(SCL5) The Sociology of Music

This session will feature new empirical and theoretical contributions to the sociology of music. Researchers featured in this session will present work on musicians, listeners, and mediums of consumption. Tags: Culture

Organizer: Taylor Price, New York University; Chair: Taylor Price, New York University

Presentations

Michelle Nadon Bélanger, University of Toronto

(Stream)lining change in music classification: Spotify as a cultural intermediary

This paper describes how Spotify’s efforts to promote its services have afforded its position as a cultural intermediary in the digital music industry. It illustrates how specific functions and features of Spotify’s premium subscription—notably, its avenues for user engagement and its algorithm-driven approach to personalization and music discovery— alter users’ perception and consumption of music available on its platform by enabling the formulation of new classificatory categories for music. Specifically, Spotify has engendered a partial shift away from traditional music genre classification (e.g., country, pop, rock, 80s, Turkish, ‘world’, etc.) toward more colloquial ways of categorizing music that align with hallmark elements of the ‘mood market’ (Fernandez-Perez et al. 2021) that center on emphasizing cultural products’ relationship to consumers’ everyday life. Research also demonstrates that such developments in music classification ultimately effect growth in the diversity and valuation of artists and producers on the platform, which effectively illustrates the full gamut of Spotify’s intermediary role. Moreover, this paper suggests that Spotify’s role as a cultural intermediary in the digital music industry can also be specifically understood as democratizing in regards to practices of music classification and production. Through both platform/AI- and user-generated playlists, Spotify allows its users to be dynamically involved in both the consumption and the development of music categories that are based on given tracks’ relevance to everyday affect(s), context(s), and sensory experiences. For example, users frequently engage with tracks that are grouped together under exclusively colloquial descriptors (e.g., Sunday Morning, Badass, Chill Dinner, Yellow, Heartbreaker, etc.) or are categorized through traditional genre categories that are ‘colloquialized’ with the addition of such descriptors (e.g., Bedroom Pop, Feel Good Classical, Cooking with Swing, etc.). While some have described colloquial categorization as an ‘ultraniche’ expansion of existing musical genre classification, this paper draws on evidence from literature on music and timbral perception that posits that colloquial categorization is a different form of sonic classification (Rodgers 2020:202; Wallmark 2019). Considering that listeners with no formal musical training describe music in relation to the affective state(s) and context(s) it inspires rather than its technical characteristics and parameters (Kim and Belkin 2002), I suggest that the colloquial music classification enabled by Spotify can be distinguished from traditional genre classification on the basis that it is democratized. This also applies to music production, aligning with accounts of how Spotify’s genre-transcendent playlist and recommendation features also lend themselves to fostering a greater diversity of popular artists on the platform, further diversifying and broadening avenues for music production in addition to users’ listening habits (Mulligan 2020; Prey, Esteve Del Valle, and Zwerwer 2020). In exploring the nature and implications of Spotify’s position vis-à-vis the music and users on its platform, this paper compares and contrasts current definitions of cultural intermediaries to better situate the Spotify in relevant discourse about cultural intermediation. In doing so, it also frames the process of cultural intermediation in a manner that extends beyond its habitually emphasized implications at the level of taste, status, and distinction and considers its potential impacts within systems of knowledge. Moreover, this paper also provides grounds upon which we may establish a more systematic understanding of everyday music classification by considering insights from both sociology and music perception.

Dorian DiTommaso, University of Toronto

Here for You (From a Distance): Theorizing How Musicians of Intense Genres Provide Social Support to Their Listeners

