Abstract

Next to the mainstream and the underground, the alternative mainstream constitutes the third segment within the popular music circuit: music that combines economic mainstream-qualities with an artistic imago. Inspired by the upcoming sociology of valuation and evaluation and the work of Pierre Bourdieu, we examine which general selection logics are used by Flemish professionals when dealing with the extensive offer in alternative mainstream music. Our 24 depth-interviews with a well-reasoned sample of radio programmers, journalists, artist managers and festival or concert programmers indicate that four selection logics are at stake. Because of the importance attached to it, also normatively, we focus on the so-called individual logic or ‘selecting out of one’s personal artistic taste’. This logic is closely related to the underlying value of authenticity: ‘good music sounds honest and truthful’. We therefore speak of a romantic discourse that we also characterize, inspired by other authors, as ‘the rock aesthetic’. We subsequently discuss how the individual selection logic is deployed as a means of distinction in the delineation of the alternative mainstream towards the mainstream. We then highlight the definition struggle within the Flemish alternative mainstream that is grafted onto the individual logic and the boundary with the mainstream. Next, we show how that very same individual logic goes hand in hand with a binding legitimate taste or ‘doxa’, which the respondents have clearly interiorized. In the final section we examine the relationship between the dominant criterion of choice and the other selection logics, particularly the organisational-economic one. We thereby look at possible frictions and the thus generated ambiguity in the interviewees’ discourse. We conclude with a broader contextualization of our research findings by relating them to the tension between ‘the artistic’ and ‘the economic’ in most sectors of the creative or cultural economy.

How to Cite:

Keunen, G. & Laermans, R., (2013) “Het artistieke blijft het belangrijkste: rockesthetica en individuele selecties binnen de Vlaamse alternatieve mainstream”, Tijdschrift voor Sociologie 34(3-4), 390–413. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/sociologos.86836