From the Critics’ Corner: Logic Blending, Discursive Change and Authenticity in a Cultural Production System* Mary Ann Glynn and Michael Lounsbury Emory University, Atlanta, GA; University of Alberta abstract Drawing on an analysis of critics’ reviews of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) performances, we investigate how broader shifts in institutional logics shape the discourse of critics and their judgment of performances. We highlight how the aesthetic logic that traditionally informs the practices of the symphony yielded, in the face of declining orchestral resources, to a more commercially oriented market logic. As institutionalists have argued, shifts in logics are often catalysed by exogenous shocks. In the ASO, this blending of aesthetic and market logics became salient in the wake of a pivotal organizational event, the 1996 musicians’ strike. Qualitatively comparing pre- and post-strike reviews of ASO performances, we find that the discourse of critics shifted to capture the changing logic of the symphony: post-strike reviews were more attuned to market than aesthetic aspects of the symphony. Nonetheless, their reviews suggested that judgments based on notions of cultural authenticity were virtually unaffected. Although our results echo existing claims that art world critics often act in a ritualistic fashion, serving as gatekeepers for the authenticity of cultural genres, we extend scholarship by highlighting how critics’ stories are embedded in broader discursive fields that reveal how they patrol the boundaries of genres. INTRODUCTION Over the past three decades, the development of the production of culture per- spective has enhanced our understanding of how cultural artefacts such as music albums, books, and artwork are produced in modern societies (Anand and Peter- son, 2000; Hirsch, 1972; Peterson, 1977, 2005; for a review,see Peterson and Anand, 2004). Research has highlighted how the production of cultural artefacts is shaped by a complex apparatus of producers, distributors, media, and critics that are inter- Journal of Management Studies 42:5 July 2005 0022-2380 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. Address for reprints: Mary Ann Glynn, Goizueta Business School, Emory University, 1300 Clifton Road, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA (MaryAnn_Glynn@bus.emory.edu). posed between cultural creators and recipients. Due to the ambiguity of quality assessment, critics often play an especially crucial role as gatekeepers (Hirsch, 1972), intermediate consumers (Griswold, 1987), and mediators of audience/consumer response (Shrum, 1991) in many cultural industries. More recently, there has been increasing attention paid to the role and impact of critics across a variety of sub- fields from economic sociology to the sociology of music (e.g. Baumann, 2002; Holbrook, 1999; Janssen, 1997; Lounsbury and Rao, 2004; Zuckerman, 1999). As interest in critics has grown, research has expanded beyond focusing on the instrumental role of critics as market-makers to highlight how critics act as key meaning-makers in fields. For example, Baumann’s (2001) study of the social history of films in the USA documents how critics, in their reviews, offered a legit- imating ideology that helped to valorize film as art. He notes that critics acted as ‘influencers rather than as mirrors’ (p. 419), thus crafting the meaning of films as aesthetic cultural products. We extend this emerging perspective on critics by focusing on how they also play an important interstitial role in connecting the localized meanings and interpretations of cultural products to broader institutional meaning systems. For instance, by writing reviews, critics provide a kind of story about how people should understand and appreciate their experiences with cul- tural objects and performances. Stories, such as those told by critics in their reviews, make sense of an equivo- cal situation for both internal and external constituencies because they ‘selectively distill a complex jumble of otherwise ambiguous and contradictory activities, pro- nouncements, and impressions into a simplified and relatively coherent portrait’ (Ashforth and Humphrey, 1997, p. 53). The story itself, however, is endowed with institutional meanings that make its elements cohere in a meaningful way. Stories create order by embedding ‘an account in a symbolic universe, and thereby endow the account with social facticity’ (Rao, 1994, p. 31). Hence, stories such as critics’ reviews are not purely local constructions, but are consequentially influenced by broader institutional dynamics and beliefs that constrain and enable the kinds of stories that can be told (Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001). The concept of institutional logic is often used by sociologists to refer to higher order belief systems that shape cognition and action (e.g. Bourdieu, 1990; Oakes et al., 1998; Thornton and Ocasio, 1999). Friedland and Alford (1991, p. 