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In 2010, American sociologist John Levi Martin asserted that in-depth interviews are inadequate for the study of culture. This sparked a debate in the discipline over the legitimacy of interview methods for researchers of culture and others. Here, we contextualize and contribute to this debate. We review the ideas of Martin and argue that in-depth interviews are in fact valid, well-supported in the field, and useful for investigating cultural phenomena. We build this counter-argument on three angles: epistemological, theoretical and methodological. Given this defense, we also explore how social scientists are implementing innovative ways to complement in-depth interview approaches, such as through social network analysis. En el año 2010, John Levi Martin, un reconocido sociólogo estadounidense dedicó una de sus publicaciones para aseverar que las entrevistas en profundidad eran inadecuadas para estudiar fenómenos culturales. Esto desató un debate en la disciplina respecto a la legitimidad de los métodos basados en entrevistas para aquellos investigadores estudiosos de la sociología de la cultura u otras áreas similares. En este trabajo, contextualizamos y contribuimos a este debate. Revisamos las ideas de Martin y defendimos la idea de que las entrevistas en profundidad realmente son válidas y que existen favorables antecedentes en su aplicación. Por lo tanto sí son necesarias al investigar este tipo de fenómenos. Construimos esta contra-respuesta desde tres ángulos: epistemológico, teórico y metodológico. Haciendo nuestra defensa de este tipo de entrevistas, también damos cuenta de la manera en que científicos sociales implementan formas innovadoras para complementar su función, tal como sucede en el análisis de redes sociales.

In producer-saturated fields such as popular music scenes, claims to and judgments of authenticity are ever salient in contention for limited resources and prestige. By mobilizing meanings attributed to sounds, objects, individuals, and ideas associated with the past, present, or future of a genre, cultural producer groups are distinguished from each other and unified within themselves. Observing the dynamics of these distinctions allows us to ascertain how artistic professionals think of themselves and others, as well as begin to unpack the role that authenticity work may play in the practice and warrants of cultural production. Drawing on fieldwork and interviews from an independent rap scene in the Midwest, I demonstrate how artists draw on collective memory, modern convention, and projected futures to form competing, temporally-rooted logics of authenticity by which to advance their positions. KEYWORDS: Authenticity; Cultural production; Temporality; Hip-Hop