Soundtracks of Acrobatic Selves: Fan-Site Religion in the Reception and Use of the Music of U2

Abstract

This article addresses the question of how responses to the arts and popular culture, as mediated through on-line fan activity, may contribute to the development of religious/spiritual exploration in contemporary Western societies. It offers a critical reading of 40 short essays posted by fans of the rock band U2 on a fan site from the perspective of how respondents expose their personal, critical reflections on their developing selves. The function of the U2 songs reflected upon, the listeners’ responses, the strategies/processes used, and the resources upon which they draw in the task of reflection are noted and examined. The article maps a multi-disciplinary programme for examining responses, uses one sociological framework (as provided by the work of Margaret Archer) as a case study of how this multi-disciplinary framework may prove fruitful, and concludes by noting the benefits for contemporary religious/theological understanding of the on-line activity studied.

Acknowledgements

This articles derives from a paper delivered to the Music and Religion Consultation of the American Academy of Religion in Montreal (7 November 2009). Earlier and later versions were presented at the Ideograms Research Seminar of the University of Leicester (28 October 2009) and the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts, University of St Andrews (4 December 2009). The authors are grateful to all three groups for their responses. We also appreciated the critical and constructive comments of Mark Carrigan at the University of Warwick.