Extending Play: The Feminization of Collaborative Music Merchandise in the Early Twenty-First Century

The music industry is structured around gender inequality, and women in the industry often use self-branding opportunities in fashion, cosmetics, food, and technology to articulate forms of popular feminism. Alyxandra Vesey's book "Extending Play" examines the prevalence of brand partnerships in the contemporary music industry through the lens of feminized labor, demonstrating how female artists use them as a resource for artistic expression and to articulate forms of popular feminism through self-commodification.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 264 pages
Publication date: 05 March 2024
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

The music industry, despite the presence of a constellation of female pop stars, is deeply rooted in gender inequality. As a result, women in the music industry often resort to self-branding opportunities in fashion, cosmetics, food, and technology to ensure professional longevity. This phenomenon is explored in depth in Alyxandra Vesey's book, "Extending Play," which examines the prevalence of brand partnerships in the contemporary music industry through the lens of feminized labor.

Vesey argues that female artists use brand partnerships as a resource for artistic expression and to articulate forms of popular feminism through self-commodification. The book explores this type of promotional work, which has proliferated in the early 21st century, particularly in the music business due to its associations with fan club merchandise, concert merchandise, and lifestyle branding. These partnerships often foreground women's participation in shaping these economies through fan labor and image management.

Through a comprehensive analysis of artists' songs, music videos, interviews, social media usage, promotional campaigns, marketing strategies, and business decisions, "Extending Play" investigates how female musicians co-create branded feminine-coded products like perfume, clothes, makeup, and cookbooks, as well as masculine-coded products like music equipment. The book explores how these products serve as resources for female musicians to work through their own ideas about gender and femininity as workers in industries that often use sexism and ageism to diminish women's creative authority and diminish the value of the recording.

By merging star studies, popular music studies, and media industry studies, "Extending Play" proposes an integrative approach to understanding the role of female artists in the music industry. The book highlights the ways in which female musicians use brand partnerships to assert their agency, challenge gender norms, and redefine the boundaries of popular feminism in the digital age.

In conclusion, "Extending Play" is a valuable contribution to the study of gender, popular culture, and the music industry. Through its exploration of brand partnerships and feminized labor, the book offers a fresh perspective on the ways in which female artists navigate the complexities of the music industry and use self-branding to assert their creative authority and shape the cultural landscape.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 156 x 235 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190085643