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Introduction
At a time when society craves authenticity, the notion of selling out presents significant challenges (Beverland, 2005b; Hede et al., 2014; Hietanen and Rokka, 2015). This is pertinent when consumers yearn for alternatives to the offerings created by capitalist social relations of production or institutional arrangements controlled by capitalism (Edwards, 1975; Marx, 1967). In such contexts, consumers may draw upon the inspired world of uniqueness, morality and independence to interpret the worth of an artist and reject influences of the market world that signify capitalist social relations (Boltanski and Thévenot, 2006). We examine such a situation in which consumers stigmatise as “sell outs”, artists who are marketed under the influence of capitalist social relations of production. We contribute to the debate on authenticity by attending to the question of worth that is under-examined in existing literature, by drawing upon French pragmatic sociology with specific attention to convention theory to understand conflicting interpretations of worth.
Musicians do not come with a certificate of authenticity; it is a classification or the worth attributed to them. The benefits of acquiring worth are broad including high sales, positive word-of-mouth, event attendance and engagement in traditional and social medias. Despite these market-based benefits of worth emanating from loyalty that accrue to the music industry and artists, consumers may also have alternative notions of worth and view marketisation or spread of market forces as detrimental to authenticity. Such assessments may not be based on the content of music but more on the notion of how market forces influence the creation of music and conduct of artists. This prompts us to attend to question of worth in the music industry. Through an interpretive study of how authenticity and selling out are given meaning by music fans in Australia, we delve into how morality and politics of artists are used by consumers to determine their worth.
We understand worth as a system of conscious organisation that is used to judge the competing claims to resources, legitimacy and other goods that characterise social life (Boltanski and Thévenot, 2006). Authenticity, referred to in terms of truth, integrity, sincerity and the “realness” is a claim to worth. Our focus on the question of worth leads us to investigate what contributes to a loss of...