160   Understanding popular mask culture
culture. Similarly, music critics act as a service industry to the record industry, lubricating die desire to acquire both new product and selections from the back catalogue. Music press reviews still form an important adjunct to the record company and music retail marketing of their products, while providing the record companies (and artists) with critical feedback on their releasers. In the process, they also become promotional devices, providing supportive quotes for advertising and forming pari of press kits sent to radio stations, websites and press outlets Vei both press and critics also play an important ideological function. They distance popular music consumers from the fact that they are essentially purchasing an economic commodity, by stressing the product's cultural significance. Furthermore, this function is maintained by the important point that the music press i not, at least directly, vertically integrated into the music industry (i.e. owned by the record companies). A sense of distance is thereby maintained, while at tin-same time the need of the industry to constantly sell new images, styles and product is met.
Further reading
Atton, G. (2009) 'Writing About Listening: Alternative Discourses in Rod
Journalism*, Popular Music, 28, 1; 53-67. Feigenbaum, A. (2005) '"Some Guy Designed this Room I'm Standing in
Marking  Gender  in   Press  Coverage  of Ani  DiFraneo*,  Popular Musict
24, 1: 37-56.
Hoskyns, B. (ed.) (2003) The Sound and the Fiuy: A Rock's Back Pages Reader. 40 lean
of Classic Rock Journalism, Ixmdon: Bloomsbury. Jones, S. (ed.) (2002) Pop Musk ami the Piess, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. McLeod, K. (2001) '*l/2: A Critique of Rock Criticism in North Amerir.i
Popular Mime, 20, 1: 29 46. Swiss, T. (2005) That's Me in the Spotlight; Rock Autobiographies', Popuk
Musk, 24, 2: 287-94.
Book series
Da Capo Best Musk Writing, an annual compilation, featuring guest editors, published since 2001.
Websites
www.rocksbackpages.com
An extensive archive of reviews, interviews, and features on artists; many arli< 1« are full text. Some content is freely available, fuller access is by subscription,
www, nodepression.com www.piu hfork.com
WWW*resit I c n l a d v i sc i. ru u l
10 'My Generation5
Identity and consumption; audiences, fans and social networks
litis chapter, and the two that follow, consider popular music in relation in aspects of identity. Identity, rather than being fixed and static, is a process of becoming, which is developed out of points of similarity and difference, involving both self-description and social ascription. Popular music is an aspect of allcmpls to define identity at the levels of self, the local community and national identity.
Sill-identity can be expressed through the use of music consumption to indicate membership of constituencies based around class, gender and ethnicity. Al nuns, tliis is more loosely organized around particular scenes and sounds, as with lave culture and contemporary dance music. Self-identity can also be based on m tivities, such as faudom, and practices, such as record collecting. These identi* licutions are not fixed and constraining; they produce differentially constructed uhntities, which can draw on an amalgam of factors and are subject to change. Sell-identity also involves situating the sell in relation to competing discourses, Im example, adherence to a musical genre can be used to distance oneself from (lie parent culture, community and social authority.
Popular music plays a prominent role in the creation of community identity in ilie links between music and locality, especially in local scenes and subcultures (the subject of Chapter 12). These have remained significant, with the internet helping to consolidate links between physically removed scenes. At the natiou.il level, identity is a part of cultural policies (e.g. quotas) aimed at promoting locally pioduced music. National identity can be regarded as a social construct as much m a quality associated with a physical space. While such identities may be con-lutitcd or imagined, they are mobilized for particular interests and emerge I mi i h in relation to different 'others*. Particular genres are often associated nidi pecilic national settings (as with 'Brit Fop' in the UK in the 1990s), although this, .it limes reductionist process, has been open to debate.
This chapter begins with an introduction to the general nature of audieOO .uid iA cultural consumption, relating these to the social construction of individual subjectivities and identities I thru ruiwidci the various modes ofpopultt iuunh < tuisumplinn, die sori.il < .ilegoiie* iinkm ialcd will, ihese (age, class, gender, eih
.....is) and the variety of mm tal pi.m l It m ll......ľJi whii h sneh consumption occurs.
I argue thai two ľaCtON nndeipm ílu 11)1 tftlllttpt ion ol popular music: the iole of
162   Understanding popular music culture
music as a form of cultural capital, with recordings as media products around which cultural capital can be displayed and shaped; and as a source of audience pleasure. To emphasize these is to privilege the personal and social uses people make of music in their lives, an emphasis that falls within the now dominant paradigm of audience studies* This stresses the active nature of media audiences, while also recognizing that such consumption is, at the same time, shaped by social conditions.
Beyond patterns of demographic and social preferences in relation to popular music5 there exists a complex pattern of modes of consumption. These include buying recorded music, viewing MTV and music videos, listening to the radio, home taping and downloading music in digital form. To these could be added the various 'secondary1 levels of involvement or the social use of music texts, such as discussing music with friends and peers groups, reading the music press and decorating your bed room walls with its posters; dancing and clubbing; and concert going. Several of these have been dealt with elsewhere in this study; here I examine how we actually access music texts in their various modes, and the associated social practices, through two examples: dance and record collecting, I conclude with the role of social network sites, which have added a new and increasingly important dimension to popular music culture and its consumption.
From the mass audience to active consumers
The study of media audiences is broadly concerned with the who, what, where^ how and why of the consumption of individuals and social groups. Historically, a range of competing media studies approaches to the investigation of audiences can be identified. At the heart of theoretical debates has been the relative emphasis placed on the audience as an active determinant of cultural production and social meanings, Music is a form of communication and popular music, as itl very name suggests, usually has an audience.
Social theorists critical of the emergence of industrial society in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries first used the term 'mass audience5, alarmed at the attraction of new media for millions of people. Their fears were based on a conception of the audience as a passive, mindless mass, directly influenced by the images, messages and values of the new media such as film and radio (and, later, television). This view emphasized the audience as a manipulated market, hi relation to popular music, it is a perspective evident in the writings of high cullme critics and the Frankfurt School (see Shuker, 2012: 'culture' and 'mass culture' entries),
loiter analyses placed progressively greater emphasis on the uses consumers (the term represents a significant change of focus) made of media: uses and gratifications, which emerged in the 19(i0s, hugely within Amcitrail media sociology; reception analysis and cultural analysis all stressed the ai live lolc nl the audicno , especially tans and members of youth sub*-uhuieji. Mote recently there lias hem
an emphasis on ihr domestic sphere nf much incd......iiiuuiphnii and the intCI
lelatiunship of the use of various media 'Mm * mm igtHH ImIiiinullum age \s seeing
. I udiences, fans and social networks   163
a reorganization of everyday life: 'people arc integrating both old and new technologies into their lives in more complex ways' and within an increasingly cluttered media environment, this means 1>eing an audience is even more complicated* (Ross and Nightingale, 2003: 1). Related to this is an emerging literature on music and everyday life, in a variety of settings, including the workplace and in public space (DeNora, 2000),
The opposition between passive and active views of audiences must not be overstated. What needs highlighting is the tension between musical audiences as collective social groups and, at the same limcj as individual consumers. The concept of consumer sovereignly is useful here, emphasizing the operation of human agency. As an influential approach within cultural studies during the 1980s, consumer sovereignty was tied to the notion of the active audience, to produce a debated view of scoliotic democracy at work. Advocates of consumer sovereignty consider that people's exercise of their 'free* choice in the marketplace is a major determinant of the nature and availability of particular cultural and (economic) commodities. While the elements of romance and imagination that have informed individual personal histories and the history of popular musical genres are frequently marginalized in the process of commodification, they remain essential to the narratives people construct to help create a sense of identity. While economic power does have a residual base in institutional structures and practices, in this case, the music industries and their drive for market stability, predictability and profit, this power is never absolute.
The sociology of music consumption
Studies of the audience(s) and consumers) of popular music reflect such broad shifts in the field of audience studies. Such studies have drawn on the sociology of youth, the sociology of leisure and cultural consumption to explore the role of music in the lives of 'youth' as a general social category and as a central component of the 'style1 of youth subcultures and the social identity of fans. Music consumption, and cultural tastes more generally, have been closely related to age, class, gender and ethnicity, with an 'impressive and imposing literature going back almost forty years and raising some major questions of social and cultural theory' (Shepherd, 2012: 239). There has been increasing appreciation of the intersection and overlap of these social categories in the construction of social identitiesi rather than simply a singular identity*
The study of audiences in popular music has focused largely on 'youth*. Historically, the main consumers of contemporary (post-1950) popular music have In ru young people between 12 and 25. Cultural surveys since the 1970s, in Nurlh America, the UK and man widely, have all indicated youth's high levels of popular music consumption, alon^ willi a elrai pattern of age and gender-based
!■.....        pi clerc i ices, Willi these nihil ilillct led with elhnieily. Younger adolescents,
particularly girls, were seen in pit In * onuurrcial pop; old i ,u l< le seen Is expressed gieater interest in nunc |ni^irMl\i ItJIIIM MINI ailUu, High school (college) siu-deuls muled ,u 'ir ii*1*!*" inlnrMnl In ullniMtlVf'/lndh  ytuic lasten and lean
164   Understanding popular music culture
interested in the more commercial expressions of popular music. As youthful consumers get older, their tastes in music often become more open to exploring new genres and less commercial forms. This trend is particularly evident among tertiary students, reflecting the dominant forms of musical cultural capital within their peer groups.
The straightforward association of metagenres such as 'rock5 and 'pup' with youth, however, needed qualifying by the 1980s. Certainly, the music was initially aimed at the youth market in the 1950s and the baby boomer bulge of the 1960s, while young people have continued to be major consumers of it and the products of the leisure industries in general. At the same time the market has increasingly catered to aging fans, who grew up with the music in the 1950s and 1960s and have continued to follow it, aging along with the surviving musical performers of the 1960s. Accordingly, attempts to locate the audience for popular music primarily among 'youth', once historically correct, no longer applied with the same force by the 1990s, with surveys undertaken by the Recording Industry Association of America showing the music-buying power of 30-somethings had risen while purchases by those under 24 have fallen: in 1993 music consumers over 30 made up 42 per cent of the American market. Throughout the 1990s, 'nostalgia rock' was prominent in popular music, with the release of 'new' Beatles material (Uve at tlie BBC); the launch of the magazine MOJO, placing 'classic rock' history firmly at its core and with 35 per cent of its readers aged 35-plus; and successful tours by the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and the Eagles, among other aging performers.
These trends have continued, in part exacerbated by the decline of CD sales, especially albums, as younger listeners turned to digital downloading through services such as Napster and its successors (see Chapter 2). Today, demographics are partly responsible for the continued success of performers such as Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, both still touring and recording. Older consumers, in part at least, also account for the present predominance of 'classic rock' and 'classic hits' radio formats, although their tastes do not remain fixed purely at the nostalgic level. At the same time, the youth market for music remains substantial -what has changed is how they are getting their music. The great majority of this music is popular music, with its range of genre styles. Only a minority of students regard classical music as one of their interests, a situation that stands in shaq> contrast to the continued classical music orientation of many school music syllabus prescriptions.
The various attempts to profile contemporary music consumption show a clear pattern of gender-based genre preferences. An obvious example is what has been termed "teen pop5, which is preferred by younger adolescents, particularly girls. That girls enjoy chart pop music more than boys reflects the segmented nature of the market. Performers such as Kylie Minogue in the MIHOs, New Kids on the Block and the Spite (iirls in the 1990s and now Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber are oriented toward younger listeners, particularly g*'K iHI<' i(,r being marketed ;is such. Music and lifestyle maga/im mm Ii » < nam |N< w Zealand) ami Smash lltt\ are aimed .it the young adol< \<t\\\ iu.nl« i    Mm   ma|oiity ol llieii
Audiences, fans and social networks 165
readers are girls, who buy them partly for their pin-up posters, reflecting their frequent obsession with particular stars and what has been termed 'teenybopper' bedroom culture.