243) describe logics as: . . . supraorganizational patterns of human activity by which individuals and organizations produce and reproduce their material subsistence and organize time and space. They are also symbolic systems, ways of ordering reality, and thereby rendering experience of time and space meaningful. In the context of decision-making, it has been argued that institutional logics shape what issues are attended to by decision-makers (March and Olsen, 1976; Ocasio, 1032 M. A. Glynn and M. Lounsbury © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 1997), provide the rules of appropriateness that make certain actions or solutions legitimate (March and Olsen, 1989), and offer interpretive schemes that funda- mentally guide perception (Ranson et al., 1980). We argue that cultural industry logics shape critics’ reviews in a similar manner by guiding how critics assess the legitimacy of cultural performances or objects as well as how the quality of such performances and objects are judged. However, we do not conceptualize critics as cultural dopes. The dynamics of broader logics provide the context within which critics appreciate and judge, but similar to the French cuisine critics described by Rao et al. (2003), their actions contribute to the ongoing dynamics of logics. Hence, critics can resist changes in logics, act as carriers of new logics, or act in accordance with dominant logics under conditions of field stability. Therefore, by explicitly examining the relationship between logics and critical reviews, we can gain insight into how critics may provide a motor for ongoing institutional dynam- ics (see also Bourdieu, 1996 on the role of critics in mediating homologous fields of art and commerce). We highlight the utility of our perspective through a systematic investigation of critical reviews of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) performances under con- ditions of logic conflict and change. Over the past couple of decades, symphony orchestras have increasingly experienced resource constraints tied to declines in patronage, government support, and attendance. In response to these pressures, orchestras have increasingly drawn on more ‘mainstream’ or ‘pop’ interpretations of classical music, creating a cultural threat to the ‘pure’ canon of ‘highbrow’ music associated with the symphony (Glynn, 2002). Like other art worlds, this has led to a blurring of the long dominant ‘aesthetic’ logic in the symphony orches- tra field with a commercial ‘market’ logic, leading to the questioning of what constitutes authentic classical music. In the context of symphonic orchestras, authenticity refers to programming that maintains consistency with the classical canon and genre conventions (see Peterson, 1997 for a similar perspective on the role of reproduction for the maintenance of perceived authenticity). We expect that the tension associated with the broader blending of aesthetic and market logics in the US symphony orchestra field will importantly influence the stories told by local orchestra critics in their reviews. More specifically, we propose that the broader blending of logics will lead to the integration of more mainstream cultural influences into symphonic performances, forcing critics to react directly to the pros and cons of competing logics and to reassess the nature of artistic authenticity. Although we focus on a particular local context, our analy- sis of how the stories told by critics through their reviews are fundamentally shaped by the dynamics of the broader field of US symphony orchestras provides a more general framework for the study of the contested and dynamic nature of authen- ticity (Peterson, 1997). We approach this problem empirically by analysing critics’ reviews of sym- phonic performances relative to a demarcated shift in orchestral attention to the From the Critics’ Corner 1033 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 market logic. In art worlds, criticism manifests itself primarily in the form of reviews that are published in the media. This has led sociologists to focus a good deal of theoretical effort on the review process: A cultural object is received by a reviewer with a particular ‘horizon of expec- tations’ about the kind of object it represents. Interpretation and framing of the perceived object form part of the reviewer’s brief, the production of a new cul- tural object (the review) for an intended audience (readers) Without sub- scribing in any way to the view that the review is a ‘surrogate performance’ for the audience, we must recognize that there is frequently no subsequent experi- ence at all: the review itself may be the basis of opinions formed as well as inter- actions involving the object. (Shrum, 1991, p. 351) Our analysis of critics’ reviews responds to Shrum’s (1991, p. 372) invitation to researchers: ‘The effects of [reviewers’] judgements, and the conditions under which they occur, beg incorporation into sociological theories of participation in art.’ There is a need for more attention to reviews and other forms of secondary discourse, he contends, because ‘in the performing arts, unlike painting, television, sculpture, film, architecture, and literature, the only remnant of performance after the moment of production is a review’ (Shrum, 1991, p. 372). We strategically selected the time frame of our study (1995–98) to assess how critics’ reviews changed before and after a strike by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra musicians in 1996. As institutional scholars have shown, logic shifts often take concrete shape in localized contexts as a result of some sort of exogenous shock or trigger (e.g. Clemens, 1999; Fligstein, 1990; Scott et al., 2000; Schneiberg and Clemens, forthcoming). In the case of the ASO, this pivotal event made vivid the problem of increas- ing resource constraints and the need to more consciously engage in ideas and practices related to the market logic at the risk of bastardizing the historically understood raison d’être of symphony orchestras. Using this historically situated circumstance as the focal point, we map how the operating aesthetics of music critics’ reviews shifted in response to a post-strike organizational shift toward an increased market logic orientation (see Bartunek, 1984 for a similar approach to change in a complex religious order). We conduct comparative analyses of pub- lished reviews of performances in the master seasons before and after the strike. Because this design captures the ‘features of a naturally occurring experiment’ (Allmendinger and Hackman, 1996, p. 338), we can make rigorous comparisons about the role of the critic as meaning-maker and story-teller under conditions of institutional change. We begin by examining the role of critics and theories of criti- cism in art worlds followed by an analysis of ASO critics’ reviews as a way to shed light on how the embeddedness of critics in institutional fields influences cultural evaluation and judgment. 1034 M. A. Glynn and M. Lounsbury © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 CRITICS AND CONTEMPORARY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS: THE BLENDING OF LOGICS AND GENRES The theoretical importance of criticism is particularly salient in the context of modern art worlds since most consumers have difficulty ascertaining the quality of goods and services (e.g. Becker, 1982; Greenfeld, 1989; Griswold 1987; Korczynski and Ott, 2004; Shrum, 1991; White and White, 1965). Critics are conventionally viewed as cultural authorities who evaluate music and artists on the basis of established aesthetic systems (DiMaggio, 1987), thus insuring their cul- tural purity and authenticity. Operative aesthetics are often assumed to be fixed according to convention and the critic’s role is to apply these in the review of a piece, although deviations from standard repertoires may lead to changes in con- vention that provide critics with an opportunity to endorse or resist possible edits to conventions (Becker, 1982). Thus, as part of the gatekeeping role, a critic oper- ating through mass media is a primary ‘institutional regulator of innovation’ (Shrum, 1991, p. 643), legitimating extant agreed upon conventions as authentic and delegitimating radical deviations from conventions as inauthentic. Hence, critics are crucial agents that help to maintain or change what is considered authentic in a particular cultural genre (DiMaggio, 1987). A cultural genre refers to sets of artworks classified together on the basis of per- ceived similarities that represent socially constructed organizing principles, which imbue artworks with significance beyond their thematic content. In this paper, we focus attention on the ritual potency of highbrow cultural genres that can be understood as ‘class-segmented cultural systems [that] are differentiated, hierar- chically ordered, and consist of components that are broadly recognized (univer- sal) and ritually potent’ and thus distinct on all these dimensions from mass culture (DiMaggio, 1987, p. 442). Highbrow cultural genres are perhaps nowhere as evident as in the musical performance of the symphony orchestra (e.g. chamber music, symphonies, concertos, and sonatas are the main genres of music composed in the classical and romantic periods that are performed in concert halls). Symphony orchestras are ‘ensembles whose primary mission is public perfor- mance of those orchestral works generally considered to fall within the standard symphonic repertoire and whose members are compensated nontrivially for their services’ (Allmendinger and Hackman, 1996, p. 340). The repertoire of most sym- phony orchestras tends to be dominated by masterworks of prominent composers (e.g. