Mapping the Conditions for Feminized Collaborative Music Merchandise

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 1 lays out the industrial conditions that established music merchandise as its own sector by the 1980s. It pays particular attention to merchandise’s diversification through mail-order distribution at the end of the twentieth century and the rise of e-commerce during the twenty-first century’s first two decades. It also identifies the rise in brand partnerships throughout the 1990s with televised home shopping and hip-hop fashion. This chapter posits that all of these activities rely on feminized labor and consumer groups, which contribute to music merchandise’s connotative femininity and create a context for female-identified musicians’ contemporary work as brand partners for collaborative music merchandise.