Consuming Music in the Digital Age by Raphaël Nowak

Author:Raphaël Nowak
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781137492579
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Sarah and Sascha both have particular tactics according to which they choose music content to listen to. Besides the constrained agencies of their everyday contexts and the availability of certain music technologies at their disposal within these contexts, Sarah and Sascha base their selections on ‘moods’ when they can clearly identify them, or out of habit by turning to the radio station as a background (in the case of Sarah), or to the content that has recently composed their playlist (in the case of Sascha). It is also interesting to note that Sarah can assign different roles to the same music, depending on her emotional reflexivity and on the context of listening. When asked about whether her choices of music before going to bed were always effective, she replied: ‘Yes, most of the time, unless I’m not tired enough and the music will get me into over-thinking and I will have lost the purpose’ (Sarah, 30, technical writer, June 2014). Her account proves that choices are not the only variable upon which roles are assigned to music. Musical affects ensure that what is expected from music is actually fulfilled.

The assigning of roles to music is mediated by how music suits the settings of the particular context within which it is listened to. In the following example, Carlos mentions the search for adequate music when he is having a romantic dinner with his wife:

If I need a more ambient setting, like a romantic dinner, and my wife and I can’t find something in the vinyl collection, while we eat and drink, I’ll be more likely to put on something appropriate on my computer where I have a lot more tracks.

(Carlos, 33, media communication employee, July 2014)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.