Music researchers receive 4.7 million SEK for research on power and inequality in the music sector

Music has often been celebrated for its diversity and capacity for inclusion. At the same time, the music sector is shaped by inequalities linked to gender, ethnicity, class, and tradition. Research has long focused on how such inequalities affect people, but less on how conditions are created that benefit some groups at the expense of others.

Constructing Music Society through Elite Discourse (CORD) focuses on decision-makers within the music elite – CEOs, chairmen of the board and members of nine central organisations for artists, composers and producers. Through interviews, observations and analyses of websites and social media, it is investigated how these actors talk about music, make decisions and use images.

The aim is to create new knowledge about how the elite contribute to maintaining or challenging inequalities. The results are expected to provide both theoretical and practical insights that can be used by researchers, policymakers and organizations working for a more equal music life.