A Critique of Theory of Art Worlds in

Sociology of Music
Fumiya Uchikoshi
(Department of Sociology, University of Tokyo)

1. INTRODUCTION conventions. They focus on their creation without

In this essay, we would like to critically assess the taking into account of what kind of formal structure on
concept of ‘art worlds’ theorized by Howard Becker. the art they use. They can create better works if they
Firstly, we briefly review his theory of ‘art worlds’ invest time and money in it, but it is more efficient to
focusing on a role of convention. In the second part of follow the convention to create artworks. Thus, Becker
this essay, we attempt to assess the usefulness of his defines the world as ‘art worlds’ in which we can
concept. This section is divided into several parts. collaborate with each other through the convention.
Firstly we examine his concept as a sociological theory. (Becker 1974)
Secondly we discuss the role of convention as social Sociologically speaking, his theory is established
context and also compare his theory of ‘art worlds’ dialectically between two thoughts of sociology. One is
with Bourdieu's concept of ‘field’. At last, we find the the view to take it granted that society is stable. The
connection of this theory with social network theory. other is the view to think that stability of organization
varies. He basically agrees with the latter view, but he
2. THEORY OF “ART WORLDS” mentions about the some stable structure in society.
In the theory of ‘art worlds’, he premised two This is exactly what he calls 'inertia'. Inertia is defined
different steps. Firstly, he thought that all artistic work as a package, which is built in an everyday practice to
is a collective action through which various types of encourage the creation smoothly. For example, we tend
people interact with each other. According to Becker, to use, not. This is not limited to the real objects. Logic
previous sociological researches have not paid attention of capitalism, for instance, makes it easier for skilled
to this aspect when they refer to the social structure or artists to play music in a relatively limited time. Thus,
system. He then argues that the organization is divided even if new musical works is invented, this relies on
into some sub-organizations in order to accomplish previous inertia (Becker 1995).
their goal. He illustrates this division of labour by
showing the example of music industry (Becker 1974). 3. THE USEFULNESS OF THEORY OF ‘ART
He disagrees with the concept of functionalism WORLDS’
although the division of labour is often associated with
it. He assumes that some sub-organizations are opposed In this part, we critically evaluate the usefulness in
to others. In addition, he thinks that they do not have to the theory of ‘art worlds’. We focus on aspects of
cooperate with each other in achieving the goal. They production of music, because what Becker's theory of
can get to the goal without the cooperation with other ‘art worlds’ explains is not a consumption of music but
groups. rather how music emerges out as the consequence of
However, he argued the importance of the artwork and production.
convention as a mechanism to create cooperate Playing music is an artistic performance and also a
behavior. Differentiation of labour and role seems cultural production. To say the least, actors in musical
arbitrary, but artists agree to some extent with precedent consumption would be divided into three parts. First is
social norms and customs. It is only through these a social institution, which is not human agency but
conventions that division of labour is sustained to something which influences on musical consumption
cooperate with each other. According to Martin, through the mediation of musicians. Not only
Becker’s contribution to music studies in the present organizations in the music industry such as record
context is his distinction between the artwork and the companies, radio station and orchestra but also laws or
social convention (Martin 1995). This applies to the economy can be considered as social institutions.
relationship between creators and audiences, because it Second would be audiences, who consumes the culture
is a convention that enables us to make an agreement of and interact with musicians. Third would be artists, who
interpretation. Creators also instrumentally use are the person playing instruments and actively

