ABSTRACT

This paper explores the wider political economy surrounding the opening of Capitol Records’ first Canadian record pressing plant in 1976. This celebrated facility encapsulates much of the optimism for Canadian music during this period. As a site of research it reveals a great deal of the complex relationship between a multinational corporation and an evolving national record industry. Further, this paper explores the materiality of popular music and places it within the context of national industrial and cultural policy. This material history brings forth a different account of the role of government policy in the development of this industry, with a greater emphasis on Canadian trade policy than on broadcast regulation. The plant began operation a few years after Canada’s broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television Commission, implemented Canadian Content regulations in 1971 for the programming of music created by Canadians on Canadian radio stations. ‘Beyond the branch plant’ draws from archival materials from the EMI Music Canada Archive, housed at the University of Calgary, to offer primary accounts of the development of this plant as well as the economic externalities beyond the music industry that were shaped by this new facility. The conclusions of this study call into question long standing positions regarding the place of national broadcasting content quotas and the growth of cultural industries. It highlights an industrial logic that was largely American in structure and one that indicates that the legacy of these content regulations is more complicated than it is often assumed to be.

摘要

本文探讨了 1976 年 Capitol Records 的第一家加拿大唱片压制厂开业的更广泛的政治经济。这个著名的工厂体现了这一时期加拿大音乐的大部分乐观情绪。作为一个研究场所，它揭示了跨国公司与不断发展的国家唱片业之间的大量复杂关系。此外，本文探讨了流行音乐的物质性，并将其置于国家产业和文化政策的背景下。这段重要的历史对政府政策在该行业发展中的作用提出了不同的描述，更加强调加拿大的贸易政策而不是广播监管。该工厂在加拿大广播监管机构加拿大广播电视委员会几年后开始运营，1971 年实施了加拿大内容法规，用于在加拿大广播电台播放由加拿大人创作的音乐节目。“在分厂之外”从位于卡尔加里大学的 EMI 加拿大音乐档案馆的档案材料中提取，以提供有关该工厂发展的主要说明，以及由该新工厂塑造的音乐产业之外的经济外部性设施。这项研究的结论对国家广播内容配额的位置和文化产业的发展提出了质疑。它突出了一种在结构上主要是美国的工业逻辑，并且表明这些内容法规的遗产比通常假设的要复杂。