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Shostakovich, and Wagner) that have become authorized as core elements of the classical canon through processes of historical accretion (Copland, 1963; Weber, 1992). As Weber (1984, 1992) argued, the notion of a classical music canon is a relatively recent development since it did not take shape until the late 1800s in Europe. It was also around this time that experiencing live classical music was beginning to become established as a highbrow cultural activity performed by nonprofit symphonies (DiMaggio, From the Critics’ Corner 1035 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 1982b; Levine, 1988; for a review of the establishment and early development of the US symphony field see Dowd et al., 2002). While there is some evidence of for-profit organizations performing classical music in the 1800s, DiMaggio (1982b) argued that the orchestral canon and live symphonic performances did not take root in the USA until they were organized through the nonprofit form in the early 1900s. Symphony orchestras had prolif- erated in most major cities in the USA by the 1930s, creating an organizational base and set of practices that solidified the US classical symphonic field (Dowd et al., 2002). In turn, the growth of the classical symphonic field enabled many of the high profile orchestras to institutionalize the classical canon and related genres (Arian, 1971; Mueller, 1951). Hart (1973) showed that from 1900 to 1970, 59 per cent of the orchestral repertory of 27 major symphony orchestras consisted of works by only fifteen master composers. A New York Times (29 April 2001, Sect. 2, p. 1) headline summed up the current state of affairs: ‘What’s new in classical music? Not much.’ The banner is more than an attention-grabber; it has empirical support. A 1992–93 Orchestra Repertoire Report by the American Symphony Orchestra League (ASOL), based on a survey of the repertoires played by one hundred of the largest orchestras in the US and Canada in their regular subscription concerts, concluded: . . . the League’s study does show the strong preference of this country’s orches- tras to programme from a limited canon, and to project the sound and speak the language of the 18th and 19th Century European repertoire. In addition, it shows that major orchestra subscription programmes tend to center around a few masterpieces. (Americanizing the American Orchestra, 1993, p. 19) We believe that under conditions of stability in cultural fields such as during the dominance of the classical canon and aesthetic logic in the field of symphony orchestras, performances will rely almost exclusively on established conventions and will be judged by critics based on a ‘rational aesthetic focus’ that emphasizes virtuosity and musical interpretation (Gilmore, 1993). Gilmore describes the ratio- nal aesthetic focus in contrast to an innovative aesthetic focus that emphasizes risk taking in aesthetic expression such as symphonic performances of new composers outside the canon. While there always exists an underlying tension between a ratio- nal and innovative aesthetic focus, field stability will tend to favour the dominance of the rational aesthetic focus. Hence: Proposition 1: In a stable cultural field, critics’ reviews of performances in the field will rely on the conventions associated with the existing canon, genres and the dominant logic. Given canon and genre conformity, critics will tend to focus on the aesthetic quality of performances (e.g. virtuosity and musical interpreta- tion) and judge authentic performances positively. 1036 M. A. Glynn and M. Lounsbury © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 Despite the enduring nature of the classical canon, its taken-for-grantedness as well as the unique status of high culture more generally has begun to be chal- lenged (e.g. Gilmore, 1993; Peterson and Kern, 1996). This has partly occurred as a result of evolutionary processes such as those related to shifts in the cohesive- ness of urban elites who no longer enforce the boundaries of high culture as they did a century ago. More proximately, nonprofit organizations including those in the arts are not as insulated from market forces as they once were as a result of recent declines in governmental funding and concomitant pressures for revenue generation and accountability. As a result, marketing techniques and managerial- ism associated with the commercial market logic have crept into the arts, thereby threatening the purity and longstanding dominance of the aesthetic logic (see Oakes et al., 1998 for a related example of how business planning techniques transformed provincial museums in Canada). Market and aesthetic logics are akin to Weber’s two types of rationality: formal and substantive. Formal rationality is ‘the extent of quantitative calculation or accounting which is technically possible and which is actually applied’ (Weber, 1978, p. 85). It invokes an imagery of independent agents who consciously eval- uate choices and make decisions that optimize the agent’s cost-benefit tabulations. Weber used the technology of capital accounting in commodity-producing cor- porations as an illustration of the kind of knowledge and process that facilitates