In studies of music consumption in ethnically mixed or diverse populations, black and Asian adolescents are more likely (than their white counterparts) to prefer genres such as soul, R&B, blues, reggae, hip-hop and bhangra. Such genres are carriers of ideology, creating symbols for listeners to identify with. Rap, now mainstiearned as hip-hop (see Chapter 6), has emerged as a major genre preference among black youth internationally, for instance, such differences are clear in New Zealand, a multicultural society, with almost f5 per cent of the population being descendants of the indigenous Maori people or of Pacific (Polynesian) Islander origin and the majority population descendants of the British and European immigrants ('pakeha'). Strong Maori and Polynesian support for reggae and rap music is hardly surprising, since these categories (along with the blues) have become virtually synonymous with 'black music* and black culture. For such youth, reggae does not simply describe an experience, but it politicizes it through creating symbols for listeners to identify with. Many Maori and Polynesian youth are knowledgeable about rasta and familiar with some of the metaphors in the music (Babylon, Jah, etc.). They regard reggae as relevant to the structural location of Maori and Polynesians as a major part of New Zealand's socially dispossessed working class. Rap has also established a strong following in Auckland, which has New Zealand's main concentration of Polynesians. There are several prominent local performers, specialized record labels, clubs, festivals and radio stations catering for the genre and its audience. Rap's appeal is, in part, through its links to dance and street culture, but adherents are also frequently conscious of the genre's history and the politicized work of performers such as Public Enemy and Ice T (Henderson, 2006). In the UK, bhangra plays a similar role for young Asians in the maintenance of a distinctive cultural identity within the dominant (white) culture (Huq, lJU()(i).
Modes of consumption
Studies ol the process and nature of music consumption have used qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to examine individual practices and broader patterns. These reveal a complex set of influences on the construction of individual popular music consumption. liven younger adolescent consumers, who are often seen as relatively undiscriminating and easily swayed by the influence of market forces, see their preferences its far from straightforward, with the views of their friends paramount. Whatever their cultural background or social position, many young people's musical activities often rest on a substantial and sophisticated body of knowledge about popular music: an understanding of its different genus and an ability to hear and place sounds in terms of their histories, inllu-ences and simnrs, Fans, and young musicians, have no hesitation about making and justifying their judgment* <>| musical meaning and value. Modes of consumption are complex, overlapping and oinloning one another. They include
166   Understanding popular musk culture
Audiences, fans and social networks   1G7
record buying, music television and video viewing, listening to the radio, home taping (historically) and downloading from the internet* There are also various secondary levels of involvement, through the music press, dance, clubbing and conceit going.
Making copies of recordings has historically been a significant aspect of people's engagement with popular music. During the 1970s and 1980s this was primarily through audio tape: home taping, a flexible and cheap way of consuming and distributing music. Aside from the convenience of ensuring access to preferred textss selected (particularly with albums) to avoid any 'dross' or material not liked sufficiently to warrant inclusion, there was an economic aspect to such home taping, as it was> in one sense, a strategy directly tailored to recession conditions and youth unemployment. Home taping was significant as an aspect of consumption largely beyond the ability of the music industry to influence tastes and the debates around it are echoed in relation to its contemporary equivalent forms: 'burning1 CDs to one's home computer and downloading digital recordings from the internet.
With the impact of the internet on consumption practices, the purchase of recorded music in its various formats from physical sites (shops) has steadily declined (see Chapter 7). The search for 'new5 music, now frequently lakes place through online music journalism and through accessing sites such as YouTube, il\mes and I.ast FMt
Music as cultural capital
Music consumption is not simply a matter of 'personal' preference. It is, in part, socially constructed, serving as a form of symbolic or cultural capital. Following Pierre Bourdieu (1984), we can see 'taste5 as both conceived and maintained in social groups5 efforts to differentiate and distance themselves from others and underpinning varying social status positions. Music has traditionally been a crucial dimension of this process. Writing in 1950, David Riesman astutely distinguished between two teenage audiences lor popular music. First, a majority group with 'an undiscriminating taste in popular music, (who) seldom express articulate preferences* and for whom the functions of music were predominantly social. This group consumed 'mainstream5, commercial music, following the stars and the hit parade. Second, Riesman identified a minority group of 'the more active listeners', who had a more rebellious attitude towards popular music, indicated by:
an insistence on rigorous standards of judgment and taste in a relativist culture; a preference for the uncommercialized, unadvertized smalt bands rather than name bands; the development of a private language (and) a profound resentment of the commercialization of radio and musicians*
(Riesman, 1950: 412)
