Soundtracking, Accompaniment, and Modeling: How the Cultural Production of Music Addresses Societal Challenges

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Organizing Beyond Organizations for the Common Good Confronting Societal Challenges Through Process Studies

Publication Date

1-1-2025

Abstract

Societal challenges, the pervasive and unavoidable obstacles confronting our world, are seeing increased attention by organizational scholars. In contrast to previous work, which tends to emphasize direct responses, this chapter explores the role of cultural products, especially popular music, in efforts to create the kind of collective identification that may be necessary to address these challenges jointly. Based on the crucial role of music during the civil rights era in the 1960s, we propose three processes through which music is used to address societal challenges: soundtracking, accompaniment, and modeling. These processes facilitate collective identification, which in turn galvanizes popular support for social movements as a way of addressing societal challenges. We show how these processes have evolved since the 1960s and offer recommendations for research at the junctures of cultural production, identification, and societal challenges.

First Page

144

Last Page

166

DOI

10.1093/9780198956679.003.0007

ISBN

[9780198956648, 9780198956679]

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