formal rationality by enabling accurate profit calculations. In essence, formal ratio- nality is a set of ideas and orientations that guide market behaviour in modern capitalism. In sharp contrast to formal rationality, which focuses on simple means-ends cal- culations, substantive rationality draws attention to how social action is shaped by ultimate values (Weber, 1978). The tension between substantive and formal ratio- nality becomes especially apparent when aspects of society that are considered sacred are profaned by equating their purported value to the price that these ‘prod- ucts’ can bring in the course of commercial exchange (Douglas and Isherwood, 1979; Espeland and Stevens, 1998). Such tensions have been identified in the creation of labour markets (Polanyi, 1944), the development of money (Simmel, 1978), efforts to establish commercialized blood banks (Titmuss, 1971), the pricing of children (Zelizer, 1994), and attempts to purchase tribal land (Espeland, 1998). In the context of symphony orchestras, we use the notion of market logic to refer to broader notions of self-interest and profit-motive that animate commer- cially driven action in Western capitalistic economies and are predicated on formal rationality. By aesthetic logic, we refer to notions of artistry that animate and inform the integrity of the classical canon and its musical genres, consistent with substantive rationality. Our general argument is that recent trends in the US sym- phony orchestra field have led to a blending of the sacred aesthetic logic with the more profane market logic. Weber (1978, pp. 1121–2) believed that this kind of From the Critics’ Corner 1037 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 blending of formal and substantive rationality occurred quite regularly in what he described as the ‘routinization of charisma’: The charismatic following of a war leader may be transformed into a state, the charismatic community of a prophet, artist, philosopher, ethical or scientific innovator may become a church, sect, academy or school, and the charismatic group which espouses certain cultural ideals may develop into a party or merely the staff of newspapers and periodicals. In every case charisma is henceforth exposed to the conditions of everyday life and to the powers dominating it, espe- cially to the economic interests. The need to accommodate the market logic in the symphony orchestra field was documented in a research report, The Financial Condition of Symphony Orchestras, that noted how ‘sustaining the economic vitality of orchestras has become a growing and difficult problem for the field’ (Americanizing the American Orchestra, 1993, pp. 4–5). The challenge has resulted in calls for balancing the symphonic repertoire to attract a broader audience base; in turn, this has led to some innovative pro- gramming. More generally, orchestra leaders fret about the sensibilities of the hypothetical ‘core audi- ence’, assuming almost a universal antipathy among subscribers to music that is outside of the ‘core repertoire’ Two generations ago, subscribers of the well-established orchestras committed for a full season of subscription pro- grammes, often without even knowing what the repertoire would be Pres- sure did not exist, as it does today, to make every concert appealing as a single event. (Americanizing the American Orchestra, 1993, p. 21) Today, orchestral programmes increasingly feature new composers, ‘modern’ 20th century talent, as well as some from other arenas such as lowbrow pop culture (Dowd et al., 2002). Hence, the blending of market and aesthetic logics has facil- itated a mixing of musical genres; in turn, this blending dilutes the highbrow culture category, thus challenging the very definition of what is considered authen- tic classical music. As DiMaggio explains: . . . commercial processes erode ritual classifications. Commercial producers seek large markets and economies of scale. By contrast, status groups try to monopolize symbolic goods for use in rituals of inclusion and differentiation The discrepancy between commercial and symbolic value creates an oppo- sition between ritual and commercial principles of classification and competition between markets and status cultures. (DiMaggio, 1982a, p. 450) Becker (1974) makes a similar argument in his discussion on major change in artis- tic traditions. 