Live Music Exchange Blog

Live Music Exchange, Newcastle. Keynote: Living Music, Situating Value – Professor Simon Frith [video]

Share

Music’s role in, and value to, society has emerged in the news from multiple angles recently. Its economic contribution is highlighted by UK Music’s Measuring Music 2018 report, as well as in the Ten Year Report from the Association of Independent Festivals. Other values have been prominent too, as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, has suggested that doctors could prescribe mixtapes and concerts in addition to medication – a welcome acknowledgement of music’s health benefits, although GPs and charities have warned that it would be no replacement for sufficient resources to deliver both social and medical care.

Meanwhile, the Musicians’ Union’s recent report on music education has warned of the impact of cuts to music education, and lower incomes being priced out of participating. Spaces for live music, also, still face challenges from development with venues from Edinburgh, to Oxford to Manchester closing or under threat, and at the centre of fightbacks and local campaigns.

With music at the centre of such a broad range of benefits, controversies and challenges, we revisit in today’s post the keynote address by Professor Simon Frith OBE from our Live Music Exchange, Newcastle event in 2016, in which he draws upon his experience as a rock critic, researcher and academic writer to examine the different criteria that we apply when making assessments of music’s value.

To view the video on YouTube click here

Please note that this is a forum for discussion, dialogue, and debate, and posts and comments on this blog represent only the author, not Live Music Exchange as a whole, or any other hosting or associated institutions.

       BLOG POSTS BY MONTH

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *