Concentration and Diversity Revisited

Production Logics and the U.S. Mainstream Recording Market, 1940-1990

Bibliographic Data

ID10520480
AuthorsTimothy J Dowd (0000-0002-6739-4433, Emory University, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume82
Issue4
Pages1411-1455
Publication date2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Forces (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0037-7732 • E-ISSN: 1534-7605
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1353/sof.2004.0067
OpenAlexW2111723417
LanguageEN
Citations received69
References cited42

What shapes the diversity of media markets? A literature on the U.S. recording industry offers competing accounts. The cyclical account stresses the negative effect of market concentration, where high concentration dampens diversity. The open system account stresses a mitigated effect, where the logic of decentralized production reduces concentration's negative effect. However, both accounts contain notable gaps. This article fills these gaps and consequently advances this literature. Most notably, it adjudicates these accounts by analyzing time series data on two carriers of diversity: performing acts and recording firms. When decentralized production is low, as in the 1940s, high concentration reduces the number of new performers and new firms. When decentralized production grows more pronounced, as in the 1980s, concentration's negative effect is reduced and eventually eliminated

Atlanta · Diversity (politics · Economics · Library science · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Production (economics · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · History · Law · Music History and Culture · Social and Cultural Dynamics