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The purpose of this paper is to interpret the 1850 debut American performances of Swedish concert singer Jenny Lind as an emblematic moment in the history of live music promotion.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to interpret the 1850 debut American performances of Swedish concert singer Jenny Lind as an emblematic moment in the history of live music promotion.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper studies the manner in which Lind's earliest concerts and the singer herself were marketed through analysis of contemporary newspaper and magazine reports and advertisements.
Findings
Lind's concerts were important for the way they demonstrate the complex balance of “high” and “low” cultural forces at a transitional moment in US cultural history, and for the way in which her manager, P.T. Barnum, used various mechanisms to manage the potential disorder posed by her immense audiences.
Research limitations/implications
The paper addresses only the first few concerts of Lind's nearly two‐year American tour in detail, but uses those concerts as a case study for understanding the degree to which the business of nineteenth‐century concert promotion had to balance the pursuit of profit with the demands of crowd control.
Social implications
Lind's example demonstrates how a complex range of class interests needed to be balanced in order for her to reach something approaching a “mass audience,” in modern parlance.
Originality/value
The paper provides a historical perspective on issues that continue to have relevance for the promotion of large‐scale commercial events, and addresses critical questions about the nature of the collective experience provided through live music performance.
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Stephen Brown and Christopher Hackley
Simon Cowell, the impresario behind The X Factor, a popular television talent show, has often been compared to P.T. Barnum, the legendary nineteenth century showman. This paper…
Abstract
Purpose
Simon Cowell, the impresario behind The X Factor, a popular television talent show, has often been compared to P.T. Barnum, the legendary nineteenth century showman. This paper aims to examine the alleged parallels in detail and attempts to assess this “Barnum reborn” argument.
Design/methodology/approach
Putative parallels between the impresarios are considered under the aegis of two long‐standing, if contentious, historical “theories”: time's cycle and the great man thesis.
Findings
Seven broad similarities between the showmen are identified: vulgarity, hyperbole, rivalry, publicity, duplicity, liminality and history. In each case, the arguments pro and con are explored, as is humanity's propensity to personify.
Originality/value
In accordance with the iconic literary critic Harold Bloom, who “strikes texts together to seek if they spark”, this paper strikes two celebrated showmen together to generate historical sparks.
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ON April 23rd this year, when all countries in the world will be celebrating the Quater‐centenary of Shakespeare's birthday, the Shakespeare Memorial Library in Birmingham will…
Abstract
ON April 23rd this year, when all countries in the world will be celebrating the Quater‐centenary of Shakespeare's birthday, the Shakespeare Memorial Library in Birmingham will have attained a majority of one hundred years. Although founded in 1864 the scope of the library was first envisaged by George Dawson, President of the local Shakespeare club in a letter to Aris's Birmingham Gazette of 1861.
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Abstract
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Patrick Lo, Robert Sutherland, Wei-En Hsu and Russ Girsberger