involve quantification (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).
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insights about the professional perceptions of old and new players in the Dutch field of popular music journalism.
4.2 Semi-Structured Interviews
Compared to structured interviews, semi-structured interviews can make better use of the knowledge-producing potentials of dialogues by allowing much more room for following up on whatever angles are deemed important by the interviewee. This style of interviewing gives the interviewer the chance of becoming visible as a knowledge-producing participant itself, and of having a say in focusing the conversation on issues that he or see deems important in relation to the research project (Brinkmann, 2013).
Before conducting the interviews, a number of questions were set up to guide, but not completely structure, the interviews. These questions were shaped in line with the different concepts of Bourdieu’s field theory. To be more precise, some questions were set up to reveal the habitus of the interviewee, others to reveal the interviewee’s cultural capital, and others to reveal what the interviewee considered to be the doxa of the Dutch field of popular music journalism. The questions for each interview were set up a slightly differently, fitting the particular case of each individual interviewee.
4.3 Interviewees
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the interviewees could be categorized as traditional popular music journalists, and four as music bloggers. The interviewees are individually introduced below.
Jan Vollaard:
Jan Vollaard is what you call an old hand in the profession of popular music journalist. For more than thirty years, he has written extensively for multiple music magazines. He began his career at Oor and later VARAgids, but he is most known for his writings in NRC Handelsblad.
Interview was conducted on Wednesday January 14, 2016 in Groningen. Peter Bruyn:
Peter Bruyn (1955) is another old hand, and a well-respected Dutch popular music journalist. Since 1986 he has been active for a wide range of print media, such as Het Parool, GDP, ANP, and Haarlems Dagblad, but also online media, such as Gonzo Circus and Frnkfrt. In 2013 he received the first Peter Bruyn Penning, a prize named after him, which was, from then on, awarded every year to writers who reflect popular culture in an independent and interesting manner.
Interview was conducted on Saturday January 25, 2016 in Haarlem. Jean-Paul Heck:
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Record and Soundz. In 2004 he won the renowned Jip Goldstein Journalistiekprijs, and in 2007 he was shortlisted for the Pop Media Prijs.
Interview was conducted on Monday February 15, 2016 in Amsterdam. Ricardo Jupijn:
Ricardo Jupijn is founder, and now also editor-in-chief, of the Rotterdam based music blog The Daily Indie. As the name implies the blog covers mainly indie music. The Daily Indie started off as an online blog, but recently it also launched a monthly magazine on paper, and in 2016, the first edition of The Daily Indie festival was held.
Interview was conducted on Tuesday February 23, 2016 in Rotterdam. Joris Rietbroek:
Joris Rietbroek (1979) is co-founder and editor in chief of the Leiden based music blog Kicking The Habit. It mainly focuses on indie and experimental music, both on a national and international level. On April 18 2016, Rietbroek announced that Kicking The Habit would cease to exist from that date. However, the blog continued under the name Licking The Rabbit.
Interview was conducted on Saturday January 9, 2016 in Leiden. Jasper Willems:
41 Vince Triesscheijn:
Vince Triesscheijn (1990) is founder of the music- and lifestyle blog Soundflow. This blog focuses on millennials, with a musical emphasis on popular R&B music. Since 2005 he has written extensively on this blog, resulting in a fair amount of followers nowadays. Interview was conducted on Friday December 11, 2015 in Enschede.
4.4 Coding, Categorization, and Data Analysis
All seven interviews were conducted in Dutch, recorded with an IPhone, and then transcribed as accurately as possible. The transcribing and coding process in this research was loosely based on Mark Deuze’s study on professional ideologies of Dutch tabloid reporters and editors (Deuze, 2005). Deuze considers this method as a general, commonsensical approach in qualitative analyses of interview data (Deuze, 2005). After conducting the interviews, Deuze used an open coding sequence to select and code each sentence or phrase of in the transcripts, which resulted in different topics. Next he grouped these topics in order to construct distinct topical categories (e.g. journalistic attitude, skills and standards, or truth vs ‘untruth’). Then Deuze identified how the interviewees discussed these “topics”, which resulted in coherent themes (for example irony, morality, commercialism, or journalism ideology) (Deuze, 2005). Logically, the categories in this thesis will be different from Deuze’s work.
