Genre as infrastructure: Power, platforms, and the governance of musical classification

Discussions surrounding musical genres frequently commence with the assertion that these categories undergo evolution and defy rigid definitions. This article posits that the core issue extends beyond evolution to encompass governance: the institutional and platform-driven mechanisms through which musical diversity is identified, solidified, disseminated, and monetized. Utilizing genre theory, cultural sociology, infrastructure studies, and platform studies, this work reconceptualises musical genre as a form of regulatory infrastructure rather than merely a neutral descriptor. It critiques the notion of stable origins and demonstrates how the concept of “original genre” is frequently constructed retrospectively through markets, archives, curricula, and canons. It subsequently analyses streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music, where genre is defined through metadata, recommendation systems, behavioural clustering, and audio modelling. Expanding upon the concepts of algorithmic culture, listener practices, and hybrid gatekeeping, particularly in relation to the streaming paradox, this argument posits that genre is increasingly defined by metrics: categorized, grouped, ranked, curated into playlists, recommended, and assessed within the frameworks of platform infrastructures. African musical formations, such as highlife, Afrobeats, Ghanaian art music, and Pentecostal worship music, illustrate the tendency of global taxonomies to oversimplify intricate musical ecologies into generalized categories like “world” or “African.” The article presents a Layered Stabilisation Model that includes historical core, institutional codification, and adaptive circulation. It contends that genre scholarship ought to transition from a focus on definition to one of governance.