Social support has been defined as the ability to, or the belief that one will be able to, discuss their own personal problems with someone who is “supportive and understanding” in a manner beyond the “surface of each other’s lives” (Pearlin et al., 1989; Ross and Mirowsky 1989:208). Research in this area has often emphasized personal relationships in the sense of close network ties. In other words, it has focused on connections between an individual and those who are known personally to them as possible, but not guaranteed, sources of social support. Literature has not grappled with the idea of social support stemming from impersonal relationships. My paper builds on the breadth of social support literature (Pearlin 1981; Ross and Mirowsky 1989; Cheng 2017; Sharifan and O’Brien 2019) to theorize about how musicians who are unknown personally to the individual might provide social support for cultural consumers through their lyrics. More specifically, I seek to question how a unidirectional relationship (i.e., the consumer knows the artist; the artist does not know the consumer) can help the consumer cope with their personal problems in a healthy and resilient manner. I contemplate a few ways in which musicians, through their lyrics, might benefit consumers in this way. First, I suggest that musicians provide a form of “perceived support” through their lyrics (Ross and Mirowsky 1989). This form of support is predicated upon the belief that the individual providing support would actually offer tangible assistance if requested. I consider how this belief, and the support gained through lyrical connection between consumer and musician may enable consumers to adopt “protective and functional behaviours to cope with stresses and life events” while living in detrimental social environments (Rowe and Guerin 2018). Second, I discuss the possible origins of the perceived support connection between consumer and musician. I forward the idea that this one-way bond may stem from the consumer’s admiration of the musician’s persistence through personal hardship; an experience which the musician portrays lyrically. By seeing someone else go through similar struggles, the consumer may become more resilient to their own personal problems. I further explore the origins of this connection and its potential benefits through a discussion of shared narratives; similar experiences that bond individuals in group settings (Fine and Corte 2017). I consider how song lyrics may bond consumers with artists through shared experiences presented lyrically. This sharing of experience might foster feelings of “solidarity and trust” in an informal but still “intimate” communication between consumer and producer (Ross and Mirowsky 1989). Following this theorizing, I offer potential ways for measuring the experience of perceived support and provide lyrical cases from the punk/emo/metal genres that I believe might be valuable for future research. The punk/emo/metal genres are chosen as cases due to their highly emotional lyrics, and their previous correlative (not causative) connection to suicide vulnerability (Baker and Bor 2008). I present cases to explain how intense genres like these foster connection and support through self-presentation and shared lived experience.

Caroline Nagy, Independent Researcher; Fiscally sponsored by Fulcrum Arts

Melomaniacs: The Improvised Journeys of Independent West Hollywood Musicians

Melomaniac: a person with great enthusiasm and love for music

     If Los Angeles is considered the creative capital of the world, then West Hollywood (WeHo) musicians can be seen as its cultural citizens. From the historic Sunset Strip to “out and proud” Santa Monica Boulevard, the 1.9 square mile city has habitually served as a haven for emerging and established artists of multicultural genres and identities. And beyond securing its annals in music history, WeHo has routinely challenged the status quo and boundaries of The Arts, which continuously helps to attract and protect artistic individuals of all backgrounds—including the more than 40% of WeHo residents who identify as LGBTQ+ (data.weho.org, 2024). Funded by the City of West Hollywood and fiscally sponsored by Fulcrum Arts, this two-phase research project’s objective is to transverse the sociology of music, Arts advocacy and live performance by qualitatively studying the life courses, musicianship and solidarity of independent (i.e., non-commercial) musicians living and working in WeHo. Its outcome is to share these artists’ stories in order to shape a broader and more public conversation about individual musicians’ agency and the current structures in place that aid or impede their successes and well-being.  Currently in its first phase, this study elicits 30 in-person, semi-structured interviews with local musicians to determine how these individuals derive creative meaning and connections within the musically diverse space of West Hollywood and to explore the existing conditions that allow for independent musicians to express their true self and emotions through their musical vocations. Ranging in age from 27-81, participants represent LGBTQ+ and heterosexual identities as well as the expansive genres and instrumentations that compose the city’s musician base. Emerging themes from phase one include emphases on the musicians’ authentic expression through original songwriting and performance; feelings of acceptance and validation from connections to culturally hybrid WeHo audiences; and nonconformity to the dominant Los Angeles commercial music label restrictions. In further analyses, I develop an alternate framework from which to view Richard Peterson’s (1992) cultural omnivorousness theory—one that draws upon interview data from the producer (i.e., musician) lens versus the consumer (i.e., audience) lens. By deviating from quantitative survey data, we generate deeper, original insights into how West Hollywood serves as a structural cultural omnivorousness domain in the music field and, more importantly, how this communal acceptance of taste amalgamation contributes to a dignified and musically equitable space for artists to be recognized.  Ultimately, “Melomaniacs” offers a greater understanding of how local musicians’ artistic meaning-making and individual pursuits of passion collectively impact the common good of their West Hollywood community.