The Dynamics of Musicking: Connections, Classifications, and Careers

Many scholars emphasize three aspects of music. First, music is not simply an object to be studied, it is also an ongoing activity (“musicking”). Second, that activity is both enabled and influenced by connections to others. That is, musicking is social. Third, this collective activity is made possible by genre classifications and other shared, if not contested, understandings of what is desirable or acceptable. In other words, musicking has cultural foundations.

In this talk, I discuss how those three aspects combine over time to shape the careers of musicians in unequal fashion. I do so by focusing on key moments in those careers: if and when musicians secure employment and attention for their music; if and when their music circulates across locales and nations; and if and when they are eventually remembered (or forgotten) decades later.

In each of those moments, the socio-cultural aspects of musicking combine to favor some careers at the expense of others – such as when racialized and gendered classifications “get into” both the music and career opportunities. This talk draws upon my past and current research, all of which interrogates how the dynamics of musicking unfold in various genres and in various times.

 

Timothy J. Dowd is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned his PhD in Sociology at Princeton University, with particular specialization in cultural sociology, music sociology, and organizational studies. Since conferral of his degree, he has published on such issues as the evolving orchestral canon, the evolution of the recording industry, musician careers and reputations, underground music scenes, and the state of music sociology. He was Chair of the Sociology of Culture Section of the American Sociological Association, and for five years, he was Editor-in-Chief of Poetics: Journal of Empirical Research on Culture, Media, and the Arts.