Control, temporary organisations and the accounting complex: evidence from record production projects during the 1960s

Darren Jubb, William John Jackson, Nicholas Julian Paisey

Research output: Contribution to conferenceUnpublished paperpeer-review

Abstract

This paper aims to extend historical accounting research into the realm of popular music. The focus is the decade of the 1960s, a celebrated period where music became firmly intertwined, both culturally and commercially, within the very fabric of British society. During this period, important changes were occurring within the music industry in general, and the recording industry in particular, as the permanent structures within which record production projects were organised fell away to be replaced by more flexible, temporary organisational structures. The aim of the current study is to examine the role of accounting in organising and controlling record production projects during the 1960s. In doing so, the idea of the accounting complex, a combination of accounting's territorialising, mediating, adjudicating and subjectivising roles, is presented as the means by which record companies retained control of the record production process during this period. The study uses a combination of primary and secondary sources. Much of the work on record production is well established in the historical literature and the paper therefore draws on these sources in order to establish the role of accounting control in record production. Primary sources were drawn from nine interviews conducted with personnel who were active in the British recording industry during the latter half of the 1960s, ranging from record producers and engineers to record company management.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 7 May 2016

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