Class, Control, and Popular Music: Reflections on Music, Positionality, and Performativity in the Industry and in the Academy [Keynote]

Abstract

“The UK’s Creative Industries would need to employ 250,000 more working-class people to be as socio economically diverse as the rest of the economy”

- Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (PEC) Report, 2021

Inspired by Anna Bull’s recent critique of class in classical music culture (Bull 2019), and drawing upon academic studies on class and music technology (Born & Devine 2015), class and music subculture (Furness 2012) and recent industry publications (PEC Report 2021), this paper reflects upon class and popular music in both the industry and in the academy.

In this address, Samantha Bennett draws on her lived experiences as a working class scholar, entering and negotiating a Western Art Music-centric academy as a musician, recordist and academic. As scholars including Lisa McKenzie have noted, accounts and analyses of working class culture, to include music and the broader arts, are often presented via middle class lens(es) (McKenzie 2021). What does it mean to be working class in the industry and the academy? How do working class musicians negotiate spaces where class tourism and performativity are rife? What are the implications for declining social mobility? And how can the industry and academy respond?