03/08/11

Diapason Ice: Nostalgia Theory and Performance Practice in NHL

Organ Music.

Antonio Giamberardino

M.A. Candidate, Music and Culture

Carleton University,

Ottawa, Canada

March 11th, 2011

Society for American Music

03/02/11

The Hockey Organ: a Brief History

Rise of the Secular Organ → 19th century

Orchestrion, Carnival Organs

“Omnipresence” of organs in secular places

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/55/Welteor

chestrion1862.jpg

03/08/11

The Hockey Organ: a Brief History

Chicago, 1929 Barton Organ

Company, Osh Kosh, WI

Tremendous Volume

03/08/11

SOURCE: http://www.catoe.org SOURCE: http://hammond-organ.com

03/08/11

1970s and 80s: The Rise of Rock Music

1967 – League Begins Expansion

Philadelphia Spectrum and Rock Concerts

1980s: Heavy Metal and the “Young Male” demographic SOURCE: http://philadelphia.about.com

03/08/11

Nostalgia Theory

Janelle Wilson, Nostalgia : sanctuary of meaning (Lewisburg : Bucknell University Press, 2005)

Origins and “Depsychologization” Johannes Hofer (1669-1752)

03/08/11 Source: http://hockey-blog-in-canada.blogspot.com

03/08/11

Nostalgia Theory

Janelle Wilson, Nostalgia : sanctuary of meaning (Lewisburg : Bucknell University Press, 2005)

Origins and “Depsychologization” Johannes Hofer (1669-1752)

03/08/11

Nostalgia Theory

[A]n intra-personal expression of self which subjectively provides one with a sense of continuity.

[A]n interpersonal form of conversational play, serving the purpose of bonding.

[A] form of ideologizing or mystifying the past. [A] cultural commodity derived from the

experience of a particular age-cohort and transformed into a market segment.

03/08/11

Case Study: the Detroit Red Wings

• From Detroit's Olympia to Joe Louis Arena

• 2009: Dave Calendine hired on

• “Original Six” connection

SOURCE: redwings.nhl.com

03/08/11

“Displaced” Nostalgia

• Wilson: lack of relation between subject and its object

• NHL examples: Ottawa Senators and New Jersey Devils

• Benefits of nostalgia to its audience

03/08/11

Nostalgia Marketing:For the Benefit of the Brand

• Stephen Brown, Retro-marketing: yesterday's tomorrows, today! Marketing Intelligence & Planning 17/7 [1999] 363-376

• Noted nostalgia brands → Coca-cola, Starbucks, Old Spice

• The hockey organ and the VW Beetle

03/08/11

Benefits of Nostalgia Marketing

Clearly, the pervasiveness of retromarketing has something to do with the companies that are promulgating it, since it doesn't happen all by itself. From an organisational standpoint, indeed, it makes eminent sense to play the heritage card when there is a heritage to play with. In a world where top-notch performance is industry standard in countless product categories – cars, cameras, colas, cornflakes, chinos, cellular phones etc. – the length of one's lineage remains a meaningful dimension of differentiation and, at the same time, a means of positioning the competition as less trustworthy, less reputable, less knowledgeable than the first born.

03/08/11

FIN