Building a life note-by-note: music and the life course

ABSTRACT

Music is an omnipresent component of many people's lives. On an individual level it is used to set moods, mark milestones, and connect to one's personal history. At a collective level music marks the concerns of cultural heritage, national holidays and days of remembrance, and brings people together by serving as a conduit to engage in fellowship, as well as an immediate point of shared interest or experience that helps to form bonds. While popular music is characterized by a degree of ephemerality in terms of its immediacy in popular culture, its roots extend deep into the soil of the cultural fabric and the people who embrace it. As will be displayed in this paper, the ubiquitous social qualities of music that are foundational to the development of personal identity, meaning making, and community formation are integral to life course development in music fans. Using the lens of the broaden-and-build theory, we demonstrate how people build a life through music, note-by-note.

KEYWORDS:

• Music
• leisure
• life course
• meaning making

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The pronouns “I” and “me” refer to the first author throughout.

2. Fans defined themselves as “passionate” based on the length of their tenure as fans (in most cases more than a decade) and frequency of concert attendance (often 10–15 concerts a year).