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notes about what at first sight seemed relevant information. Under habitus all the interviewees’ statements about the field were grouped, as well as their perceptions on society and the Dutch field of music journalism and the social relationships and struggles within it. Under cultural capital everything was grouped that the interviewees mentioned about their education, social upbringing, or their specific skills for doing their job. Everything that was said about money or monetary assets was categorized under economic capital.
The category social capital embraced the interviewees’ statements about their networks or connections in the field and status-related statements. And finally, under doxa fell all statements about the ‘rules of the game’ of music journalism. I assigned all categorizations a different marking colour: orange for parts of the texts that I associated with habitus, green for cultural capital, blue for economic capital, yellow for social capital, and pink for doxa.
After quickly rereading all the texts, the interview questions were marked. This helped to give an overview of where in the texts different subjects would be discussed, and where probably answers were given that are relevant to that particular element of Bourdieu’s field theory. Then, in the next phase all texts of the interviews were marked. Some parts were marked multiple times with multiple colours, because they would fit in more than one category. Other parts were not marked at all, because they were not of any relevance for the thesis.
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communicate. It was until afterwards, when writing the analysis of the interviews, that a translation was made from Dutch to English.
Once the whole process was completed, a number of elements stood out. To organize this into a workable manner, a number of subcategories were set up, which are the following:
HABITUS
HABITUS General statements about the field
Difference between journalists and bloggers Social background
Views on struggle/change in the field
CULTURAL CAPITAL Educational credentials
Style of writing
Role perceptions in the field Awards
Status
ECONOMIC CAPITAL Money in the field Income
Other statements about money
SOCIAL CAPITAL Importance of network
Connections with players outside the field
DOXA Rules in popular music journalism
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5. ANALYSIS OF THE INTERVIEWS
This part of the thesis serves to analyse the seven interviews with popular music journalists and bloggers. It will run through the most interesting and most relevant issues for this study that were discussing during the interviews. Among others, this entails their views on field, change in the field, struggles in the field, s ocial backgrounds and educational levels.
“Blogging is so free of commitment. It is more of a diary. A personal impression”, is what Peter Bruyn said during one of the interviews. His statement seems characteristic of how traditional popular music journalists regard their blogging counterparts: as not the ‘real deal’. The fact that the same Peter Bruyn even calls blogging ‘holiday reporting’, renders this perfectly. It follows that in general they have no direct fear of bloggers ‘taking their jobs’, but they do rather seem to attribute the changes in their area of activity to a more general trend in media land: the continuously growing unpopularity of print media, especially in the field of popular music journalism.
Logically, the bloggers think very differently about this. They seem to notice that this is how traditional journalists see them, and it upsets them. Joris Rietbroek illustrates:
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Every blogger that was interviewed seemed convinced that their work meets the same standards of what traditional journalists do. It is not for nothing that Joris Rietbroek calls himself ‘a blogger that works with journalistic standards’, or Jasper Willems himself ‘a journalist who uses blogging methods’.
This leads us to the point of role perceptions. What role do they assign to themselves as a popular music journalist or blogger? Here also, a sharp contrast can be seen in the responses of the interviewees. All interviewees belonging in the traditional journalist category generally see informing as their main task. Jan Vollaard illustrates this point by saying: “Personally I think that the people who attended a concert are the last people I write an article for. It is more the homestayers and interested reader I want to inform.” Traditional journalists give the impression that they write with a sense of duty that is not felt by bloggers. The bloggers, on the other hand, perceive their role in the field as more enthusing or promoting. “Blogging has a strong value in that you pick something up and promote it”, as Jasper Willems states.
