"Flexibility in One Place Presumes Rigidity Elsewhere": Record Industry Turbulence and the 1985-87 Legislative Lockdown of Recording Artists (Top Three Paper).

Fewer than 10% of recording artists become profitable; the few who do constitute a form of labor in short supply. Labor shortage favors employees by increasing their bargaining power and mobility. The recording industry presents a stark example of employer response to labor shortage. In 1987 record companies obtained a "carve-out" of recording artists from a statutory 7-year limit on employment contracts, singling out recording artists from all other California workers, effectively exposing them to unlimited contractual bondage. My paper analyzes this under-studied moment in the history of the recording industry and argues that the contractual relations of "imperfectly substitutable" creative workers make visible the generally obscured regulatory rigidities that undergird today's increasingly "flexible" labor markets. It argues that, as a "limiting case" of employment in contemporary market society, recording artists' treatment in law and by employers illuminates the harsh politics at the core of the institution of employment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]