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Popular music and the aesthetics of ageing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2012

Andy Bennett  and
Jodie Taylor
Andy Bennett
Affiliation:
Griffith Centre for Cultural Research, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia E-mail: a.bennett@griffith.edu.au; jodie.taylor@griffith.edu.au
Jodie Taylor
Affiliation:
Griffith Centre for Cultural Research, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Qld 4111, Australia E-mail: a.bennett@griffith.edu.au; jodie.taylor@griffith.edu.au
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Abstract

The cultural turn in sociology and related fields of study has brought with it new understandings of the various ways social identities are formed. In a post-structural landscape, social identities must increasingly be regarded as reflexively derived ‘performative assemblages’ that incorporate elements of the local vernacular and global popular cultures. Building on the above reinterpretation of social identity, this paper takes as its central premise the notion that, in addition to its well-mapped cultural importance for youth, popular music retains a critical currency for the ageing audience as a key cultural resource of post-youth identification, lifestyle and associated cultural practices. In its examination of the relationship between popular music, ageing and identity, this paper uses illustrative examples drawn from ethnographic data collected by the authors between 2002 and 2009 in Australia and the UK.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 31 , Special Issue 2: As Time Goes By: Music, Dance and Ageing , May 2012 , pp. 231 - 243
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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