MAINTAINING OUR RAGE: INSIDE AUSTRALIA’S LONGEST …

MAINTAINING OUR RAGE: INSIDE AUSTRALIA'S LONGEST-RUNNING

MUSIC VIDEO PROGRAM.

By

Narelle Gee

BA/DipEd (University of NSW)

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Creative Industries)

School of Media, Entertainment, Creative Arts, Film, Screen and Animation Creative Industries Faculty

Queensland University of Technology

2015

Key Words

ABC Alternative Music Australian Broadcasting Corporation Australian Cultural Industries Australian Television Creative Labour Cultural Production Media Culture Music Industry

Music Television Music Videos Popular Music Production Cultures Public Service Broadcasting rage Television Broadcasting Television Production TV Programs

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Abstract

The thesis, "Maintaining our rage: inside Australia's longest-running music video program", takes a reflective and reflexive narrative journey across the decades of rage, from its 1987 creation through to the program's current incarnation, providing unique insider perspectives and affordances.

Australia's longest-running music video program is also, arguably, the most sustained such program globally (Bodey, 2012; Helper, 2012). Despite its longevity, there has been scarce scholarly analysis of rage, and of what has underpinned its unusual endurance; many music video programs have come and gone during the program's long-held tenure. How has rage survived the vicissitudes of network programming ? particularly within the capricious space of music video programming - and maintained its cultural place and role, for more than a quarter of a century?

The significance of this research is that it explores rage's unusual durability, examines the program's unique elements, and answers three key research questions: What has been the history of rage as a program and a cultural entity? What has been the cultural significance of rage? How did rage create a shift within the music industry ecology of Australia?

This thesis presents an insider's account of rage, exploring it within its ABC TV and public broadcasting context. As an insider's history, it aligns with the tradition of ABC program makers documenting programs, program making, the ABC's cultural politics, and the ABC experience.

This historical study of rage examines the program from the inside, presenting the accounts of its program makers, aided by the perspective of an embedded researcher. As rage's Series Producer, from 1995 to 2008, the author has a deep personal, biographical, and professional association with the program. Accordingly, the study's qualitative methodological approach acknowledges personal perspective, individual knowledge, and subjectivity. The researcher's position ? biographically situated writer-as-interpreter presenting the perspective of the insider - has been triangulated and balanced by the established research methods of: writing as research, semi-structured interviews, and archival research.

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List of figures and tables

Figure 1.1 Table 1.1

rage's program logo .........................................14 Research interview stakeholder groups..................25

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Table of Contents

Key Words ................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 List of figures and tables .............................................................................................. 4 List of abbreviations used in this thesis ..................................................................... 10 Statement of Original Authorship .............................................................................. 11 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 12

Historical echoes: "maintain your rage" to "maintaining our rage" .................... 14 The insider perspective .......................................................................................... 14 Brief outline of the introductory chapter................................................................ 19 The general research approach............................................................................... 19 The specific research approach and methodology ................................................. 20 Data collection strategies and interpretation of data .............................................. 23 The interviews ........................................................................................................ 24 Brief outline of the available literature .................................................................. 25 The literature: conclusion....................................................................................... 26 The research's significance, scope and contribution.............................................. 27 Definition of key concepts ..................................................................................... 29

Music video ........................................................................................................ 29 Music television ................................................................................................. 29 Chapter overview ................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................... 33 Literature and Contextual Review ............................................................................. 33 Introduction/Background ....................................................................................... 33 Music video, music television, and the MTV cacophony ...................................... 34 MV2.0: New Digital Contexts ............................................................................... 41 Conclusion: the state of the debate on music video and its contexts ..................... 45 Other contexts: moving beyond MTV and towards rage....................................... 46 The ABC context ................................................................................................... 54 rage within `other' writings ................................................................................... 56 Production studies, industrial reflexivity, and rage reflexivity.............................. 61 Creative labour within the cultural industries ........................................................ 62

