Silenced musicians. The major labels' discursive work in the reproduction of the institutional order

We examine in this paper the issue of how institutions are maintained and the role of agency in this process. We investigate more specifically the efforts of actors to maintain the institutional order through discourse. We approach this issue through an in-depth and longitudinal study of actors’ efforts to maintain institutions in the French Music Industry from 2004 to today. Our study focuses on the discursive work of some actors in fixing meaning about artists and then maintaining institutions. To do this, we resort to a discourse analysis and more particularly to a lexicometric study. We contribute to the study of institutional maintenance in two ways. First, we argue that maintaining institutions is the outcome of agency and not an automatic or a mechanical mimetic process. Secondly, we demonstrate the reproduction of institutions through discourse.