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probably would have to write about music that I really don’t like”, Jasper Willems illustrates. However, according to the traditional journalists, that freedom is one of the things they do not seem to like about popular music blogging. It is the notion of “objectivity”, to which they attach so much importance, that has become endangered due to blogging. Jean-Paul Heck explains: “I see more and more fanzines coming to interviews, and I think that’s dangerous. [...] Bloggers as well, by the way, who are also just getting interviews. Look, if you interview neutrally and informatively, but as a fan you simple can’t interview your idol. That just isn’t right.” Also with regard to the content of articles or style of writing, traditional journalists blame bloggers for writing with a lack of a critical look and grammatical correctness. Peter Bruyn even compares a blog with the ‘reader’s letter’ in the newspaper, and he is worried about the use of colloquial speech in blogs.
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Another part where a lot of similarities seem to be is educational levels. All interviewees can be considered highly educated. However, what is remarkable is that the traditional journalists seem to have walked a more deviant path than the bloggers in reaching their current profession. Peter Bruyn, for example, studied molecular pharmacology, and Jan Vollaard chemistry. With bloggers, on the other hand, this does not appear to be the case. All of them studied journalism, or subjects more or less adjacent to journalism.
Money and salaries in the field of journalism have been a difficult point for years. That the profession generally does not earn a lot of money seems a general truth for many. Also in the field of popular music journalism this is not different, and maybe it is even worse. Two of the three traditional journalists explicitly talk about their financial issues brought about by digital changes in recent years. For the bloggers this is different, but it should be noted that blogging is something they do part-time, and they work in a normal job beside their music blogging activities. Often that is a job that borders to the field of journalism: copywriter, PR assistant, or company journalist. With their blogs they only earn a small amount of money, mainly through advertising. The only odd one out here is Vince Triesscheijn. He is the only one from the four bloggers who can make a living out of his blog, Soundflow.nl. He earns his money through advertising and promotion deals with commercial parties.
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owners and organizers of music venues or festivals. The traditional journalists seem to especially rely heavily on those network. Jan Vollaard even describes his passe-partout for Paradiso and Melkweg8 as maybe [his] most valuable possession, with which no credit
card can compete.
Overall, what is clearly reflected in all of the seven interviews, is the division between the two groups in the Dutch field of popular music journalism. Especially from the part of the traditional journalists, there is little understanding, and maybe knowledge of, what bloggers exactly do. The bloggers, on the other hand, tend not to see themselves as threatening to the older journalists, nor do they see traditional journalists as competition of some kind. They just want to share with other people the music they are excited about. When asked about this division, blogger Jasper Willems made a beautiful remark:
“Instead of distrusting, the two groups should learn from each other. The established journalism can learn from the independence of blogging. And bloggers can learn from the specialist approach of traditional journalists. Instead of them being Argus-eyed, I think there should be a good discussion. But that doesn’t happen, and that’s why this division exists. Popular music journalism isn’t just one thing anymore.”
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6. DISCUSSION
In this chapter, the findings and observations from the interviews will be discussed in light of Bourdieu’s theorizations, especially in regard to struggle and change within a field. In other words, attention will be paid to the amount of capital which is possessed by both the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ agents in the field, the differences or similarities in habitus, and whether or not, and to what extent, bloggers are contesting the existing doxa in the Dutch field of popular music journalism. In Bourdieu’s terms, the more capital newcomers in a field possess, the more likely they are to bring change to that field. He distinguishes between four different types of capital, three of which are most important: economic capital, cultural capital, and social capital.
In his theorisations about the field, Bourdieu states that economic capital is the most important form of capital, and that it is at the root of all other forms of capital. Looking at how economic capital is distributed among the interviewees in this research, a number of things can be said. Economic capital in this research refers to the incomes individual actors. All interviewed traditional journalist are professionals, meaning that they make a living from music journalism, whereas the bloggers mostly are amateurs, in the sense that they do not earn a lot of money from it.
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the impression that money is not immensely important for working in the field of music journalism,leads to the conclusion that it might be more interesting to look at how both cultural and social capital are distributed among the actors in this research.
