'An essential tool for creativity': technologies, spaces and discourse within pop music production.

This article examines how the term "creativity" functions as a culturally loaded discourse within the pop music production industry, shaping perceptions of legitimacy, value, and prestige around technologies, spaces, and practices. It highlights how creativity is used by recording studios, technology companies, and producers—particularly in the US and UK—to market products and services, often privileging expensive analogue equipment and large studios over more accessible alternatives. Drawing on sociological theory, especially Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of "field" and "cultural capital," the article argues that creativity operates as a form of symbolic capital that can reinforce inequalities in access and status within music production. It also discusses how creativity discourse is mobilized both to endorse and to critique digital technologies like Auto-Tune, revealing tensions between romantic and rationalist views of creativity. Ultimately, the article calls for critical scrutiny of how creativity is deployed in industry debates, as it may limit diverse participation and obscure the complex cognitive and social processes involved in music-making.