Developing Musical Economies II

This chapter describes the position of the musicians who participated in the musical economy described first in the previous chapter. Some of these musicians achieved a degree of celebrity, which required a delicate balance between earning money for themselves and the movement and appearing humble and authentically motivated. This balance was tremendously difficult to achieve, and was fraught with peril in the form of the judgment of outside observers, as well as the legal constraints of the government. The chapter focuses ethnographically on two musicians who appeared as celebrities within the movement, and whose entrepreneurial lives constrained their political participation. The discussion enters into conversation with Judith Butler and Rosalind Morris on the topic of contemporary protest movements and the problems of visibility and audibility.