When one looks at how the cultural capital is distributed among the seven interviewees in this research, there are several things that stand out. It could be stated that the traditional journalists are most experienced. As said, all of them have been professionals for over thirty years, writing for numerous Dutch music magazines or newspapers. However, the fact that the traditional journalists in this research are active in the Dutch field of music journalism for a long period, and thus are more experienced, does not necessarily mean that they possess a bigger amount of capital. This is a shortcoming of this research: every interviewee belonging to the group of traditional journalists was considerably older than the music bloggers that were interviewed. The research results thus might have been different when the interviewees belonging to the traditional journalists would have been considerably younger, and would possibly not have been that experienced.
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thanks to their upbringing (e.g. Jasper Willems), this capital does not seem to outweigh the capital possessed by the traditional journalists in the field.
The bloggers seem to acknowledge that difference in cultural capital during the interviews. However, it is interesting to see that that acknowledgement appears to be two-sided. On the one hand they do not think that their work is inferior to that of traditional journalists. In other words, they view their work as qualitatively equal to that of the traditional journalists. On the other hand, they all state that they often do not have the time to write lengthy or in-depth articles, because of the fact that blogging is something they do part-time. What follows from this, is that bloggers and traditional journalists differ in their views about the purpose of popular music journalism, and the role they impute to themselves in that field.
The traditional interviewees all like to think of themselves of informing entities, casting a critical eye on what happens in the music scene. Despite the changes in the field as a whole due to the web, it seems that the traditional journalists try to cling to this role. Bloggers, however, seems to view their role in the field more as one of enthusing people for the music they like, or promoting it. Thus, it can be stated that the raison d’être of the actors in the Dutch field of popular music journalism have shifted due to the rise of the Internet and new media. Moreover, this also means is that there appears to be a struggle over the representations of cultural capital in the field.
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to begin with, stood out is that both traditional journalists and bloggers have a strong attitude towards the changes that popular music journalism in The Netherlands has gone through. When talking about the differences between traditional journalists and bloggers, both groups were eager to share their opinions. Yet, the traditional journalist give the impression to have the strongest attitudes towards that subject. Generally, they seem to turn their noses up at bloggers, saying that what bloggers do is ‘not the real deal’. They appear to disapprove bloggers, putting them away as practicing ‘holiday reporting’, in Peter Bruyn’s words. That disapproval seems to be twofold: on the one hand a disapproval of the underlying values that bloggers have, and on the other hand a disapproval of the actual ways bloggers go about their activities. This suggests a fundamental struggle between the two groups in the field.
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However, on the negative side, the traditional journalists feel that their profession has become less important, which was also briefly discussed in Chapter 3 of this thesis. Apart from the fact that the authority they once had is increasingly irrelevant, this is also expressed through access to artists for e.g. interviews.
If one looks at the social backgrounds and educational levels of the interviewees, there is not much differentiation among them: roughly all of them were raised in middle-class to upper-middle-middle-class environments, and all enjoyed a relatively high educational level. It can be said that not one of the bloggers in this research appears to have followed what can be considered a ‘deviant trajectory’, in Bourdieu’s terms. In other words, not one of the bloggers has arrived at blogging from a considerably higher social background. This downward spiral, suggested by Bourdieu as a factor to enhance the likeliness of change within a field, does not appear to hold in the case of bloggers as newcomers in the Dutch field of music journalism. Thus, in this sense, bloggers would not be likely to bring about
a lot of change in the field.
Perhaps the most important findings of this research are those with respect to the ‘rules of the game’: journalistic norms, ethics, and rules in the Dutch field of popular music journalism. First, it should be noted that the traditional journalists seem to diligently seek to maintain popular music journalism has been in the past, which is in line with Bourdieu’s concept of ‘orthodoxy’, where the ‘old’ actors try to maintain their positions in the field by clinging to established rules.All bloggers, however, said to adhere to – or at least try to adhere to – most of the traditional ‘rules of the game’ of popular music journalism. All interviewees mentioned the importance of clear and correct writing, telling the truth, and
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However, a dividing line between the two groups seems to lie at the norms of independence and objectivity, and this can be seen as an extension of the role perception of popular music journalists and bloggers. Traditional journalist blame bloggers for not working objectively, and disrupting the rules of what constitutes art criticism. Their reproach is that bloggers solely write about the things they like, and are not critic al enough.
