ABSTRACT
Introduction In a landscape where entry-level jobs suitable for young people have been all but eradicated and youth unemployment remains high (Furlong and Cartmel 2007; Murray and Gayle 2012), I have identified young people who have moved in and out of the NEET category to become artist-entrepreneurs and business owners. These individuals have established businesses that have enabled them to move beyond the boundaries of their inner-city environments to create meaningful work for themselves and others. They have developed, through informal learning, the necessary skills, knowledge and capabilities to be legitimate players in the urban music economy. Because a key focus of this book is the extent of entrepreneurship within the urban music economy, it is crucial to consider the complexities and interconnectedness of these business strands. The urban music economy is a complex fabric containing a multiplicity of roles and practitioners operating within and across the sector as artists and as entrepreneurs. In this chapter, I have used a narrative approach to provide an enhanced reading of what motivates young people from impoverished backgrounds to establish their own business and the process by which they become enterprising individuals (Johansson 2004). The participants in this research project form part of a wider discourse that renders young black men in particular as both troubled and troublesome. The majority of the informants in this book emerge from this social constituency. While many had at some point been classified as NEET, all were active agents in the urban music economy. They had, on the whole, learned the rules of the game by immersing themselves in the setting, observing others, getting feedback and through trial and error. Gifts of time, equipment or other resources were an invaluable contribution to business start-up. But essentially, what underpins the
practice is the participants’ desire to share their creativity with the widest possible audience. Four decades ago, in the pre-Internet days, urban music events were publicised through flyers in community settings, record shops and barbershops. Performers relied on these mainly word-of-mouth pursuits to promote their public image and forthcoming activities. Advances in technology have meant that it has become less costly to record music and to produce music videos. The proliferation in digital TV channels has enabled a flow to and from online TV channels and a wide dissemination of urban music on a local and national level. From the simple act of searching for a performing name on Google, it is possible to observe how the utilisation of Web 2.0 technology has enabled young people in the urban music economy to establish an online presence and disseminate their creative output. Music videos, shot cheaply and uploaded on YouTube and then promoted via social media, support the creation of an online persona as an MC, DJ, beatmaker, producer or entrepreneur. On YouTube generally, and on niche online channels such as SBTV, Linkup TV and GRM Daily, in particular, young people from impoverished backgrounds use performance to construct identities that showcase and highlight excellence, innovation, oratory and humour. Nevertheless, this transition into an online persona has not been without its challenges. My informants expressed that they had little use for what they had learned at school. Indeed, learning about ‘old-school guys’ like Pavarotti bore no relevance to their planned or actual career in the music industry. The business component of the creative practice is in evidence throughout, from DJs paying subscriptions to play on pirate radio to the filming of low-cost music videos. In the final part of the chapter, I explore the themes of collaborative practice, entry points into the business world and getting by, by drawing on the operations of four key businesses in the urban music sector.
