Sociology of Popular Culture - Music

Robert WonserSOC 86 Fall 2013

Lesson Overview

• 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 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.

This way you can make that music in your head audible for everyone else!

Music as a Social Product• 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.

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.• What is the role of the work of art in the ge 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.

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.

• Music then, is a sociological phenomenon insofar as it is socially constructed. • Like what is considered music and what is not?

Good or bad music?

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

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.

Ideology becomes Hegemony• 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 post-industrial 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.”

• Ever wonder why some music gets made and others don’t (or with limited resources?).

Institutions• 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• Predictability• Calculability• Efficiency • Control through 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