Music of Israel - Evolution of The Music Industry

Evolution of The Music Industry

Starting in 1967, the productions of the Lehakot Tzva'iyot became much more elaborate, and for the next five years these groups played a defining role in Israeli music. However, in the 1980s the Lehakot started to decline, until they were discontinued altogether. Taking their place as a breeding ground for new musical talent were the two classical music academies in Israel — The Rubin Academy in Jerusalem and the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music in Tel Aviv — as well as two private schools that teach mostly jazz and popular music (The Rimon school in Ramat Hasharon and the Hed school in Tel Aviv).

Until the end of the 1980s, the Israeli government, primarily through its control of radio and television, continued to play a central role in shaping the musical tastes of Israelis. In 1965, a feud between rival concert promoters was behind conservative forces in the government that refused to allocate foreign currency to pay for the Beatles to play in Israel. Some rock and Muzika Mizrahit artists complained that the radio and television discriminated against their music, preventing the commercial success of these increasingly popular genres.

With the commercialization of Israeli radio and television in the 1990s, the hegemony of the state-run media as arbiters of musical taste declined. In their place, recording companies, impresarios and clubs became increasingly important in finding new talent and advancing careers, in a manner more typical of European and American industries.