Taste making as assemblage effect: The case of electronic dance music

In this article, we ask, how does the materiality of sound drive the affective experience of musical taste making? We answer this question with ethnographic data collected in the context of electronic dance music (EDM). Prior research has explored the role of cultural intermediaries, consumers’ identity work, and status marking in taste regimes and taste-making. It has examined taste formation primarily at the meso level of product categories. We further these insights by foregrounding the relational and performative features of material agency within taste making at a more micro-level. Building on actor-network theory, our investigation shows how things’ sensual capacities explicates the mediating role of materiality unfolding within a nested assemblage, with each phase illustrating a succession of material mediations facilitating the qualification of cultural products. By doing so, we provide an understanding of the role of materiality in taste making, that is, bridging the production and consumption of cultural products.