Economics and the ecology of creativity: evidence from the popular music industry

Abstract

Creativity does not result from the talents of a few individuals, but, on the contrary, nourishes itself from the repeated exchanges among a variety of heterogeneous entities that all contribute in their own way to foster the development of new ideas. As a result, the creative activity must be considered as embedded in creative territories. In other words, these creative milieus should be considered as specific innovative clusters that allow for the creative process to be fully expressed. Following this perspective, we argue that the dynamics of creativity lie in the interaction between three different layers of a territory: the underground, the middleground and the upperground. In order to illustrate this point of view, we propose to analyse the birth of two distinct musical styles that are both directly related to the places in which they emerged: soul music in Detroit and rap music in New York.