listening to popular music
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Listening to Popular Music
Author(s): David RiesmanSource: American Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter, 1950), pp. 359-371Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3031227 .
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AMERICAN QUARTERLY
selves and make
guesses bout
the
uses made of
them.He
is
usually
pushed by the difficulties
f
interviewing
oward
the
latter proce-
dure,
that
is,
toward some form f
content
nalysis.
This
is
espe-
cially the case wherehe wants to discover he effects f nonverbal
materials
uch as
music and
paintings.
or he
will find
hat,
on
the
whole, eople
can talk more
readily
bout their
responses o words
than about
their
esponses, ay,
to
a tune.Yet this
very
readiness o
talk,this
availability
f a
critical
vocabulary,
may
hinder s well as
help
the
researcher;
wordsabout words
may
screen
rather
han
re-
veal
underlying eanings.
he current
reference
or
he
Rorschach
test
or
the
Thematic
Apperception
est
("inkblot"
or
pictorial
stimuli) s a way ofgettingt underlyingharacter s evidence hat
verbalresponses o verbal
cues are
likely
o be
stereotypednd con-
ventionalized.
I
do
not
mean
to
deprecate
ontent
nalysis
where his s used
to
suggestpossible
audience
effects.
.
W.
Adorno's
essays
on
radio
music1
nd recently
he
Wolfenstein-Leites'
ook on
the
movies in-
dicate how
suggestive
uch
workcan
be,
where
t is
informed
y
a
graspof the social structure
nto
which
nd out of which
he content
comes.We mustbe on guard againsta tendency o snifft library
or
arm-chair
esearch s
against
field
work;
certainly
he
quickest
short
ut to
understanding
hat
popular
culturedoes for
people-
and hence
to
understanding great
deal
about
American
ulture s
a
whole
is
to
make oneselfthe relevant
audience and to look
imaginatively
t
one's own
reactions.
But
the
danger
xists
hen of
assuming
hat
the
other
audience,
the
audience one
does
not
con-
verse
with,
s more
passive,
more
manipulated,
more
vulgar
n
taste,
thanmaybe thecase. One can easily forget hatthings hat strike
the
sophisticated
erson
as
trash
may open
new
vistas forthe
un-
sophisticated;
moreover,
he
very udgment
f
what
s
trash
may
be
biased
by
one's
own
unsuspected imitations,
or
nstance, y
one's
class
position
r
academicvested nterest.
While
fieldwork
may
not curethis
attitude,
t
may
chasten and
modify t, provided
that
we
can
find
the
vocabulary
to
talk
to
people about experienceswhich are not particularly elf-conscious
'T. W. Adorno, On
Radio Music," in Studies in
Philosophy
nd Social Science
(New
York: Institute f Social Research, 1941), vol. 9, and
"A Social Critique of Radio
Music,"
Kenyon Review, vol. 7,
p. 208 (1944).
2Martha Wolfenstein
nd Nathan Leits, Movies (Glencoe:
The Free
Press, 1950).
360
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DAVID
RIESMAN
ones. My judgment
s that the same or
virtually
he same
popular
culturematerials
re
used by
audiences n
radically
different
ays
and for radically differenturposes;
for
example,
a movie theater
maybe used to get warm, o sleep,to neck,to learn newstyles, o
expand one's imaginativeunderstanding f people and places-
these merely egin an indefinitelyxpansible ist. What these vari-
ous ways and purposes
re,
we can scarcely magine ll by ourselves;
we mustgo out and talk to various ortsof people n variousmoods
to get
at
them. t may then appear that it is the audience which
manipulates he product and hence the producer), o less than the
otherway around.
This is a particularlymportantonsiderationn thefield fpopu-
larmusic,
where he
music
ndustry,
ith
ts
song pluggers,
ts
uke-
box
outlets,
ts radio
grip,
eems to be able to mold
popular
taste
and
to eliminate ree hoice
by
consumers. he
industry
tself
may
liketo
think t can
control
matters,
ven at the
price
of
feeling
good
deal of
guilt
over
trashy utput
or dubious
monopolistic rac-
tices.Nevertheless,
here
eems
o
me no
way
of
explaining y
refer-
ence to the industry
ontrollers he
great swings
of musical
taste,
say, from azz to sweet n the last decade; actuallythe industry g-
nores these swings
n
consumer
aste
only
at its
peril.
Even in the
field fpopularmusic,
here
s
always
a
minority
hannel
ver which
less popular
tastes
get
a
hearing, ventually erhaps o become
ma-
jority
tastes.
These, then, are some of
the
very general assumptionswhich
guided
me in
setting
down
the
following ypotheses bout
a
ma-
jority
and
a
minority
udience for
popular
music
among teen-age
groups.Thesehypothesesweredirected o the Committee n Com-
munication
f the
University
f
Chicago as a tentative asis forre-
search,
nd
in
the
period
since their
drafting everal studentshave
been
working
n this rea.
They have,
as
was to be
anticipated,
ome
up against
the
great methodological bstacles already indicated:
how
to
isolate
music
from
he
influences
f
other
media; how to
understand
he
relations
etweenmusical conventions nd the con-
ventions fthepeer-groups,hegroups fage-mates; ow, nthe case
of popular tunes,to separatethe melangeof words nd music,per-
formernd piece,song and setting.
