Electronically Recorded Music as a Communication Medium: A Structural Analysis with Selected Bibliography.

During the past decade, the influence of electronically recorded music and the message it transmits have caused media scholars to reexamine and modify the theories upon which the basic process of communication is dependent. While the five primary functions (source, transmitter, channel, receiver, and destination) remain unchanged, an additional element--the complex, formal organizations--has been inserted into the process. The formal organizations include the body of interdependent industries involved in the production of primary communication process functions essential to the medium's existence. In the pop music industry these elements include the artist, the producer, record company executives, the promoter, sponsors, advertising agencies, radio programming, radio station personnel, the audience, sponsor sales, and record consumption. The net output of this interdependent industrial body provides a filtering process through which all messages introduced into the medium must pass prior to reaching their ultimate destinations. A discussion of this process and its effect on communication, five explanatory charts, and a selected bibliography are included in this paper. (TS)