Music Genre = Identity ?
Ok I read the reading by Sean Ebare and for a little while I agreed with his idea that "expressions of youth identity are inscribed in music fan culture and style".
He used examples of punk, hiphop and goth to back this up, which I thought were very valid...but then I got to thinking (this may just be me twisting the real intention of the argument) :
What happen's if you like bits of everything, i.e. music from different genres?
Does that mean you're classified as everything (punk, goth, hip hop lover, pop follower, etc)?-yet you're not really any of these...or at least not to the extent where you'd wear your hat on the side or black eye liner.
I think that punk's, goth's, hip hopper's and the new trend of "emo's" are people that intentionally express their love for a certain music genre through their appearance and style. Thus, by choosing to do so they appear to have formed a pretty distinct and defined identity. I mean when you look at someone that dresses like a punk, you're automatically going to think they like punk music (It's pretty rare to find someone that dresses like a punk *full time* that likes...say the pussycat dolls).
I personally like a bit of everything, ranging from Rock to Pop. I don't really think my identity relates that much to music because of this. Then again does this also mean I don't have a defined identity because I haven't stuck to a specific music genre?
So really, I don't believe that Sean Ebrare's theory is true in my case.
What does everyone else think?
Do I represent the Majority or the Minority? (In liking a range of music from different genres)
-Elaine
He used examples of punk, hiphop and goth to back this up, which I thought were very valid...but then I got to thinking (this may just be me twisting the real intention of the argument) :
What happen's if you like bits of everything, i.e. music from different genres?
Does that mean you're classified as everything (punk, goth, hip hop lover, pop follower, etc)?-yet you're not really any of these...or at least not to the extent where you'd wear your hat on the side or black eye liner.
I think that punk's, goth's, hip hopper's and the new trend of "emo's" are people that intentionally express their love for a certain music genre through their appearance and style. Thus, by choosing to do so they appear to have formed a pretty distinct and defined identity. I mean when you look at someone that dresses like a punk, you're automatically going to think they like punk music (It's pretty rare to find someone that dresses like a punk *full time* that likes...say the pussycat dolls).
I personally like a bit of everything, ranging from Rock to Pop. I don't really think my identity relates that much to music because of this. Then again does this also mean I don't have a defined identity because I haven't stuck to a specific music genre?
So really, I don't believe that Sean Ebrare's theory is true in my case.
What does everyone else think?
Do I represent the Majority or the Minority? (In liking a range of music from different genres)
-Elaine
posted by wonderingmist at 8:20 pm
2 Comments:
I agree that it doesn't encompass all of us. I can see that it doesn't speak for me because like you I'm into a bit of this and a bit of that.
[I also think that within each genre there is good stuff and bad stuff
ie. Good Hip Hop and terrible Hip Hop.
I think labelling people will only work so far, beacause you will never find someone with identical tastes and personalities. You can only identify certain trends,
ie. these people accept christ so they are christians but one is pastor who runs community projects for underpriviliged kids and one is a warmongering president who lusts after cheap oil and control of the middle east.
Caleb (loves the Wendys $2 value meal)
Yeah. And one other thing - the correlation between a genre's aesthetic aurally (i.e. punk's characteristic power chords, subject matter and production values) and the genre's 'dress style' has so far not been proven to be anything beyond a self-reinforcing cycle.
For example, an artist who produces music that fits ideologically with punk music may (and I emphasize 'may') choose to dress 'punk' because it groups them with the current image of what a punk musician looks like, hence helping their exposure and maximising the audience they carry their message to - however, as we've all seen, there are artists who dress 'punk', but do not make punk music. This is done with the intention of reaching to the punk audience, just like how pop stars adopt certain rock aesthetics in their music (e.g. Kelly Clarkson) in order to broaden their audience base.
So, like you've all said - Dress is just one aspect of identity, and an aspect that does not necessarily have any correlation with musical taste.
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