From Subculture to Cultural Industry: The Institutionalization and Commercialization of Meykhana in Post-Soviet Azerbaijan

• In Event: Sociology of Culture Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): 2. The Institutionalization of "Marginal" Music

Abstract

This paper analyzes the transformation of meykhana, an improvised poetic performance tradition in Azerbaijan, from a semi-closed subcultural practice of the 1990s into a partially institutionalized and commercialized cultural industry in the post-Soviet period. Drawing on the production of culture perspective, the study examines how organizational structures, market expansion, media platforms, and state regulation have reshaped the conditions under which meykhana is produced, circulated, and legitimized. Historically performed in informal neighborhood gatherings and small social circles, meykhana operated as a relatively autonomous expressive form. However, with the expansion of wedding markets, television programming, and later digital platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, the genre entered broader circuits of visibility and monetization. This shift altered not only its economic base but also its normative boundaries, audience composition, and performer trajectories. The emergence of professional performers, the routinization of performances in commercial events, and the adaptation of content to public broadcasting standards reflect a reconfiguration of the field from subcultural expression to regulated cultural production. Using a mixed-method design that combines interviews, content analysis, and survey data on audience profiles, the paper demonstrates how commercialization and institutional mediation restructure symbolic hierarchies within the genre. It argues that meykhana’s transformation cannot be understood solely as aesthetic change; rather, it represents a reorganization of cultural production shaped by market logics, media infrastructures, and regulatory frameworks. As such, the case contributes to the production of culture literature by offering a non-Western example of how local performance traditions are incorporated into broader cultural industries under conditions of post-socialist transition and digital platformization.

Author

• Jahandar Jabarov, Baku Slavic University