Later studies continued to identity links between paiLirulai grines/pri formers and the acquisition of musical cultural capital, cspe< tally in relation In indie rock (Ibi example, lonaiow, 2(Klt>),
Acquiring any form of popular music cultural capital involves developing a knowledge of selected musical traditions, their history and their associated performers. With this background, an individual can knowledgably discuss such details as styles, trends, record companies and the biographies of artists and even nuances such as associated record producers and session musicians. Such cultural capital does not necessarily have to be part of the dominant, generally accepted tradition, but can instead function to distance its adherents from that tradition, asserting their own oppositional stance. This is the pattern with many youth subcultures, which appropriate and innovate musical styles and forms as a basis for their identity (see Chapter 11). *
Fans and fandom
Popular music fans avidly follow the music, and lives, of particular performers/ musical genres, with various degrees of enthusiasm and commitment. Fandom is the collective term for the phenomenon of fans and their behaviour; concert going, collecting recordings, putting together scrapbooks, filling bedroom waIN with posters, discussing stars with other fans, both in person and online. Music industry practices help create and maintain fandom; record labels and musicians have frequently supported official Ian clubs and appreciation societies. Mans Ian clubs (especially those associated with the Beatles and Llvis Presley) conduit international conventions, even well after the performers celebrated are dead uj groups have disbanded
Writing in 199L Lisa Lewis correctly observed that while fans are the must visible and identifiable of audiences, they 'have been overlooked or not taken seriously as research subjects by critics and scholars' and 'maligned and sensationalized by the popular press, mistrusted by the public1 (Lewis, 1992: 1). Although there has been considerable study of fandom since Lewis wrote, and academic discussions emphasize a less stereotyped image, the popular view of fans has, arguably, not changed much. This reflects the traditional view of fandom, which situates it in terms of pathology and deviance, with the label fans3 used to describe teenagers who avidly and uncritically following the latest pop sensation. These fans are often denigrated in popular music literature and, by iIiom-favouring rock styles of popular music. Their behaviour is often described as a form of pathology and the terms applied to it have clear connotations of condemnation and undesirability: 'Beatlemania', 'teenyboppers\ An early example of this was thr media treatment of the bobby soxers\ Frank Sinatra's adolescent female fans, in the 1940s. An extreme form of fandom are 'groupies' also a largely negative term (although see the reassessment in Rhodes, 1?005) - who move beyond vicarious identification and use their sexuality to get close to tin stars, even if the encounter is usually a fleeting one.
random is best regarded as an active process, a complex phenomenon, it-1.tied to the Ibrmalion of social identities, especially sexuality. Fandom oilers individuals membership of a community not dcliurd in traditional terms of status and hai been regarded as the register ol a Millionlinatr s\stuu ol <uhmal taste, ivpiialb
Audiences, Jans and soiial networks 169
band unofficially condoning such practices. The Grateful Dead's conceits functioned as secular rituals for the band's hardcore followers, who were also frequently identified with the broadly counterculture values and style of the band. This led some municipalities to ban Dead concerts, because of the 'undesirable elements' attending them (Sardiello, 1994).
Fans actively interact with texts 'to actively assert their mastery over the mass-produced texts, which provide the raw materials for their own cultural productions and the basis for their social interactions', becoming 'active participants in the construction and circulation of textual meanings' (Jenkins, 1997: 508). This process has become more evident than ever, with the rise of interactive media (email, list servers and the internet) adding a new dimension to fandom. aiding in the formation and maintenance of fan bases for performers and musical style. At the same time, digital music raises questions of the different consumption experiences and practices involved when the physical object, the 'record1, lacks materiality.
Beyond possible empowerment, popular music fandom as a form of cultural activity has a number of pleasurable aspects: dance and its associated rituals ol display and restraint; the anticipatory pleasure of attending a concert, as well as the concert experience itself; the pleasure of acquiring and playing new music; for some the sheer physical pleasure of handling actual physical musical artilacis (records, CDs, DVDs); and the intellectual and emotional pleasures associated with 'knowing' about particular artists and genres valued by one's peers and associates. Two of these, dance and record collecting are sketched now; each would repay further investigation.
Dance
168   Understanding popular music culture
associated with cultural forms that the dominant value system denigrates, including popular music (Fiske, 1989). Pleasure and difference are central to fandom and fans are often fiercely partisan. Hills distinguishes 'cult fandom' as a form of cultural identity, partially distinct from that of the Tan* in general, related to the duration of the fandom concerned, especially in the absence of new or 'official' material in the originating medium or persona (Hills, 2002: Preface: x). Pop fans' commitment may last only as long as an often brief career, as with the Spice Girls, whereas the fans of performers such as Bruce Springsteen (Cavicchi, 1998) maintain their fandom over time, as did the Deadheads (see later).
