First, Tom Ewing’s in-progress formulation on how we understand and use music genres, followed by a minor corollary from yours truly:
Imagine you find a record you like in a genre you don’t usually listen to very deeply. Here are two broad ways you might talk about it publically:
“I don’t listen to much [genre] but I [...]

Earlier today, Tom Ewing (this guy) used the word “performative” in a blog post to describe a particular form of online mediation.  The specifics of Tom’s vague use of the word weren’t as important as the fact that someone used the word in a blog post.  In my particular realms of academia, performative is a [...]