The Evaluation of Popular Music in the United States, Germany and the Netherlands: A Comparison of the Use of High Art and Popular Aesthetic Criteria

Venrooij, Alex van; Schmutz, Vaughn

doi:10.1177/1749975510385444

Cited by 74 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Yet the ways in which newspaper critics discuss and classify popular music may show profound national differences (van Venrooij & Schmutz, 2009). This article seeks to extend such research on qualitative similarities and differences in the classification of popular music by newspaper critics.…”

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confidence: 98%

Classifying Popular Music in the United States and the Netherlands

Venrooij

2011

American Behavioral Scientist

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This article focuses on the classification of popular music by newspaper critics in the United States and the Netherlands. By using the "mentions technique" of Rosengren, the author investigates cross-national differences in the use of commercial, aesthetic, and racial logics in the classification of popular music artists, relating them to fieldlevel and macrostructural differences between the United States and the Netherlands. U.S. reviewers are found to mention commercially successful artists more often than their Dutch counterparts. Racial boundaries appear to be strong in both countries.

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confidence: 98%

Classifying Popular Music in the United States and the Netherlands

Venrooij

2011

American Behavioral Scientist

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“…Chong (, p. 11), in her interview‐based study of cultural journalists and book critics, shows that “their goal for writing reviews was not to sell books but to inform the general public about new books as part of a broader cultural conversation.” Accordingly, scholars often point to cultural journalists performing the role of cultural intermediary or mediator between cultural producers and cultural citizen‐consumers, thus turning to theories from cultural sociology to explain the distinct role conceptions and performances of cultural journalists (e.g., Hovden & Knapskog, ; Jaakkola, ; Kristensen, ; Kristensen & From, ). As mentioned, these theories also emphasise cultural journalists' and critics' position as cultural gatekeepers and tastemakers since they select which cultural issues are brought to public attention and by critically discussing them, they contribute to the valorisation of the culture being covered (e.g., Baumann, ; Janssen & Verboord, ; Shrum, ; van Venrooij & Schmutz, ).…”

Section: The Journalism Culture Of Cultural Journalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural journalism—Journalism about culture

Kristensen

2019

Sociology Compass

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This article is an introduction to “cultural journalism,” a specialised type of professional journalism that covers and debates the broad field of arts and culture. The article points to some of the research traditions that have engaged with the news media's coverage of arts and culture and inspired contemporary cultural journalism research, among them cultural sociology and the sociology of journalism. Furthermore, the article outlines the institutional roles and epistemology of cultural journalism, which in several respects differ from dominating normative conceptions of Western journalism. At the same time, the article shows that contemporary journalism shares many similarities with the approaches found in culural journalism, such as interpretation, emotionality, and subjectivity. Finally, the article points to important future paths for cultural journalism research, including comparative perspectives and the political dimensions and potentialities of cultural journalism.

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“…Meanwhile, the past decades also witnessed the rise of alternative, 'popular' forms of critical discourse, albeit often in less prestigious settings. Pop music reviews, for example, are often characterized by a popular aesthetic discourse, in which functionality, entertainment and other more audience oriented criteria prevail over high arts standards (Van Venrooij and Schmutz, 2010). Likewise, Kersten and Bielby (2012) find that contemporary film reviews "incorporate aesthetic elements drawn from popular interests as well as elite art considerations, thereby complicating critics' aesthetic systems and analysts' classificatory schemes.…”

Section: Cultural Legitimationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural Mediators and Gatekeepers

Janssen

Verboord

2015

International Encyclopedia of the Social &Amp; Behavioral Sciences

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The shaping influence of cultural mediators, in particular their legitimizing power, has led cultural scholars to coin them 'tastemakers', 'gatekeepers', 'surrogate consumers', 'reputational entrepreneurs', or even 'co-producers' of the work of art. Yet, in practice, mediators perform highly different and often distinct activities according to their particular contributions in the (increasingly) vertically differentiated process of cultural production. This article discusses the various roles and activities of cultural mediators, followed by a review of the role and impact of critics and other mediators in the production and consumption of culture.

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The Evaluation of Popular Music in the United States, Germany and the Netherlands: A Comparison of the Use of High Art and Popular Aesthetic Criteria

Cited by 74 publications

References 29 publications

Classifying Popular Music in the United States and the Netherlands

Classifying Popular Music in the United States and the Netherlands

Cultural journalism—Journalism about culture

Cultural Mediators and Gatekeepers

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