ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book demonstrates that the days of popular music being considered as a purely free market form are over. It also argues that the new relationship between government and the music industries can only be understood by reference to broader changes which pushed the creative industries to the forefront of successive governments' economic and social policy. Moreover, the music industries have been courted by government at exactly the same time as they have come under suspicion. Meanwhile the music industries' lobbying of government and subsequent action by government also showed the continued importance of the nation-state in popular music. Popular music in the United Kingdom (UK) has long experienced indirect subsidies from the state in forms of educational provision, the public funding of the BBC and a range of schemes to support small business and/or counter unemployment.