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Inside cultural and media organisations ................................................................. 64 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 65 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................... 67 The first decade of rage (1987 ? 1996)...................................................................... 67 rage enters the picture: introduction, background and program launch ................ 67 Screams of `rage': the term `rage' and the distinctive program titles ................... 69 ABC TV's overnight `Station Close' comes to a close.......................................... 70 The rush to rage: creation of the program ............................................................. 73 Truncation and Fortuitous Compromise: naming rage .......................................... 75 rage unites with "Real Wild Child": the opening titles music............................... 76 r-r-r-r-rage!: the opening titles.............................................................................. 78 Psychedelic explosion: the rage logo.................................................................... 79 rage `fills' the night: convenience and economy ................................................... 80 rage's nature, roles and functions .......................................................................... 81 A rage audience: imagined and real....................................................................... 85 Questioning rage's character: personality, character and identity......................... 89 rage's home base.................................................................................................... 90 Separation and difference: the early production culture of rage............................ 91 Unstructured rage .................................................................................................. 93 Networks: rage within the ABC machine .............................................................. 97 rage on air: uninterrupted adult party music.......................................................... 98 The all-night music video party ........................................................................... 100 Democratisation and diversity: program policies ................................................ 103 Fractured rage: multiple genres and split focus ................................................... 106 Aesthetics and an evolving identity ..................................................................... 108 rage's approach to music video and its style of programming ............................ 110 Into the regions..................................................................................................... 112 rage within the music industry............................................................................. 113 Record company `relationships' .......................................................................... 115 An outlet for music video makers ........................................................................ 120 Reactions: the media and award-winning rage .................................................... 121 The simulcast and triple j connections ................................................................. 123 The Top 50 Chart: rage the `babysitter' .............................................................. 125

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Late-night rage: pushing at the boundaries ......................................................... 127 Classifying your rage ........................................................................................... 129 While they were sleeping: rage's secret late-night world.................................... 130 rage Specials ........................................................................................................ 131 rage's Guest Programmers: your show, your time .............................................. 132 The rage couch..................................................................................................... 138 The Red Book ...................................................................................................... 139 Retro rage ............................................................................................................ 139 Our rage ............................................................................................................... 140 Passion and affection: the rage underdog endures............................................... 142 Saving rage: the rumour of the axe...................................................................... 143 The Lewis Factor ................................................................................................. 145 Maintain your rage............................................................................................... 147 A pay-for-play crisis ............................................................................................ 152 Running rage........................................................................................................ 154 The nature of rage's production culture............................................................... 156 Wayward, mysterious rage .................................................................................. 157 The production team and the rage associates ...................................................... 158 Into the gap: flexible rage .................................................................................... 159 The end of rage's first decade.............................................................................. 160 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................. 161 The second decade of rage (1997 ? 2006) ............................................................... 161 Turning 10 ............................................................................................................ 161 Departure and relocation ...................................................................................... 163 rage and Recovery ............................................................................................... 164 Station identification ............................................................................................ 167 "Real Wild Child" to leave home?....................................................................... 168 rage: the album .................................................................................................... 169 Minor alterations .................................................................................................. 171 Online: rage moves out of the shadows ............................................................... 172 The evolving brand .............................................................................................. 175 Recovery fails to recover: rage expands .............................................................. 177 Executive decisions and promotional considerations .......................................... 179

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Digital transformations......................................................................................... 183 2001: rage `collocates'......................................................................................... 184 Homeless in Ultimo and the `collocation' blues .................................................. 185 Wandering the Ultimo wilderness........................................................................ 189 More digital changes ............................................................................................ 190 A change of management..................................................................................... 191 Controlling rage ................................................................................................... 193 Informal production meetings .............................................................................. 195 Employment instability ........................................................................................ 197 Formal production meetings ................................................................................ 198 The `Youth Hub' and JTV ................................................................................... 198 Marks and Scars and the end of the Top 50 ......................................................... 199 Radio with pictures: JTV and Triple J TV ........................................................... 202 To rate, or not to rate? .......................................................................................... 203 Heading for 20 years of rage ............................................................................... 204 Chapter 4 .................................................................................................................. 205 The third decade of rage (2007 ? present) ............................................................... 205 20 years of rage: `take one' ................................................................................. 205 A hiatus and an ending ......................................................................................... 208 20 Years of rage: `take two' ................................................................................ 209 20 Years and beyond ............................................................................................ 210 New services, new platforms ............................................................................... 213 Another new EP ................................................................................................... 214 Economy drive: doing even more with even less................................................. 215 Dead producer walking ........................................................................................ 218 Disconnecting from rage? ................................................................................... 221 Whose rage? ........................................................................................................ 221 More departures, a demotion and a faux guest programming.............................. 223 Separation from rage ........................................................................................... 224 Restructure, transience and flux ........................................................................... 228 Silver Jubilee: rage at 25...................................................................................... 230 A rage exhibition ................................................................................................. 233 Generations of rage and the Koh Factor .............................................................. 235

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