Music and Power: Class, Gender, Race and Other Inequalities In Contemporary Musical Cultures

Music is not just an art or an entertainment. It is also a space where lot of symbols are produced, negotiated, contested, and transformed, creating diversity in cultural, social and political spaces. Musical cultures both reflect and shape broader structures of power that can generate different processes of social differentiation and exclusion. From access to musical education and professional careers to patterns of consumption, representation, recognition, and cultural legitimacy, inequalities remain deeply embedded in musical worlds.

This session invites contributions that explore the relationships between music, power, and social inequality in contemporary societies. We welcome theoretical and empirical research addressing how class, gender, race, ethnicity, sexuality, nationality, age, disability, and other social markers influence musical production, distribution, performance, reception, and participation. Particular attention may be given to issues such as cultural capital, symbolic boundaries, intersectionality, labor conditions in the music industries, musical activism, representation and visibility, processes of inclusion and exclusion, and struggles over cultural recognition.

The session also seeks to examine how musical practices can challenge existing hierarchies, create alternative spaces of belonging, and contribute to social change. Contributions may draw on diverse sociological traditions, including cultural sociology, critical theory, feminist theory, postcolonial and decolonial approaches, race and ethnicity studies, queer studies, and the sociology of art and culture.

This session aims to advance sociological understandings of the complex intersections between music, power, and inequality in contemporary musical cultures. By bringing together scholars working across different musical genres, cultural contexts, and methodological traditions.