The Role of Joint Dynamics in the Evolution of Alternative Market Categories. A Sociohistorical Approach to Independent Music

Abstract

This paper contributes to the understanding of market categorisation processes. More specifically, it analyses the evolution of the independent music category, characterised as a fuzzy category by its instability and as an alternative category by its power relations with the dominant mainstream music category. Based on a sociohistorical approach, we show how external forces such as boundary reconfigurations on the one hand and internal forces such as tension around category representations on the other shape the definition and evolution of the independent music market category. Our findings show the joint action of these dynamics in the emergence and evolution of alternative categories. They highlight the interest of simultaneously examining these multiple dynamics and their relationships in the study of market categories. Our paper also reveals the strategic and ideological issues associated with the alternative – mainstream dialectic, which constitutes a key factor in the structuring and evolution of many other industries.

Keywords

• category dynamics
• categorisation
• alternative market category
• independent music
• sociohistorical approach