Managing Popular Culture Stigmas: A Comparative Analysis of Managing Stigmas Associated with Country and Hip Hop Fandom

Though millions of individuals enjoy stigmatized music, television, and literature, how popular culture fans manage potential stigmatization associated with their fandom has received limited attention. I address this topic through a comparative analysis of how Peloton instructors sought to manage stigmas after portraying themselves as at risk of being stigmatized for their self‐proclaimed country and hip hop music fandom. Across 58 stationary bike classes set to either genre, instructors creatively deployed a range of stigma management techniques such as disclosure etiquette, transcendence, deflection, and discrediting discreditors. Although hip hop is generally considered more stigmatized than country in the United States, instructors also repeatedly stressed contemporary country musicians' incorporation of hip hop had rescued country from its stigmatized past. These results are discussed in relation to emerging literature on stigmatization, inequalities, and power—with a particular focus on how individuals manage potential stigmatization stemming from popular culture fandom. I argue that popular culture fans manage potential stigmatization by creatively navigating meanings associated with popular cultural products in settings structured by racial and class inequalities.