Failure is a normal aspect of work in creative industries; even highly successful artists are subject to rejection by critics, fans, and peers. It is known that organizations such as schools and workplaces are the primary space for job-related socialization, but artistic careers are characterized by nonstandard employment relations and do not generally require formal schooling. Without the bureaucratic structures typically used to socialize novice group members, how do artistic occupational communities socialize aspirants to manage rejection and labor market failure? This article draws from 6 months of participant observation from “Song Club,” a periodic professional workshop for aspiring songwriters where aspirants present a song to publishers in the hopes of having it recorded and released to commercial audiences. During the period of study, 403 songs were presented to publishers, and 327 were rejected. During the workshops, Song Club members are socialized toward normalizing rejection, appropriately interacting with gatekeepers, and developing collaborative relationships with peers. Adopting these norms reduces the likelihood of failure and contextualizes the meaning of rejection in this occupational community.

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Because of economically induced changes in record label contracts, recording artists are now required to cowrite their songs. Despite this obligation, many recording artists are unskilled as writers. For their professional songwriter teammates, using face-work to save the recording artist from the embarrassment of being an unskilled songwriter can be at odds with status maintenance in the larger social community if the collaboration results in a bad song. Interviews with 39 country songwriters revealed two key strategies for orienting the songwriting process toward writing a song that will allow for status maintenance among peers while still attending to group cohesion. Of the two strategies for achieving this goal, most common was a process of commercially oriented “bespoke facilitation” to match songs’ lyrical content to artists’ personal branding goals. In a second strategy, referred to as a “manipulation dance,” songwriters prewrite songs or portions of songs to guide the creative process toward content that will contribute to their status among industry peers. Both strategies rely on songwriters using face-work to be perceived as a “good hang” to keep the recording artist happy while still ensuring that the song is well crafted and will help to build and maintain their status. This study contributes to understanding how an individual working in a collaborative group might orient efforts toward maintaining status in a wider community while attending to group cohesion when the group has mismatched goals, skills, or tastes.

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