Borrowing between Genres in Electronic Music: Boundary Permeability and DistanceS

Borrowing between artistic (sub-)genres is widely recognized as an importantsource for novelty creation in artistic fields, but not just there, yet the mechanisms thatgovern processes of exchange between genres remain ill-understood. We elaborate on PaulDiMaggio’s conceptual groundwork of classifications in artistic genres, distinguishingthe concepts of boundary permeability and distances. Genre boundaries may differ intheir permeability (i.e., genres may be closed or open), and genres may also be distantfrom each other in different ways (i.e., aesthetically, ideologically, socially, economically,and hierarchically). Boundaries can be impermeable to prevent borrowing, or they canbe permeable, yet distances between genres can still prevent borrowing. Or vice versa.Permeable genre boundaries are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for borrowing.Boundary objects signify the permeability of boundaries and indicate the distancebetween (sub-)genres. This article’s contribution is the conceptually coherent frameworkof boundary permeability, distance, and boundary objects.