1
producing music. In analyzing on how music is
produced, it is necessary to take these three elements
into consideration. Having said that, it would be artists
who are the most significant actors in that they directly
involved with musical production. For the
understanding of cultural production, we need to focus
on (inter)actions of artists. However, musical
consumption sometimes is theorized without human
action. Adorno's work is a good example. He thought
composer's work is reflected upon the form of total
society without considering how composers will do.
In contrast, the importance of human interaction is
well illustrated by Becker's ‘art worlds’. Music won't
happen spontaneously. As we summarized in the last
part, the theory of ‘art worlds’ is based on
interactionism theory in sociology and put emphasis on
how music emerges out through human interaction and
the agent's capacity to take role of others and
understand the meaning of music reflected upon
society.
If we compare the originality of his concept of ‘art
worlds’ to the interactionism he refers to, the problem
seems to be on time. Generally speaking, symbolic
interactionism has difficulty in explaining a role of
social structure in the process of (re)production of
cultural works generated by human interaction. Even if
we admit the social structure is a consequence of human
interaction, structural dimension of culture is likely to
influence on producing new music or replicating the
traditional music. As we saw in the last part, the salient
contribution of Becker to music studies is his
distinction between the artwork and the convention.
Thus, the concept of convention is a crucially original
in his theory, which is needed to examine in the next
section.
3.1 Convention as social context
The concept of convention would be helpful in
analyzing emerging out of new music movement. In a
sociological point of view, a world consists of
individuals who have a goal with limited resource and
social structure, which put constraints on them. It is
human interaction that connects individuals to social
structure. Through taking role of others, they get to
reflect upon social expectation or norms. Music is a
culture which symbolizes our personal or political
values in the form of object. In this sense, the
emergence of new music means that our social values
are become objectified through symbol. Thus, it is
necessary to see how people interact with each other
and through the interaction what kind of culture is
symbolized as music.
Though previous literature in the emergence of new
2
music is focused on political dimension or
psychological dimension, a concept of convention in
the theory of ‘art world’ is helpful to explain how
differentiation of musical group’s interest forms
through interaction. Gilmore argued that specialists in
musical concert have a convention called schools of
activity that is created and maintained through the
practice of it. Performers have a practice of music with
such collective disposition as their identity. Convention,
in this context, is functioned to influence on their
interests in music innovation. According to Gilmore,
each concert halls have different ties of sub-worlds in
terms of genre or attitude towards innovation.
Performers get a job by reflecting upon these social
conventions. If they cannot obtain jobs, they will have
smaller sub-worlds as identity and emphasize the
niche-ness. They can form a group called clique
through the collaborations with others (Gilmore 1988).
3.2 Convention and ‘field’
In addition, we can understand the usefulness of his
theory by comparing it with other theories of cultural
production. In particular, a contrast of ‘art worlds’ with
Bourdieu's ‘field’ would be a fine illustration. In this
part, we attempt to see some usefulness in Becker's ‘art
worlds’ through comparing it to Bourdieu's ‘field’.
According to Becker, Bourdieu's theory of the field
is as follows. Field is a sort of metaphoric idea which
refers to a limited space. In the field, not only esteem or
recognition but also money is distributed unequally. A
multiple types of force control these resources in the
field. For example, a person with power can choose or
not choose to distribute resources to newcomers.
Becker argued that people in this theory are
dominated by a power and 'not flesh and blood people'
(Becker 2006, p.277). In contrast, the theory of the
world is also metaphoric but more descriptive, in which
people act with consideration of other's behavior. In this
world, people do not automatically react against the
external power. Even if the authority does not permit
them to do acts, they can find others who have shared
values with them. Thus, people get to an agreement in
negotiating with other individuals in Becker's 'world'.
Convention, however, can be functioned as the force to
cause inequality by putting constraints on them.
3.3 Collective action and network
Let us return to the two premises by Becker. He
assumed that artwork is a collective action in which
actors help out with each other under the division of
labour. If production of music is associated with a
collaboration of actors, we can assume that connection
with other actors and resources generated from the
relationship make a difference in artwork. After
examining one example that attempts to show the
emergence of the musical world, we move on to an
assessment of another usefulness of his theory by
turning interest from the convention to a collective
action.
Crossley applies the theory of worlds to his
relational sociology. He examines the emergence of
punk music in Manchester, England. According to him,
music is a scene, which is defined as a collective action.
In the paper, he focused on the importance of network
analysis to explain the collectivities, but he is also using
the concept of ‘art world’ by Becker. For one music to
be a scene, it is necessary to find a critical mass who is
interested in the music. In addition, he emphasizes on
the importance of critical network which enables us to
find people who sympathize with his/her musical
interests. His emphasis on the network is based on the
theory of ‘art worlds’. For example, he assumes that a
connection gives us resources and each network has a
social norm for our behavior. He argued that these
network, resource and convention within human
interaction encourage a new music scene emerge out.
This research crucially exemplifies the usefulness of
his theory of ‘art worlds’, in particular, on an aspect of
collective action. An interaction happens in one’s
personal network and a new connection is created
through the interaction. In this sense, artwork as
collective action is a result of accumulative process of
our interactions in the network. Crossley’s concept of
critical network shows that actors are embedded in the
continuing struggle for advantage in the social networks.
We can obtain resources from the networks. For
example, having a new friend who has the same
musical interest through a mutual friend would be
crucial to make a band group. Getting a reliance of a
producer in the music industry on them increases a
possibility to release a record. Basically, the more
people are in the center of the network, connected to
others and have a role as a hub, the more they would be
advantageous in terms of obtaining resources. It is
natural that there is a variance of these social resources
among us. Considering a pattern of conventions is also
an ‘arrangement of ranked statuses, a stratification
system’ (Becker 1974, p.774), collective action in the
network and actor’s capacity to reflect upon
conventions results in unequal distribution of power and
resources to produce artworks. A perspective on
inequality is compatible with the theory of ‘art worlds’
and thus this theory includes not only economic capital
but also social capital into the framework.
4. CONCLUSION
In this essay, we examine what Becker means by
‘art world’. ‘Art world’ is a given arena of cultural
production in which people collaborate with others to
create artworks under certain convention. We assessed
the usefulness of the theory focused on the role of
convention for our interaction. Martin raised three
contributions of the theory to developing studying
music production and consumption. Firstly, it
contributed to mediating the distinction between micro
and macro in sociological debate by focusing on
emergence of institutionalized interaction. Secondly, it
changed the view on social structure from the cause of
our action to the consequences of the interaction.
Thirdly, a perspective it gave to us is not incompatible
with the power and inequality (Martin 1995, p.
178-179). In assessing the usefulness of his theory, we
recognized the importance of the interaction reflected
upon convention which mediate micro behavior to
macro structure in 3.1. We discussed the second
argument by Martin in the first part of the essay. Third
point is discussed especially in the 3.3. In this essay, we
argued that this theory also shows the importance of the
role of social structure as cause in the first part of 3rd
section. We also found the theory dynamic by
comparing it with Bourdieu’s concept of ‘fields’.
Reference
Becker, H., (1974) ‘Art as collective action’,
American Sociological Review, 39(6): 767-776.
Becker, H. (1995) The Power of Inertia, Qualitative
Sociology 18 (3), 301-9.
Becker, H. (2006) ‘A Dialogue on the Ideas of
“World” and “Field” with Alain Pessin’, Sociological
Forum, 21:275–86.
Crossley, N. (2009) The Man Whose Web Expanded:
Network Dynamics in Manchester’s Post-Punk
Music Scene 1976-1980, Poetics 37(1), 24-49.
Martin, P. (1995) Sounds and Society, Manchester,
Manchester University Press.
Gilmore, S. (1988) Schools of Activity and
Innovation, Sociological Quarterly 29(2), 203-19.