Authenticity as a form of worth

Abstract

Scholarly engagement with authenticity has been revitalized by recent efforts to theorize the value-ladenness of authenticity claims. Yet, these approaches are restricted by the lack of available conceptual tools necessary to explain variations in the meaning of authenticity between different cultural forms and social groups. In this paper, I draw from Boltanski and Thevenot's pragmatic hermeneutics to develop an approach to authenticity in popular culture that conceptualizes it as a form of worth. I apply this new model to an analysis of the meanings of authenticity found in the discourse of fans of indie music and country music. I find that in the indie genre, authenticity involves an inspirational form of worth; in the country genre, it involves a domestic form of worth. I trace these differences back to the matched relationship between the primary groups of fans of each genre and the genres themselves that led both sides to find an interest in these types of authenticity. I conclude by sketching the relevance of this approach for explaining overarching concerns for authenticity in late modern societies.

The Experience of Authenticity Across Three Music Disciplines; Music Therapy, Music Teaching and Music Performance

“…Within music performance literature, authenticity is used in multiple ways referring both to the authenticity of instruments, genre, or a given stylistic-historical period (Kivy, 1995;Ojala & Väkevä, 2015;Rubidge, 1996), as well as applied in relation to the intrapersonal experience of the performer (Dolan, 2010;Kivy, 1995;McKinna, 2014;Newland, 2013). Moreover, the concept is considered in relation to an outside assessment of the authenticity of a performer or performance (Auslander, 2008;Behr, 2015;Bratus, 2016;Moore, 2002;Strand, 2014). However, even though the phenomenon of music and music making could be used as a lens through which it is possible to learn more about authenticity as concept, phenomenon, or tool, to the best of our knowledge it has not yet been explored and connected across music disciplines.…”

Why did Trump call prayers politically correct? The coevolution of the PC notion, the authenticity ethic, and the role of the sacred in public life

“…While philosophers trace the ethic of authenticity back to Rousseau and Herder (Taylor, 1991 ), authenticity is not a single idea; it has been interpreted in different ways in different fields (authenticity means different things in politics and music: Grazian, 2010 ) and social milieus (Grazian, 2003 ; Strand, 2013 ); and also evolved over the years. Even the imperative of being true to oneself, so central to the authenticity ethic, has transformed when views of the self shifted from a long-term project anchored in institutional roles to one consisting in impulses (Turner, 1976 ).…”

Orders of Hunger and Heaven: Neoliberalism, Christian Charity and Homelessness in Taiwan

“…As a consequence, a robust "religious market" has emerged (Lu et al 2008). To describe Taiwan's religious field as a "religious market," is not to subscribe to the economic terminology of the rational choice approach to religion (e.g., Stark and Finke 2000). Yet the omnipresent Daoist or Buddhist temples are frequented not to worship, but to seek favors from the Gods, favors often connected to the intense entrepreneurial spirit that pervades Taiwan.…”