Fans will collect the recordings put out by their favoured stars, but these are only one aspect of an interest that often focuses more on the image and persona of the star. A passionate identification with the star becomes a source of pleasure and empowerment. For many fans, their idols function almost as religious touchstones, helping them to get through their lives and providing emotional and even physical comfort. At the same time, fans' consumption becomes a significant part of the star system and the music industry. For example, studies of the post-punk British New Pop' performers of the 1980s (Culture Club, Duran Duran, Wham!, Spandau Ballet, Nick Kershaw and 11oward Jones), showed how they drew on a fanatical female following, who often purchased practically anything associated with them, with their support in extreme cases bordering on the pathological. However, such Pop fans aren't stupid. They know what they want. And ultimately, all the media manipulation in the world isn't going to sell them something they haven't got any use for' (Rimmer, 1985: 108). This is to argue that whatever the press of 'context' - the intentions of the industry, the pop press, and musicians themselves - meaning in the music is ultimately created by the consumers.
By participating in fandom, fans construct coherent identities for themselves. In the process, they enter a domain of cultural activity of their own making which is, potentially, a source of empowerment in struggles against oppressive ideologies and the unsatisfactory circumstance of everyday life.
(Lewis, 1992: 3)
Most fans see themselves as part of a wider community, even if their own fan practices are 'private', individual activities undertaken alone. Examples of such empowerment are as diverse as heavy metallers and fans of the Bay City Rollers, die Grateful Dead (Deadheads), Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga's 'Little Monsters', There is an assertion of female solidarity evident in the activities of many girl fans, for example, diose of the Spice Girls in the 1990s. Similar cultural self-assertion is present in many adherents of youth subcultures knowledge of the associated music.
The Deadheads, fans of the American band the Grateful Dead, provide an example of long-term fandom. The band had lieen leading ligurcs in San Francisco's psychedelic scene since the early 1960s and continued to Unn and record extensively until the death of band leadei Jerry Garcia in UKMi Dcadlteadi Attended
bunt numbers of die band's concerts, often making exten I i tn|>f * < impilatinus < .1
the various pci loi malices or puichasing bootfegl of MM h |>> lluttiuuicm, v\iih die
Dance is an example of our active engagement with popular music and its wider social importance. As a social practice dance has a long history, closely associated with music, ritual, courtship and everyday pleasure. Historically, organized social dancing dates back at least to the sixteenth century and the private halls ol the aristocracy, with ballroom dancing popularized in the early nineteenth century (the waltz). The title of a major documentary series on popular music*, Dancing EN the Street, reflected its emphasis on tracing an historical progression of musical genres and their associated dance styles. Dance is associated with die pleasures of physical expression rather than the intellectual, the body rather than the mind, At times, the closeness and implied sexual display of dance has aroused anxiety and led to attempts to regulate dance or at least control who is dancing with whom. I onus of dance subject to considerable social criticism include the Charleston, die jiiteihug, rock 'n' roll in the 1950s, the twist in the 1960s and disco dancing in the 1970».
Dance is central to the general experience and leisure lives of young people, and, indeed, many adults, through their attendance at and participation in school d.Hires, parties, diflCOS, dance classes and raves. The participants in the daun break free ol theii bodies ill a combination ol 'socialised pleasuies and individualised desires', with duili lllty opcialm^ as \t nit i.iphoi loi an external ie.iln> which is inn * m t i.nii* • I l>\ I hi limit* mid expectations of gender identity and
170   Understanding popular music culture
which successfully and relatively painlessly transports its subjects from a passive to a more active psychic position5 {Mi Robbie, 1991: 194, 192, 201). Dante also acts as a marker of significant points in the daily routine, punctuating it with what Chambers (1985) labels the 'freedom of Saturday night5. These various facets of dance are well represented in feature films such as Flashdance (1983), Stňctly Ballroom (1995), Take the Lead (2006) and rFV series such as Glee.
