The Discourse of Diversity: the making of identities in the music industry

Resumen

This article investigates the definitions of "particular" and "universal" found in the music industry, especialy the so-called "World Music" industry. It will be demonstrated that since theses definitions are not constant, they can be used for creating differences and similarities, wich produce social impact. In the case os World Music elaborated inthis study, I argue that the discourse of diversity divides musicians into "flexible" or "fixed" actors. Accordingly, these distinct categories of actors also possess varying degrees of facility when dealing with their identity and negotianting the value of that identity; consequently, musicians are faced with unequal conditions and oportunities.