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Tyler Cowen lecturing on globalization and music
This Georgetown talk is now on-line; the entire talk is structured around commentary on the economics behind particular musical tracks, including Desmond Dekker, Tarika, some doo-wop, and other favorites of mine.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 24, 2008 at 12:45 PM in Music | Permalink
Comments
Tyler, have you ever thought of doing video blogging? What are your thoughts on that form?
Posted by: Mike Kenny at Jul 24, 2008 8:53:03 PM
Dear Tyler,
1) Your English pronunciation is exceptionally clear and pure: one more reason for foreign (would-be) economists to listen to you.
It struck me that you alternate between [deeversity] and [daiversity]. Are you aware of this?
2) It is quite endearing to see you shake your head and shoulders to the rhythm of Jamaican music.
3) Do you see a way to subtly introduce reggae while giving a talk on hypercohomology of complexes of sheaves on Deligne-Mumford stacks? What's the comparative advantage of mathematicians to economists?
4) "The name of the song is called 'do wap wap' ".
What is the song? What is its name?
Thanks for a pleasant hour.
Your grateful
Attila Smith
Posted by: at Jul 25, 2008 4:27:49 AM
Towards the end of the Q&A you describe how the production of music and films is also globalized.
In films, you suggest that production is a decentralized. The writer, the director, the actors and all the other production staff come from all over the world and they all belong --perhaps-- to different organizations. The actual production of the movie, the distribution, merchandising, PR and adverstising are all done by different players and companies. Even the financing is done by American banks, foreign banks, international funding institutes (e.g. country X would subsidize a film that plays in country X or uses country X's actors or production staff).
Given this decentralized value chain, how come Hollywood still commands such a high share of the big-budget films. If everything can be contracted, why is production so concentrated? Where is the scale in having all the studios in one neighbourhood? In other words, what is the value added by Hollywood studios that nobody else can add?
Posted by: londenio at Jul 25, 2008 4:43:47 AM
Re: 4) "The name of the song is called 'do wap wap' ".
What is the song? What is its name?
This song is available on the "Streets of Ska" compilation produced by Heartbeat records. It is available on Amazon and is a good introduction to some of the good names in ska. The liner notes call the song Du Du Wap and give credit to Chuck Josephs and Dobby Dobson with Aubrey Adams.
As a side note this song is more notable for doo wop influence than most ska of its era but it does demonstrate the hybridization of Jamaican music. Mr Cowen does mention some of the other influences (Jazz and Blues) which along with many other American musical styles are probably more typical. Ska in the early sixties is pretty diverse and there are examples of many different American musical styles that are co-opted.
Posted by: scott duncan at Jul 25, 2008 2:02:21 PM
Tyler, you need an iPod. It would have made your presentation so much easier to just forward and have the songs lined up in a playlist.
By the way, these type of presentations are why I don't watch television anymore. Well, I rarely watch television.
What an interesting presentation.
Posted by: C Hessenflow at Jul 26, 2008 9:11:57 AM
Here's an updated link:
http://www.isi.org/lectures/lectures.aspx?SBy=search&SSub=speaker&SFor=cowen
Posted by: Craig Fratrik at Jul 1, 2009 11:50:42 PM