Particular forms of dance are associated with specific music genres, such as line dancing in country, slam dancing and the pogo in punk, break dancing in sonic forms of rap and head banging and 'mosliing' at concerts by heavy metal and grunge and alternative performers. Iain Chambers (1985) documented Hhe rich tension of dance' in its various forms in the clubs and dance halls of English postwar urban youth culture, including the shake, the jerk, the northern soul style of athletic, acrobatic dance and the break dancing and body popping of black youth. A detailed history of American dance music though the 1970s traces the development of ka new mode of DJing and dancing that went on to become the most distinctive cultural ritual of the decade' (Lawrence, 2003: Preface). This dance scene embraced a web of clandestine house parties and discotheques, traced back to legendary New York dance clubs the Loft and the Sanctuary, Similar dance scenes are present around subsequent locales and musical genres, notably electronic dance music.
Record collecting
Most people purchase or otherwise acquire recordings in a limited and generally unsystematic fashion; record collectors represent a more extreme version of this practice. 'Record collecting1 can actually be considered shorthand for a variety of distinct but related practices (Sliuker, 2010). Foremost is the collection of sound recordings, in various formats, by individuals; the dimension focused on here. Such recordings include various official releases, in a variety of formats; bootleg recordings (largely of concerts); radio broadcasts; sound with visuals - the music video or DVD; and the digital download. Individual collecting also frequently includes the collection of related literature (music books and magazines) and music memorabilia (e.g. concert tickets and programmes, tour posters). Record collecting embraces an associated literature (the music press generally, but especially the specialist collector magazines, fanzines, discographies and general guidebooks); the recording industry targeting of collectors (reissue labels; promotional releases; remixes; boxed sets); and dedicated sites of acquisition (record fairs, second-hand and specialist shops, eBay and high-profile auctions).
The popular image of contemporary record collectors is of one of an obsessive male, whose 'train spotting' passion for collecting is often a substitute for 'real' social relationships. This image can draw on sonic support from academic discussions ol collectors and collecting. Straw slums how, loi in.»l< < olleclors, the* social rule of collecting can be a signilicanl pait iiI'iimm uluiilv, pimiding a point nl < lil h Kin t and Yoiiliiiualiou ol a shared imivi \m nl t ulii'nl |tidu<Mintt (Shaw,
Audiences, fans and social networks   17 I
1997b: 5). In common with other (onus of collecting, record collecting can represent a public display of power and knowledge, serving as a form of cultural capital within the peer group. It can also provide a private refuge from the wider world and the immediate domestic environment; in the novel High fidelity, we meet Rob Fleming, who, in times of stress^ re-catalogues his album collection (Hornby, 1995: 73). In contrast to the 'high fidelity5 stereotypy record toilet tors demonstrate a complex mix of characteristics: a love of music; obsessive-compulsive behaviour, accumulation and completion, selectivity and discrimination; and self-education and scholarship. For many collectors, record collecting is a core component of their social identity and a central part of I lit ii lives (Shuker, 2010).
The landscape of record collecting has changed dramatically in the past 30 years. The range of collectibles has increased, with promotional material and memorabilia more prominent. Record collecting has become more organized, more intense (and, at times, more expensive). The internet has added a majoi new dimension to collecting, adding increased opportunity but also fuelling price rises. Reflecting such developments, the record collecting press has mushroomed The shift to online music has raised questions about the nature of collecting! especially the privileging of the album.
Digital consumption/fandom: downloading^ cloud services and social network sites
Music fans once met in physical locations and settings (parties, record stores, llai to hear, discuss and acquire music; Now, with the decline ol physical mail, websites such as Spotify, iTunes, and Audioboo peribnn much the same function. Accessing these effectively turns your mobile device into a portable jukebox and your home computer into a stereo system with built in storage. Along with thcM 'cloud' services, there are now a number of online music-sharing sites, whn h recommend artists (if you like X, try Y*) and connect listeners with similar tastes. I^ist FM records the musical preferences of its listeners in detailed listening charts that can be synched to social media, enabling Twitter users and laccbook friends to 'share' their favourite musicians.
