Flexibility in One Place Presumes Rigidity Elsewhere’: Record Industry Turbulence and the 1985-87 Legislative Lock Down of Recording Artists

Matt Stahl, The University of Western Ontario

Paper presented at the International Communication Association's 60th Annual Conference, Matters of Communication held in Singapore

Conference program available at https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/ica/ica10/index.php?click_key=1&cmd=Multi+Search+Search+Load+Publication&publication_id=402442&PHPSESSID=hr546m1qcpoqk2i8tl13lmrfr5

Abstract

Fewer than 10% of recording artists become profitable; the few who do constitute a form of labor in short supply. Labor shortage favors employees by increasing their bargaining power and mobility. The recording industry presents a stark example of employer response to labor shortage. In 1987 record companies obtained a carve-out of recording artists from a statutory 7-year limit on employment contracts, singling out recording artists from all other California workers, effectively exposing them to unlimited contractual bondage. My paper analyzes this under-studied moment in the history of the recording industry and argues that the contractual relations of imperfectly substitutable creative workers make visible the generally obscured regulatory rigidities that undergird today's increasingly flexible labor markets. It argues that, as a limiting case of employment in contemporary market society, recording artists treatment in law and by employers illuminates the harsh politics at the core of the institution of employment.