Occupational rhetoric and ideology: A comparison of copy and original music performers

This study focuses on similarities and differences between occupational rhetorics and ideologies of two groups of local level popular musicians, those who compose and perform their own music and those who perform music made commercially successful by other bands/performers. The analysis of in-depth interviews with twenty-five local level musicians demonstrates that the latter have developed an ideology which legitimates definitions of themselves as audience-oriented technicians who view the performance of music as an economic enterprise; musicians who perform original music share an ideology which stresses creativity over economic reward and legitimates a definition of themselves as primarily artists. Both types of musicians and their ideologies are discussed in relation to larger structural forces of the popular entertainment industry.Revised version of a paper presented at the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association in the South, Knoxville, TN (October, 1988). The author wishes to thank the two anonymous reviewers for helpful suggestions made on an earlier draft. The author also wishes to thank the Faculty Research Committee at Western Kentucky University for their support during the course of this project.