The Authenticity Bind: Constructing Next-Generation Electric Guitars as Even Better than the Real Thing

• In Event: Consumers and Consumption Section Open Call Paper Session

Abstract

In this paper, we conceptualize an “authenticity bind” associated with creating products that compete with the manufacturer’s own earlier products. We contribute to literature arguing that culture is constantly created and recreated, and as such, that authenticity is socially constructed. Through an analysis of electric guitar descriptions, we find that manufacturers differentiate and authenticate a first-generation from a next-generation of guitars, enabling manufacturers to reinforce the authenticity of their earlier works while at the same time constructing their current creations as better than the “real” (original) thing. Quantitative analysis demonstrates how manufacturers build off their past successes to create new products to be thought of as authentic in their own right. Qualitative analysis uncovers how manufacturers construct an aura around particular guitars based on factors of innovation, ideologies, and embodiment. Through a carefully crafted process that creates ties with the past to build a new future of electric guitars and related social movements, manufacturers manage the authenticity bind to keep themselves relevant through constantly changing consumer cycles. The findings presented here have theoretical repercussions and applications going beyond the present case, demonstrating the importance and usefulness of the “authenticity bind” as a socio-cultural concept within consumption research.

Authors

• Amanda Koontz, University of Central Florida

• William F. Danaher, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale