Net 102 READING #2

Week 2 Topic 1.1: Music: I Want My MP3
Laughey, D. (2007). Music Media in Young People's Everyday Lives
My review
Laughey, Dan. (2007) discusses in his paper "the lack of research on how (young) people use music media in everyday situations."(p 172) That even though there has been more studies done since, there still isn't a great deal known and surprised that even in economically developed countries more studies haven't been done. He goes on to describe the cultural shift and impact over the past 80 years through the advent of pre-war gramophone use and later post war radio, especially with American musical influences that came across the Atlantic and spread around Europe (early 1930's). Mass produced recorded music was also spread by the advent of the commercial BBC (British Broadcasting Commission) post war (even though commercial radio had begun in America a decade beforehand). Laughey writes that the twenty-first century has greater music availability by a wider array of multimedia formats, i.e. vinyl, cassette, CD players. Mediated music specialists i.e. specialist music television channels, DVD's, karaoke equipment. The internet (including MP3 file sharing sites, fan sites, music news and band sites with interactive discussion forums like MySpace), phones with downloadable ring tones. Not forgetting the ubiquitous iPod.
He draws on empirical research via young focus group interviews and addresses three central themes that emerge from previous studies of music media use. Private and Public. Intensive and Casual. Alternative and Populist.
Public and Private: (user context) Laughey states that "the impact made by music media on a public sphere has been largely neglected by classic youth cultural studies of privatised media use in teenage bedroom cultures (p 176)". That the public and private are closely intertwined and an overlapping of character in public (say on a bus) and private play (in a bedroom) (iPods etc) is a enmeshing of zones. In contrast to codes. (Codes of romance, beauty etc). Intensive and Casual: (involvement) Intensive, an emotional response to which ever song is being heard. Evoking thoughts associated with emotional (bond) events in their lives that the music is associated with, which could also be associated with fan based actions(collecting every single music medium associated with a specific group i.e. vinyl in many forms (bootleg, legitimate)cd's etc. Casual - listening to music that reflects their everyday mood albeit fluctuating and not following any particular artist. The third category Alternative and Populist: (taste) Realising that in the context of clubbing cultures, alternative music followers denote that mass-mediated (populist) music is dismissible and seen as shallow, commercialised, and a sell out to mainstream music tastes. Quite a distinction in a music fan (fanaticism).
My thoughts
What an interesting article. I am glad I read it, interesting that there hasn't been many studies done particularly on youth subculture music use and youth peer music use. I remember being part of a music subculture in Hobart where groups such as The Cure were idolised not only in listening to the music but also emulating the clothing style.
Q. How is music interlaced with our everyday lives in general? What has been the impact of the Internet in the way music is used by young people privately and publicly (and the way this intermingles)?
Addressing the first sentence: (Personally) Music is an integral part of my everyday life. It is there in the soft undertones of background house noise for relaxation, driving in my car for semi distraction, or motivating my gym routine via the use of an iPod. Secondly the impact of the internet has aided the way music is utilised in both personal and public space. Young people are able to access the internet via iPhones whilst in public, but still keep it private by way of earphones. The use of Wi-Fi in the majority of cafes means that they are able to download a new song that has been suggested by another who is doing that same exact thing.
References:
Laughey, D. (2007). Music Media in Young People's Everyday Lives. In Music, Sound and Multimedia: From the Live to the Virtual (pp. 172-187).