Future perspectives for promoting pop music in Europe

 
On 12. 11.2005, as part of ?Pop Open?, GIM argo is taking part in a debate on ?Pop Music: Scene, Trend or Hype??

The ?Pop Open? Congress 2005, held on 11 and 12 November 2005 in the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart, takes as its subject future perspectives for pop music in Germany and Europe. Experts from the spheres of culture, business and education will discuss public as well as private support initiatives plus educational offers and structures. In addition, Stuttgart concert promoters will present a showcase of German-speaking newcomers. The Congress takes place with the support of organisations including German Sounds AG, the German Music Council, the Baden-Württemberg Regional Office for Communication, and the Baden-Württemberg Pop Academy.

Pop music: scene, trend or hype?

Pop music and youth culture ? for decades they were inextricably linked. Young people simultaneously constituted the cultural basis for new music products as well as the main group of buyers. In a global market in which cultural goods such as music are arbitrarily pushed hither and thither, and youth has for many years no longer been a question of age, this link is broken. So are musical trends simply the result of corporations with global marketing strategies that artificially generate hypes via their market dominance? What comes first: the scene or the market? Do youth cultures still exist? Or is it just what individual marketing campaigns are trying to place before us?

Taking part in the debate:

Dr. Kerstin Ullrich, Managing Director of GIM argo
Terje Lange, Stuttgarter Jugendhaus e.V., Jugendhaus Mitte
Klaus Farin, Archiv der Jugendkulturen e.V.
Dr. Thomas Feist, President of the Federal Association for Cultural Work with Evangelical Youth
Alexander Antonakis, SubCulture RheinMain

Chair: Ute Bechdolf, German-American Institute
Saturday, 12.11.2005  13.30 - 15.00
Organiser?s link: Pop-Büro Region Stuttgart