Pop-Rock Music as Expressive Isomorphism: Blurring the National, the Exotic, and the Cosmopolitan in Popular Music

Abstract

Expressive isomorphism is characterized as the process through which national uniqueness is standardized so that expressive culture of various nations, or of social sectors within them, comes to consist of similar expressive forms and stylistic elements. Expanding on Meyer, the presence of pop-rock music in world culture is discussed as a major manifestation of expressive isomorphism. This is done by looking at these aspects of pop-rock music: electric instrumentation, ritual classification, ritual periodization, diffusion of styles and genres, legitimation discourses, and the emergence of ethnic rock. Following Bourdieu, a sociological account that focuses on recognition and status concludes the article.

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