Music as Cultural Currency: Symbolic and Epistemic Exchanges in Indigenous and Global Traditions

Research on music’s aesthetic and economic dimensions has expanded, yet little is known about how musical value is generated and negotiated across Indigenous, diasporic, and mainstream traditions at a moment when digital circulation and cultural sovereignty debates are reshaping global cultural life. This study addressed that gap by examining how music functioned as cultural currency within and across these communities. A ten-month qualitative comparative case study was conducted with 24 participants in the Mid-Atlantic United States, using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and document and media analysis, interpreted through thematic and discourse approaches. Findings showed that Indigenous participants treated music as a gift and epistemic heritage sustaining ancestral knowledge; diasporic communities mobilized music as cultural memory and resistance; and mainstream practitioners navigated music as a commodity and cultural capital shaped by institutional prestige and market visibility. The study demonstrates that conceptualizing music as cultural currency offers a critical lens for understanding negotiation across traditions and informs ethnomusicology, cultural diplomacy, and decolonial practice.