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Sociology of popular Culture Music
Robert Wonser
SOC 86 – Fall 2011
Lesson Overview
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In this presentation we discuss:
The relevance of pop music
The sociological imagination
Music as a social product
The sociological study of pop music
Musical meanings as social constructions
Sociological theory and music cultures
The link between music, identity, self, and the life course
The concept of self
The concept of identity
Music as a symbolic resource for biographical work
The relevance of pop music
• Many/most people commonly experience music
in daily lives.
• Music accompanies us from the wake-up call
and our commute, to the beats of campus life
and office cubicle culture, not to mention
weekend concerts and movie soundtracks.
• Music comes to us as the product of
technological relations, geographic dimensions,
historical trends, social classes and their
conventions, as well as gender, age-group,
ethnicity, and familial, religious, and biographic
particulars.
• Music is not just sound but more importantly a
social product as many people are involved with
its creation, distribution, and consumption.
• Music thus connects with important sociological
concepts and processes, and many social
worlds.
This way
you can
make that
music in
your head
audible for
everyone
else!
The sociological study of pop
music
• Pop music as a social phenomenon is thought to have emerged
during the early twentieth century when music became a
commodity.
• Benjamin (1936) referred to this as the age of mechanical
reproduction.
• During the 1950s youth culture as we know it was born.
• During the late 1960s and ‘70s music grew to become a cultural
entity with broader political implications.
• In the 1970s and ‘80s rock lost some of its critical appeal and
became controlled by the entertainment industry.
• In the fourth moment of the 1980s and ‘90s, sociologists joined
other scholarly observers to conceptualize rock ‘n’ roll as
culture.
• The fifth moment is a postmodern one marked by extreme
diversification, by doubt over authenticity, by a loss of musical
tradition, by a nostalgic and pastiche-like recovery of the past,
and by global fusion of styles and blurring of differences.
Music as a social product
• Sociologists reflect on the links between musical
production, distribution, and consumption, and the
behaviors, emotions, and thoughts of music fans,
the intentions of producers and distributers, the
consequences on local and global cultures and
social organization and more.
• As a product it is subject to classifications (e.g. pop
vs. classical)
• Classifications produce meaning: they are practices
that create and reinforce differences that we impute
to things ourselves
• Classifications are motivated, and have political
consequences
Musical meanings as social
constructions
• Social constructionist theories focus on how things
become meaningful.
• Constructionism is an umbrella category for various
theories.
• All these theories focus on “doing,” that is, on
practice, action, conduct, behavior, rituals, work, and
in the consequences of ideas, values, roles, scripts,
language, and norms.
• Thus a constructionist believes that social realities
are made by people acting in accord with (and often
in spite of) one another.
• Constructionists focus on micro-sociological
interpretation but also on the criticism of social
inequalities.
What is not the case regarding
music
• What is music?
• Music generally defined as some sort of pattern
of organized sounds, deliberately created in
order to produce certain effects (Martin 1995)
• It has been argued that we understand music
because its meaning is inherent within it and is
communicated to us through our ears
• The sociologist of music is not concerned to
establish the ‘true’ meaning of a piece of music,
but instead what people believe it to mean, for it
is these meanings that will influence their
responses to it
Music as a social problem?
• Pop music has often been singled out as a negative
influence on children, and a cause of social problems
• Social problems are the outcome of negotiation and
advocacy processes known as social problem work
• “Social problems are what people think they are and of
conditions are not defined as social problems by the
people involved in them, they are not problems to those
people” (Fuller and Myers 1940: 320)
• Moral entrepreneurs such as the Parents Music
Resource Center have done a great deal of work to point
to popular music as a social problem
• Moral entrepreneurs are individuals who work toward the
definition and enforcement of moral values.
Does Music cause Deviance?
• Ozzy, Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Rap?
• Music listening does not cause deviance
• Rather, music plays an important role within a
culture of deviance
• Is deviance ever glorified within musical
cultures?
• What kinds of deviant acts are typically
associated with which musical countercultures?
• How has the link between different musical
cultures and deviance changed over time?
Pop music as a feature of children’s
culture
• In order to focus on the positive
consequences of pop music we ought to
see as a feature of youth culture
• Music plays several functions throughout
socialization, including:
– Bridging generational values
– Integrating families by solidifying bonds
– The making of new family roles
Music as a tool for reciprocal
socialization
• Socialization is not one-way, but instead
reciprocal
• Family members socialize one another into
multiple roles. This is a form of role-making.
• A role is a part an individual plays within a social
setting.
• Music is a powerful tool for role-making and an
important component of youth culture.
Music as a tool for reciprocal
socialization - continued
• Children experience popular music also as a
way of learning about their parents’ culture.
• Similarly, adolescents experience music to
extend childhood.
• Adults often experience rock ‘n’ roll to relive
childhood.
• Music aids in parenting, especially in bonding
with children.
• Music also serves a leisure space and as a tool
for religious, moral, and historical socialization.
