Innovation and Diversity Redux: Analyzing Musical Form and Content in the American Recording Industry, 1990–2009

Abstract

Using the American recording industry as a case study, this article analyzes innovation and diversity concurrently and outlines the analytical purchase gained from doing so; examines the effects of performer incumbency and combinatorial role patterns, thereby offering an empirical application of the "role as resource" perspective (Baker and Faulkner 1991); and provides data on an underexplored era in which the emergence of digital technology has had wide-ranging repercussions. Regressing measures of innovation (form) and diversity (content) on incumbency status and combinatorial role patterns reveals that innovation and diversity operate through distinct collaborative patterns. New artists are found to be carriers of musical innovation, and while performing artists with autonomy over the roles of songwriter and producer are more likely to be progenitors of musical diversity, innovation emerges from role specialization. Artistic roles and performer attributes, moreover, come together in particular ways to influence diversity and innovation depending on the environmental context. Post compact disc (CD) format era, innovation wrought by producer specialization is predominant, but the music is devoid of diversity. I conclude by arguing that the manner in which configurations of diversity and innovation interact has implications both for cultural production and reception.

Embeddedness and the Production of Novelty in Music: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective

“…First, artist tenure becomes a significant predictor of product novelty. Producers' propensity to innovate seems to decrease over time, echoing extant research on the relationship between age and innovation (Becker 1982;de Laat 2014;Ruef 2002;Stephan and Levin 1992). But when we include a quadratic term for tenure, we find that this relationship reverses, as artists near the end of their career start to become more likely to produce novelty again (see Jones 2010).…”

Destructive creation, creative destruction, and the paradox of innovation science

“…De Dreu & West, 2001;Sutton, 2002). New artists are often associated with the emergence of new musical genres, more so than collaborations among established artists (de Laat, 2014). In the context of scientific and technical innovation, the greatest and most disruptive successes occur when "expeditions" of investigators from one area travel to another cognitively diverse region to solve their challenges in unprecedented and unfamiliar ways (Shi & Evans, 2019).…”

Destructive creation, creative destruction, and the paradox of innovation science

“…Students from minority groups have been shown to innovate more (Hofstra et al., 2020), and minority dissent stimulates creative conflict and innovation within the team (De Dreu & West, 2001; Sutton, 2002). New artists are often associated with the emergence of new musical genres, more so than collaborations among established artists (de Laat, 2014). In the context of scientific and technical innovation, the greatest and most disruptive successes occur when “expeditions” of investigators from one area travel to another cognitively diverse region to solve their challenges in unprecedented and unfamiliar ways (Shi & Evans, 2019).…”