Using word embedding models to capture changing media discourses: a study on the role of legitimacy, gender and genre in 24,000 music reviews, 1999–2021

Studies suggest that popular music genres are increasingly discussed by cultural intermediaries in ‘legitimate’ or ‘highbrow’ terms, rather than merely ‘lowbrow’ commercial entertainment. In addition, popular music discourse as produced by such intermediaries has historically been decidedly masculine—a trait which tends to increase on par with legitimation. However, seeing that women are gradually gaining symbolic and numerical representation in popular music production, this may have been changing over the last decade(s). In this article, we assess how popular music discourse within a key music media outlet (Pitchfork) changed between 1999 and 2021. We use word embedding models—a novel technique in computational social science—to assess legitimacy and gender in the discourses used in 23,992 reviews, and how this varies between genres. We find four notable patterns. First, reviews increasingly use a discourse that legitimates popular music, while, second, also increasingly using more feminine terms. This does not, third, occur simultaneously; however, discourse is either legitimate or feminine. Finally, these patterns also differ based on which popular music genres are discussed. The overall pattern is consistently found in pop, electronic and experimental, but not in historically masculine genres rap/hip-hop, metal and jazz which seem rather resistant to discursive change.