1038 M. A. Glynn and M. Lounsbury © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 Any major change necessarily attacks some of the existing conventions of the art directly Every convention carries with it an aesthetic, according to which what is conventional becomes the standard by which artistic beauty and effec- tiveness is judged An attack on sacred aesthetic beliefs as embodied in par- ticular conventions is, finally, an attack on an existing arrangement of ranked statuses, a stratification system . . . the resistance to the new expresses the anger of those who will lose materially by the change, in the form of aesthetic outrage. (Becker, 1974, pp. 773–4) And, in fact, the social differentiation which bred elitism and exclusivity, both of the critics and the audience, seems to have succeeded all too well: for the larger public, classical music has long been culturally marginal the repertory of most companies is still embedded in the past. Declining atten- dance remains a major problem for established symphonic orchestras Though there are probably several reasons for the apathy of the larger Amer- ican public, the main one is the imbalance between the old and new in classi- cal-music programming. Mainstream music lovers are said to be indifferent or openly hostile to contemporary music. As long as classical music is in the preser- vation business, it should come as no surprise that potential new audiences, who are instinctively drawn to new works in other fields, dismiss classical music as dated and irrelevant. (Tommasini, 2001, pp. 1, 32) Given these trends, we investigate how symphony orchestra critics have reacted to these broader transformations in their role as an institutional regulator of inno- vation (Shrum, 1991, p. 643) and thus the acknowledged voice for musical authen- ticity. As illustration, consider how the dilution of cultural genre boundaries was received by one observer – ‘The orchestra’s warm embrace of Hollywood may be a deceptive sign of a thaw in the longstanding cold war between the musical cul- tures’ (Schiff, 2001, p. 1) – but panned by a critic for exhibiting a ‘pretentious and pernicious tonal tripe scored in the usual sodden and overripe Hollywood manner’ scolding the symphony for commissioning ‘a well-remunerated Hollywood hack’ (Schiff, 2001, pp. 1, 36). As DiMaggio (1982a, p. 452) observes: ‘much of the Western world has entered a period of cultural declassification – the unravelling and weakening of ritual classifications critics in as disparate fields as pop music, painting, and literature bemoan aesthetic malaise and rampant eclecticism.’ Nonetheless, how critics react to the encroachment of commercialism is an empirical question – do they act as defenders of the status quo or as agents who strategically accommodate aspects of logic blending? Much research suggests that art critics will adamantly defend the boundaries of high culture since they have been shown to evidence a strong elitist bias (Blau et al., 1985). Hence, when orches- From the Critics’ Corner 1039 © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 tras develop mixed programmes to boost audience attendance to meet economic needs by blending high and popular genres, extant research suggests that resis- tance by critics is likely. Hence, despite broader shifts in logics, it is reasonable to posit that the conduct of critics will be substantially similar to that under the pre- viously stable institutional order. Proposition 2: In a changing cultural field where competing logics interact, critics will praise performances that feature the traditional canon and genres and will tend to be dismissive of performances that feature more popular works or blend highbrow and lowbrow genres; performances that evidence musical authentic- ity will receive more favourable reviews. Alternatively, instead of emphasizing the inertia of critics, it is also plausible to suggest that critics will be more pragmatic about broader institutional shifts and act in more strategic ways to accept some elements of change while rejecting others (DiMaggio, 1987). This view conceptualizes critics as astute agents who play a key role in the redrawing of genre boundaries, arguably allowing themselves to remain relevant as cultural authorities to broader publics. Given the ascending market logic in our case, critics may expand the scope of their commentary and evalua- tion to include aspects of orchestral marketing, audience instruction, use of metaphor and analogy from other genres, and non-aesthetic economic concerns. This leads to our third and final proposition: Proposition 3: In a changing cultural field where competing logics interact, critics will change the focus of their reviews by incorporating more elements consis- tent with the newly emerging logic. RESEARCH CONTEXT AND METHODOLOGY The Atlantic Symphony Orchestra The ASO, founded in 1947, has grown from a regional orchestra to a national one and, today, is considered one of the top ten American Orchestras. At the time of the study, the orchestra consisted of 95 full-time musicians and a Conductor/Artis- tic Director; the size and composition of the ASO is comparable to that of major symphonies in the United States (Allmendinger and Hackman, 1996, p. 343). Along with this growth trajectory has been change, both in the organization and its cultural products. These changes that have ushered in ideas and practices asso- ciated with the market logic were importantly highlighted by orchestral musicians who charged the ASO board and management with treating the orchestra ‘like it was a potato chip factory’ (Kindred, 1996, p. C3). In her study of the musician’s claims on the organizational identity, Glynn (2000) observed that the shift was evident in the composition of the board: 1040 M. A. Glynn and M. Lounsbury © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2005 [...]