Genre work: 'How' vs 'what' questions in the sociology of music culture.

This article critically examines the dominant sociological frameworks of "scene" and "neo-tribe" used to describe social collectives in popular music cultures, arguing that these frameworks primarily address "what" kinds of sociality exist rather than "how" sociality is accomplished. It introduces the concept of "genre work" to emphasize the empirical investigation of the interactional, discursive, and mediated practices through which musical genres and their associated social groups are co-constituted. The authors contend that scene and neo-tribe tend to reify social processes into fixed categories, often overlooking the labor, mediation, and negotiation involved in sustaining music cultures, especially in digitally networked contexts. Genre work, drawing on approaches like actor-network theory and ethnomethodology, focuses on the ongoing social processes—such as music production, discussion, categorization, and evaluation—that actively shape both musical styles and communities. This perspective invites sociological inquiry into the dynamic, mediated practices that underlie musical sociality, proposing a shift from classificatory "what" questions to process-oriented "how" questions.