ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the success of Adele Laurie Blue Adkins as a case study to illuminate some of the key issues surrounding the position of music in the marketplace. British singer Adele Laurie Blue Adkins has experienced a phenomenal amount of success and, not surprisingly, become very rich in the process. Adele's success is remarkable as it comes in the midst of endless woe and lamentation about the state of the music industry, outside any effects of global economic factors, with respect to both sales and quality. Adele's music does not divide into simply optimistic or pessimistic and it does not contain comments on political or economic conditions in the manner of 1930s depression era songs like 'Buddy can You Spare a Dime', or even 'Money's too Tight to Mention' the 1985 critique of Reaganomics from Simply Red originally by the Valentines in 1982.