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?
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.
Music as a commercial
technology
• Music is used in a variety of contexts, for a great
variety of functions.
• When we understand music as a means to an
end we can conceptualize it as a form of
technology.
• In this sense, music is often used for the
commercialization of human feelings.
• Emotion work Hochschild’s term for the work
required to manage one’s emotions as part of
their job
– How is music related to emotions?
Music as a commercial technology:
the case of holiday music
• Holiday music is a big business.
• Music serves well the purpose of creating
a holiday ambiance.
• This contributes at least in part to the
maintenance of public order and the
growth of the world’s economy.
• Yet Christmas music is not the only type of
commercial “functional” music.
• Consider wedding music, workout music,
store muzaak, etc.
Reflection
• The link between music and the market in
inevitable in a capitalist society.
• In such a system, can indie music exist? And if
so, can it survive?
• Is conspicuous consumption everything, or is
authentic expression of musical identities
possible?
• Can you think of other ways in which music
serves as a commercial technology?
Ideology
• A simple definition views ideology as a set of ideas,
values, beliefs, and ideals about something.
• Ideologies are created by people, yet not all agree with
a particular ideology.
• Ideologies are powerful because they legitimize
behavior and become reified.
• Ideologies are supported through forceful and
symbolic means.
• When people faithfully believe in an ideology
supported by an alliance of powerful groups in charge
of the status quo we have a condition called
hegemony.
• Mainstream music culture is an example of hegemony.
• Protest music cultures work against the status quo,
claiming their own autonomy from hegemony and an
ideology based on independent authenticity.
Ideology: The case of
constellation Records
• Constellation records attempts to produce authentic
indie rock:
• One way of doing so is by rejecting technologies of
mass reproduction.
• Constellation also attempts to avoid mass-scale
distribution.
• Through their music, instrumental sounds, and lyrics,
GYBE and other Constellation bands are also
outspokenly critical of commodified and standardized
musical and political expression typical of postindustrial neo-liberal society.
• But is counter-hegemonic authenticity possible?
Institution
• To understand what institution means think of an
institution as custom and an institution as recognized
social organization.
• No matter how original a form of art may be, it has to
deal with institutional gatekeepers of art institutions.
• Art institutions are known by sociologists as “art
worlds.”
• Becker (1982:x) defines art worlds as “network[s] of
people whose cooperative activity, organized via their
joint knowledge of conventional means of doing things,
produce[s] the kind of art works that art world is known
for.”
• Institutionalization may makes life difficult for original
expression, but it also allows for familiar and
customary performances to register more easily with
audiences
Institution: American Idol
• The success of the show American Idol depends
on the solidity of many institution on which it
depends.
• The American idol contest resembles the US
presidential election process.
• American Idol is grounded in the instrumental
rationality typical of an advanced market-based
democratic bureaucracy.
• American Idol can also be said to be a case of
McDonaldization of popular music talent.
• Like presidential candidates American Idol
winners hope to appeal to a large mass, by
offending the taste of as few audiences as
possible.
• Is this a case of talent or predictability?
McDonaldization of Music
• Have you felt like you’ve heard a song before on your
first hearing of it?
• The principles of the fast food industry come to dominate
social life
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Predictability
Calculability
Efficiency
Control through non-human technology
• McDonalization reduces the risks inherent in creativity
• Music is a business,  minimizing risk and taking the
safer bet makes more sense economically
standardized and predictable product of mediocre
quality
Community
• Music is a form of communication: a creation of community.
• The formation of polity—another word for political community—is
grounded in discourse.
• Discourse is a term referring to the whole of communicative
exchanges taking place amongst people.
• Discourse is not only made of talk and words, but also musical
sounds.
• 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 preschool-aged 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).
Reflection
• Community is made by people in interaction.
• As John Dewey (1916:5) explained “society exists not
only by transmission, by communication, but it may
fairly be said to exist in transmission, in
communication.”
• What role do ideologies of technological reproduction
and performance play in different musical genres?
• In what other ways is American Idol/Canadian Idol
truly American/Canadian?
• What other musical rituals are at the center of
community-formation?
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
The self
• The self is an important factor in cultural
sociology because it highlights human agency
• Agency can be understood as human will and
the meaningfulness of being
• The self comes into being through reflection
• The self is a process of being a subject and an
object of human action
• The subject, or knower, is referred to as the “I”
• The object, or known, is referred to as the “me”
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.
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
Self, identity, music, and the life
course
• Adult fans nurture their interest in and
experience with rock’n’roll music for two
reasons:
• (1) keeping up with the music and the culture
that were so important to them when growing up
helps them maintain continuity with the past and
thus solidifies the sense of self security.
• (2) working hard to keep rock’n’roll current and
relevant to their lives helps adults grow as
parents, as spiritual beings, and as friends.
Experiences of self
• Experience of self, in relation to music, common
in the lives of baby boomers 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
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.