Local Scenes, National Industry, and Virtual Platforms: Overcoming Spatial Hierarchies in French and American Rap Music (2000–2015)

Résumé 0

In France as in the US, music practices have long been structured by spatial hierarchies between cores and peripheries. Scholars have addressed this issue through two main perspectives: economic geographers have analyzed the irregular distribution of music infrastructures on a national scale, while popular music researchers have focused on local music scenes, and on how artists defend the “authenticity” of a genre in localized contexts. However, there have not been many studies on how hierarchies among music scenes are perpetuated, how artists are influenced by these hierarchies, and how they can overcome them to build their careers. In this chapter, I will address these issues by analyzing the evolving role of two local scenes: the urban regions of Atlanta (United States) and Lille (France), from 2000 to 2015. Despite originally having a similar status within French and American rap hierarchies, Atlanta and Lille followed diverging paths: while Atlanta became a new hotbed for the genre, Lille remained at the industry’s margins. I will show that these dissimilarities can be explained by differences in the structure of the music industry in each country, the image of the local scene conveyed in music songs and videos, and the ways artists have leveraged local resources in their careers. Far from changing core-periphery patterns, the rise of a virtual platform has reinforced this dichotomy as artists employ them differently. Therefore, I will argue that Lille and Atlanta provide a unique lens to highlight the power relations which influence artists’ careers in French and American music industries, and how they are reconfigured with the rise of new digital resources.