ABSTRACT
After a thorough explanation of the concept of musical gentrification, this chapter expands on the concept by demonstrating that while appearing as a democratising process, it can also be a useful strategy for social and cultural positioning in the late modern cultural world. In this way, musical gentrification may work as a means of harvesting hitherto untouched cultural capital. At an institutional level, it can also serve as confirmation and justification of egalitarian, tolerant and inclusive commitments and mindsets, whereas, on the overarching social and cultural level, it confirms rather than changes the order of things. Thus, the concept of musical gentrification may provide insight into the workings of hegemony in and through contemporary popular culture.