... conditions and was precipitated by management’s decision not to tenure six probationary ASO musicians, although they had satisfied tenure standards of musical quality Management rationalized their decision as one of resource constraint and financial scarcity; their explanation reflected the primacy of market logic at the expense of the aesthetic Although management later recanted their decision and tenured the. .. bass and various brass instruments Jerry Schwartz passed away in 1998, shortly after reviewing the ASO performances in the post-strike period His obituary noted his musical expertise, acknowledged by the then-ASO President: A trained musician who played piano, bass and various brass instruments, Mr Schwartz covered classical music, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Opera, for the. .. And, in their stories, critics tend to stake claims of authenticity in preserving the purity of the core canon while deflecting threats of assimilation by the market and more mainstream culture Thus, we find that critics are central to authenticating artistic expression by valorizing and naturalizing musical tastes In addition, critics are key actors who can moderate and in uence how institutional change. .. performance with the ASO was well balanced While it was theatrical, it was never bombastic.’ Remarking on another change in the boundaries – removal of the traditional 4th wall (between the performers and the audience) through lectures and instruction about the music and programme – was common in the post-strike period The critic commented on the ‘extraordinary’ quality of this: It was yet another evening... to the institutionalized musical canon and related genres; this should reveal critics’ perceptions of authenticity Drawing on Peterson’s (1997) notion of reproduction as central to maintaining perceived authenticity, we coded ‘Authentic’ to indicate that the programme was consistent with the classical canon and genres; and ‘Inauthentic’ to indicate that it was not consistent, either by virtue of the. .. as signifying the aesthetic or market logics (or both) REFERENCES Allmendinger, J and Hackman, J R (1996) ‘Organizations in changing environments: the case of East German Symphony Orchestras’ Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 337–89 Americanizing the American Orchestra, Report of the National Task Force for the American Orchestra: An initiative for change (1993) Washington, DC: The American Symphony... Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 9 January, 12P Schwartz, J (1998b) ‘Unsteady ASO regains balance with Wagner; the verdict: forgettable Mendelssohn, spellbinding Wagner’ The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 6 March, 2H Scott, W R., Reuf, M., Mendel, P and Caronna, C (2000) Institutional Change and Healthcare Organizations: From Professional Dominance to Managed Care Chicago, IL: University of Chicago... began to wear thin? (Schwartz, 9 January 1998, p 12P) In addition, when inauthentic programming involved a boundary transgression, as often happened in a blended programme pairing the traditional canon (of Romantic and early 20th century works) with a modern piece from Aaron Jay Kernis, Invisible Mosaic III, a critical blast that defends the contours of classical music was heard: The sad thing is, this... way into organizations, and in turn, may be drivers in the ongoing restructuring of institutional logics and processes NOTES *Earlier versions of this research were presented at the 18th EGOS Colloquium, 5–7 July 2002 in Barcelona, Spain, as part of sub theme #6: Creative Industries, and the Miniconference on the Sociology of Music, August 2003 in Atlanta, GA We thank EGOS and ASA participants for their... study, displayed a deep understanding of the operative aesthetics of classical music, signalling that they were knowledgeable and credible musical authorities One critic, Derrick Henry, was himself a musician and member of the musician’s union In announcing his arrival at the AJC in April of 1985, the newspaper detailed his background and expertise in classical music: Henry, 35, comes to Atlanta from Boston, . From the Critics’ Corner: Logic Blending, Discursive Change and Authenticity in a Cultural Production System* Mary Ann Glynn and Michael Lounsbury Emory University, Atlanta, GA; University. revenue generation and accountability. As a result, marketing techniques and managerial- ism associated with the commercial market logic have crept into the arts, thereby threatening the purity and longstanding. longstanding dominance of the aesthetic logic (see Oakes et al., 1998 for a related example of how business planning techniques transformed provincial museums in Canada). Market and aesthetic logics