Antoine Hennion and the sociology of music

Abstract

The article examines the work of the sociologist of music Antoine Hennion and its relevance to cultural policy today. Beginning with a general consideration of his problematic status as an intellectual and his growing international reputation as a cultural theorist, it goes on to analyse his complex position on the music–society nexus, from which he posits the indivisibility of music and its uses. This leads him to develop a “pragmatics of taste”, from which a set of largely theoretical implications for cultural policy can be deduced. Hennion’s pragmatism suggests a relativization of genre, though not, he argues, an ethical or aesthetic relativism. Its application to the institutionalization of music, and of culture generally, also points to a possible third phase in the evolution of cultural studies.

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