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Genre Complexes in Popular Music

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  • Daniel Silver
  • Monica Lee
  • C Clayton Childress

Abstract

Recent work in the sociology of music suggests a declining importance of genre categories. Yet other work in this research stream and in the sociology of classification argues for the continued prevalence of genres as a meaningful tool through which creators, critics and consumers focus their attention in the topology of available works. Building from work in the study of categories and categorization we examine how boundary strength and internal differentiation structure the genre pairings of some 3 million musicians and groups. Using a range of network-based and statistical techniques, we uncover three musical “complexes,” which are collectively constituted by 16 smaller genre communities. Our analysis shows that the musical universe is not monolithically organized but rather composed of multiple worlds that are differently structured—i.e., uncentered, single-centered, and multi-centered.

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  • Daniel Silver & Monica Lee & C Clayton Childress, 2016. "Genre Complexes in Popular Music," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(5), pages 1-23, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0155471
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155471
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    Cited by:

    1. Goldenstein, Jan & Hunoldt, Michael & Oertel, Simon, 2019. "How optimal distinctiveness affects new ventures' failure risk: A contingency perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 477-495.

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