The Pop Culture Self

Robert WonserSOC 86 Fall 2013

Lesson Overview

• 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

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.

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?

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• 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.

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 pre-school-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 truly American? • 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

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.