Making New Zealand's Pop Renaissance

Michael Scott argues that New Zealand's pop music renaissance of the early 2000s was supported by state policies. He shows how the state built market opportunities for popular musicians through public-private partnerships and organisational affinity with existing music industry institutions. New Zealand offers an instructive case for the ways in which 'after neo-liberal' states steer and co-ordinate popular culture into market exchange by incentivising cultural production.

Michael Scott is a Lecturer in Sociology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He has previously published in Popular Music, Journal of Sociology and Poetics.

Contents: New Zealand's pop renaissance; The 'after neo-liberal promotional state'; The development of popular music policy; The state and popular music markets; Musicians and the state; Popular music as social policy; Conclusion: governing through popular culture?; Appendix; Select bibliography; Index.