Kids and gigs: mediated constructions of parental identities and popular music concerts

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the construction of contemporary parental identities related to live music concerts and popular music fandom in the media. The analysis on transforming parental identities presented in this paper draws on Bennett’s (2012; 2013) work on ageing music fans and their sustained practices, Grossberg’s (1992) notion of ‘youth’ as a site of struggle between young people and adults, and Frith’s (1984; 2007) work on reframing notions of youth and youth culture. I argue that understandings of contemporary parental identities in the media are being reconfigured along the lines of adults’ familial responsibilities and their popular music fandom. Based on textual analyses of articles drawn from popular online news sites based in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, this paper critiques aspects of constructed parental identities related to live popular music fandom, such as ‘teachers’ of family values, ‘cultivators’ of popular music literacy, and ‘cool’ parents. The findings illustrate tensions between the discourses of parenting and being an ageing music fan. It also highlights the growing significance and acknowledgement of ‘youth’ and popular culture in the media as a resource that helps to construct understandings of ‘family’.

KEYWORDS:

• Parental identities
• popular music
• live music
• youth
• generation
• discourse

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

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Dan Padua

Dan Padua is a lecturer in the School of Communication and a member for the Digital Media Research Centre at QUT. His research focuses on how youth culture, ageing and generational dynamics shape intergenerational fandoms of media and entertainment franchises. Specifically, his PhD investigated cases of shared popular music fandom within families that signal discursive shifts of music as an increasingly important site for family cohesiveness instead of just a signifier of a generation gap. Dan’s current project analyses multigenerational audiences and the social exchanges that take place within the context of the developing global eSports industry and increasingly popularity of videogaming.