Subject and Object

I wanted to do my case study based around the British Records Industry Trust Awards (BRIT Awards) because it is an event particularly interests me, as whilst I do not actually have a strong passion for events management, I do have an interest in music and talent management. Alongside this, by studying the ceremony in great detail I think if I ever was to go into events management I would be interested in being a part of these types of events, or something under the same genre such as a film premiere or different award ceremony.

The show has always been run by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a company that represents the interests of the majority of the record labels within the UK. One of these record labels is Warner Records UK, a division of the global Warner Bros. enterprise. Alongside running events such as fashion shows and promotional events it was my assumption based on what I had been told by a friend who works there that the company also has a considerable role in the organization of the BRITs. This was actually one of the main reasons why I chose to study the BRIT Awards; because I have a friend currently working at Warner Records who should have been able to provide me with the necessary information and contacts to explore the mechanics of the award show in great detail.

However, this was not the case. After eventually making further contact with some of the more experienced staff at Warner Records, I discovered that the record labels have nothing to do with the actual organization and management of the ceremony, they solely represent the artists who attend. This led to one of the main problems I had when gathering data; not having enough first hand data to support my case study.

This problem was not entirely overcome. Whilst I did finally get in contact with BPI, this was brief and only a few short emails took place within the time I had left to write my study. These emails did prove to be useful when writing the report, however if I had established contact with BPI earlier I would have obtained much more thorough information.

Once I had chosen a subject, I needed to have a question or ‘object’ for my case study. I eventually decided that I would look into how the BRIT awards has changed over the past 30 years to the media friendly mainstream event we know it as today. This decision was made due to my own personal opinion on the music industry currently. I do not like the way that television now drives the current album charts by shows such as X-Factor and large award ceremonies such as the BRITs almost choosing what we listen to for us. Record companies like Warner Records are I believe responsible for this, promoting music to fit in with the what the universal media demands rather than a variety of music to suit public demand. A perfect example of this is the friend I mentioned earlier working at Warner. He has always had a specific music taste and hated most music produced solely to make money and fit in with the current charts. However, he now promotes all those things that he once was so strongly against. This is therefore why I thought it would be incredibly interesting to explore why or if this is the case and understand how the music industry got to this point, using the BRIT Awards as a fundamental example.

  

Images:

1.     http://beta.wrmf-fm.tritondigitalmedia.com/upload/image/WARNER%20BROS%20RECORDS.jpg accessed on 17/05/12

2.     http://www.techdigest.tv/cgi-bin/mt/mt-search.fcgi?IncludeBlogs=2&tag=X-Factor&limit=20 accessed on 17/05/12