Selling Out or Buying In? Archival Research of Consumer Discourse about Christian Record Label Consolidation
Music and Entertainment Industry Educators Association
MEIEA, Los Angeles, California, March 23, 2018.
Material from this paper was published in Selling Out or Buying In? CCM Magazine and Anxieties over Commercial Priorities in Christian Music, 1980s–1990s and in Archival Research Methods and Music Industry Pedagogy.
Abstract
In 1992, EMI acquired Sparrow Records, at the time the largest and most successful label in the Christian record industry. Sparrow was not the first big Christian label to be acquired by a larger non-Christian label—in the contemporary era, that distinction likely belongs to Word Records, which was acquired by ABC in 1976—nor would it be the last. Indeed, in the following decade, the major labels invested heavily in the Christian market: EMI acquired additional labels to accompany Sparrow in the new EMI Christian Music Group (now Capitol CMG, a division of Universal after the EMI acquisition); Warner ultimately acquired Word’s music businesses; before its merger with Sony, BMG acquired the Provident Music Group, which Zomba had launched in 1997 to oversee its Christian label acquisitions Benson, Brentwood, and Reunion.
Like in other sectors of the music and entertainment industries, reactions to corporate consolidations are mixed. Some observers argue that such acquisitions are necessary to ensure the financial health and continued relevance of the individual businesses; others are concerned that the original missions and priorities of the smaller companies will be diluted, subordinated, and ultimately ignored in favor of their new corporate parents’ objectives. This issue is particularly fraught in the Christian industry, in which the relationship between financial and theological priorities was tense long before its incorporation into the secular industry. Discourses of “selling out” acquire new significance when participants and observers fear that the Christian faith itself might be a causality of corporate consolidation.
How did these discourses manifest in public? What significance did they have for fans, artists, and cultural intermediaries? CCM magazine, for decades the primary source of information about and for the Christian record industry, provides a unique opportunity to observe and analyze reactions to these mergers and acquisitions. CCM was widely read by professionals and consumers, published relatively objective news items alongside more subjective editorializing, and its letters section enabled an engaging exchange of opinions (well before these conversations largely moved to online chat rooms, discussion forums, and comments sections). In this paper I consider the role of archival research in music industry studies to address fan discourse as a barometer of anxieties over corporate consolidation. As a result of MEIEA-funded research into CCM magazine (at Middle Tennessee State University’s Center for Popular Music), I discuss methodological approaches for discerning the diverse range of opinions expressed by committed fans (as a kind of historical ethnography and reception study) and present my findings not only in light of their importance to the historical record but also in terms of their practical significance to music and entertainment industry decision-makers considering an acquisition today.