The growth of social network sites has created new modes of fandom and sell promotion for bands, leading site MySpace began in June 1999; it enables n . users to host their own profiles within its formatting protocols and the inrinlii i can then post a variety of personal information that can be accessed and viewed (with possible restrictions imposed at the member's discretion) by other users nl the network. Similar social network services followed, with MySpaceVs main competitors Facebook and Bebo the most successful. Fait book, My Space and Hebo all require users to log on to the company's website in order to access then own and others1 portfolios; this enables the services to stream advertising within the common pages that all users can see, Advertising-based mrdia i.....pain-soon recognized the potential to move hc>oiid traditional mass media, cspr< iall\ to reach younger consumers and In ran mquiiing social network sites   I hi.
172   Umlerstanding popular music culture
advertising potential led Fox Interactive Media, a subsidiary of News Goiporation (Rupert Mm clneh), to buy MySpace in July 2006.
In Jul) 2010 Facebook announced that more than 500 million people, roughly one-third of all net users, now used it and that a user on average posted photos, links to websites, videos and news stories or created other content about 30 times each month, Mark Zuckerberg, one of its founders, was Time magazine's Man of the Year lor 2010. The phenomenon even led to a Hollywood feature film, 'I he Social J\~etzvork, on the development of MySpace and the personalities and arguments around who took the credit (and the financial rewards) for this. The commercial and critical success of the film was a further indication of the impact of social networking on digital global culture.
In relation to popular music, social network sites provide an opportunity for performers to promote their music and activities, including new recordings, but also concerts and touring. Fans can get involved in this process, as well as nieet5 those interested in similar styles of music, to exchange information and debate opinions. Today, many young (and some older) fans spend up to four to five hours a day downloading, playing and listening to music and watching You-Tube and discussing music and performers as part of their Facebook and Twitter postings; all this is often while 'multitasking' (see the findings from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, summarized in Jones and Lenhart, 2004),
Conclusion
A major theoretical issue with the consumption of popular music - be it by fans, members of subcultures or 'mainstream* youth - is the problem of authenticity: the relationship between popular culture and market forces, especially the extent to which styles and tastes are synthetically produced for a deliberately stimulated mass market. As I have argued previously, we need to see culture as a reciprocal concept, an active practice that shapes and conditions economic and political processes, as well as being conditioned and shaped by them. The various types of consumer of popular music considered here illustrate this reciprocity, occupying a critical social space in tin1 process whereby the music acquires cultural meaning and significance. The following chapter examines further the role of music in the construction of social identity, in relation to youth culture, subcultures and music scenes.
Further reading
Fans
Hills, M. (2002) Fan Cultures, London, New York: Rouiledge. Lewis, L. (ed.) (1992) The Adoring Audience; Fan (Milan and \h< Popular Alalia, l^ondon: Routledge.
Wall, T. (200i>) ()ui on die floor: The Pblitk i ol I >.m. »nr mi ih< Northern Soul
Scrne\ Popular Music, 2f>, Si 4SI -Mi.
Audi ernes, jatts and social networks   17 3
Record collecting
Dean, IL. (2001) 'Desperate Man Blues', in 1'). Wölk ami P. Guralnick (eds), Da Capo Best Maxie Writing 2000, New York: Da Capo Press. An entertaining profile of Joe Bussard, self-styled 'King of the Record Collectors'.
There is also a DVD documentary based on this: Desperate Man Blues, Cube Media, 2004.
Shuker, R. (2010) Wax Trash and Vinyl Treasure: Record Collecting as a Social Practice.
Farnhani, Burlington, VT: Ashgate. Straw, W. (1997) 'Sizing Up Record Collections. Gender and Connois$eurship in
Rock Music Culture', in S. Whileley (ed.), Sexing the Groove. Popular Music and
Gender, London: Routledge, pp. 3-1 ti.
Social network sites
boyd, d. and Ellison, N. (20117) 'Social Network Sites: Definition, History and
Scholarship', Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 1, article 11. Online at:
htlp://jcm< \indiana,edu/voll3/issue 1 /boyd.ellison.html Jennings, D. (2007) Met, Blogs and Rock 'n' Roll: How Digital Discoivy Works and Wliat
it Means for Consumers, Creators and Culture, London, Boston, MA: Nicholas
Brealey Publishing.
Mjos, OJ. (2011) Music, Social Media and Global Mobility: MySpace, Facebook, t'ouTube, New York, London: Routledge.