Symbolic Capital and the Production Discourse of The American Music Show: A Microhistory of Atlanta Cable Access

The American Music Show, an Atlanta cable public access television show that ran from 1981 to 2005, is not only a forgotten piece of production history but also a fertile case study. This article—situated in both local Atlanta and national cable access contexts in which the show began—uses the tools of production studies to construct a microhistory of local cable access, analyzing the hopes, ideals, ethos, and actual production practices that surrounded the show. The producers of The American Music Show reflect on their work in the initial years of the show as creatively avant-garde but ultimately limited within the commercial structures of television. It is that tension that has enabled them to claim part of the show's symbolic capital.