Download Chapter 3 – A Critical Approach to Popular Culture

POP CULTURE SELF
Lesson 7
SOC 86 – Popular Culture
Robert Wonser
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION
OF THE SELF
How do we come to know who we
are?
In other words, where does our sense
of self come from?
In short, from others.
In long, from agents of socialization:
family, school, peers and of course,
mass media.
WHAT IS THE SELF?
The self is one of the most basic features of
human beings and society.
The self is our experience of a distinct, real,
personal identity that is separate and
different from all other people.
Sociologists look at both the individual and
society to gain a sense of where the self
comes from.
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The self is created and modified through
interaction over the course of a lifetime.
EXPERIENCES OF
SELF
Experience of self, in relation to music especially
but not exclusively show that;
Musical resources for self-construction are
increasingly available through electronic
media
Music serves to shape and convey feelings of
love and intimacy
Music facilitates parenting
Music serves as tool for the moral development
and political involvement of self
MUSIC IS A
SOCIALIZING FORCE
Music is not a direct cause of social
problems, but a socialization agent.
In what ways has music served, and is
music playing a factor in your
socialization?
Has music ever served as a tool for
bonding in your family?
In what social contexts do you see popular
music as a potential source of social
problems?
DISPLAYING OR
PRESENTING THE SELF
Presentation of self in everyday life.
Impression management - a goal-directed conscious or
unconscious process in which people attempt to
influence the perceptions of other people about a
person, object or event; they do so by regulating and
controlling information in social interaction (Piwinger &
Ebert 2001, pp. 1–2).
It is usually used synonymously with self-presentation, in
which a person tries to influence the perception of
their image.
How does something like popular culture help us to
accomplish our self presentations?
CONSPICUOUS
CONSUMPTION: THE CASE
OF HOT TOPIC
Music-related merchandise has
grown massively in volume and
choice.
The chain store Hot Topic has a
vast catalogue: a system of
commodities available for the
presentation of the musical self.
In purchasing these commodities
many customers are arguably
more interested in impression
management than authenticity.
What kind of
person are
you? How do
you present
this to others?
COMMUNITY
Music is a form of communication: a
creation of community.
Music is effective in producing both a
sense of self and identity as well as a
sense of communal inclusion—though
participation—to community.
What does wearing your favorite bands
t-shirt allow for?
COMMUNITY: DORA
AND CHILDREN
Dora’s audience is composed primarily of
infants, toddlers, and other pre-schoolaged children and young elementary
school-aged children; girls and boys.
The key ingredient of Dora’s recipe for
success is repetition: the core of ritual.
By partaking in Dora’s rituals children
participate to the creation of a
mediated form of fellowship.
Singing with Dora is a “sacred ceremony
that draws [children] together in
fellowship and commonality” (Carey
1992:18).
MUSIC AND THE SELF
Genetic factors play only a minimal role
in the psychosocial development of a
person
Our socialization takes place instead
through various interactions
throughout the life course
Music plays an important factor
throughout the life course for self and
identity development, as well as an
anchor for telling the story of one’s self
IDENTITY
The self is a process, and identities are shapes
the process takes throughout the life course.
Identities are therefore typifications of the self
A social identity is assigned to an individual by
other people
A personal identity is constructed by an
individual in relation to how he/she views
him/herself in relation to others
A situational identity is a momentary identity
which changes from social setting to setting
THE LIFE COURSE
A life course is a temporal trajectory of individual
experiences.
It is rather difficult to identify fixed life stages.
Interactionists examine how individuals assign meanings
to their progression through life:
Holstein and Gubrium (2003: 836) write that: “(1) age and
life stages, like any temporal categories, can carry
multiple meanings; (2) those meanings emerge from
social interaction; and (3) the meanings of age and
the course of life are refined and reinterpreted in light
of the prevailing social definitions of situations that
bear on experience through time.”
The life course is therefore about the becoming of self.
How does Popular Culture facilitate this process?
THE BECOMING OF
SELF
Music provides a set or symbolic resources for the
definition and reinterpretation of identities.
In other words through music we continuously self
ourselves into being.
For existential sociologists the self can be seen “as a
unique experience of being within the context of
contemporary social conditions, an
experience…marked by an incessant sense of
becoming and an active participation in social
change” (Kotarba 1984, p. 223).
Middle-aged North Americans work with a self built to
some degree on the meanings provided by
rock’n’roll. How about you?
DISCUSSION /
EXERCISE
Music serves an important function in
biographic work and the
development of self and identity
How important is music in the lives of
adult figures you know?
How do musical tastes change
throughout the life course?
Write down your favorite 5
artists/songs and why you like them.