Does leadership style define genre?
It’s actually a fascinating thought experiment. In the video essay below, Adam Neely describes three genres and three political systems – there seems to be a large overlap in the way a particular political system really describes the values of that musical system. His big three are:
ROCK – DEMOCRACY
CLASSICAL – AUTOCRACY
JAZZ – ANARCHY
Now be careful – he uses specific and well-thought-out definitions, so your layman definition of anarchy doesn’t necessarily work to describe jazz.
In all, I think there’s a lot of value in thinking about these systems, the values they have, and how your genre determines your leadership style…and vice versa.
For the record, I lead ensembles that fall under the AUTOCRACY category Neely defines, but I intentionally set aside a lot of time for the ensembles to practice having a musical opinion and making decisions. That works well with Neely’s theory, because I want my students to succeed regardless of genre. In other words, they need to be able to make music in a DEMOCRACY, an ANARCHY, or as either leader or follower in an AUTOCRACY.