It has
provedeasy enough, hrough illboard,Variety, nd other
361
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AMERICAN QUARTERLY
trade
sources,
to
establish
popularityratings
for
hits; through
studyof uke-boxpreferences
n
particular
eighborhoodso get an
indication
f class
and
ethnic,
ex
and
age differences;hrough n
analysisof chordprogressionsr arrangementso get clues to what
musical
patterns
nd
conventions
might
e common
o
a
group fhit
tunes.But
to
move from here o
the
more
basic
problems f the use
ofmusicfor
purposes
f social
adjustment
nd social
protest,
r
the
role of music in socializing he young,teasing
the adolescent, nd
quieting
he
old
such things
s
these oom
on thefarhorizon s
unsolvedproblems.
II
Bearingthe difficultyf theseproblems n mind, ventureto
suggest, evertheless,hatoneroleofpopular
music n socializing he
young may
be to
create,
n
combination
with
other
mass
media,
a
pictureof
childhood nd adolescence
n
America as a happy-go-
luckytime of
haphazard clothesand haphazardbehavior, itterbug
parlance, coke-bar
sprees, and "blues" that
are not really blue.
Thus
the
very
real
problems
f
beingyoung
are
evaded-the
mass
mediaalsofurnishomparable tereotypesor therdeprived roups,
such
as
Negroes,
women, GIs,
and "the
lower
classes."
I
do
notmean
to
suggest
hat
in
thus
presenting
he
young
with
a
pic-
ture
of Youth drawn
by
adults there is
conspiratorial
ntent-
rather
there s a
complex nterplay
f forces
between
the adults
who
are the
producers
nd
the
young
who are
the
consumers.
Most
teen-agers, hough
much more
"knowing"
han
the
picture
gives
them
redit
for
being,
do
not
think
bout
this
situation t all.
Amongthose who do, some are aware that theirgroupstandards
are
set
by
outsideforces.
ut their oss of nnocence
as
made them
cynical,
not
rebellious;
nd
they
are seldom
even
interested
n
the
techniques
f
their
xploitation
r its
extent.
A small
minoritys, however,
ot
only
aware in
some fashion
f
the
adult,manipulative
ressure
ut
is
also
resentful f
it,
in
many
cases
perhaps
because
its members re
unable
to fit
themselves
y
any stretchof the imaginationnto the required mages.Such a
"youth
movement" iffers
rom
he
youth
movements f
other oun-
tries
n
having
no awareness
of
itself,
s
such,
no
direct
political
consciousness,
nd,
on
the
whole,
no
specialized
media
of
com-
362
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DAVID
RIESMAN
munication.'
f we
study,
for
nstance,
he hot
rodders,
we see
a
group
of young
and pseudo-young)
eoplewho,
n
refusing
o
ac-
cept
the
Detroit image
of the automobileconsumer,
reate
a
new
self-image
though
one in turn liable to manipulation. ikewise,
the oversof
hot azz,
whilenot explicitly
xploring
he
possibilities
of howyouth
might
ake
a handin formulating
ts own self-images,
do
in
factresist ertain onventional
tereotypes.
ut
they
do so by
making
differential
election
romwhatthe
adult media
already
provide.
Thus, we may distinguish
wo polar
attitudes
toward
popular
music, majority
ne which cceptsthe
adult
picture
f
youth
ome-
whatuncritically,nd a minorityne in whichcertain ociallyre-
bellious
hemes
re
encapsulated.
or
the purposes
of
this
analysis,
I
shall disregard
he many
shadings
n between, nd
also neglect
the audiencesofhillbilly nd
"classical"
music.4
III
Most of
the
teen-agersn
the majority
ategoryhave
an
undis-
criminatingaste in
popular
music; theyseldom
express
rticulate
preferences.hey formhe audiencefor he arger adiostations, he
"name"
bands, the
star singers,
he Hit Parade,
and so forth.
The
functions
f music
forthis group
are social the
music
gives
themsomethingo talk
or kid
about with friends;
n
opportunity
for
ompetitiveness
n udging
which uneswill
become
hits, oupled
'
This
is
of course
not intended o deny
that there
re certainvery small
groups
n the
United
States
who
follow he
patterns
f European youth movements.
Many teen-agefol-
lowers f Henry
Wallace and young eft-wing
ionists
preparing or migration
o Palestine
seem
to
have all
the emotional
paraphernalia f European
movements,
whethernominally
"right"or "left."
'Actually,
both these areas are very
mportant
nes. It would be interesting
o
study
urban
fanciers f
hillbillymusic
as possible
exemplars f the
many city
folk who,though
they
depend
on thecityfor ncome, riends,
nd entertainment,
espiseor
pretend o
despise
it
and
long
nostalgically
or
he
very
rural ife fromwhichthey
or theirparents
may have
fled;perhaps
for uch
people
to
define hemselves
s
country
olk n theirmusical and other
leisure
astes
is
the
only way
they can
accept the city.
As for classical" music,
t
is
worth
observing
hat
people
who tell the
interviewer
hat
they ike,
or "don't
mind,"
classical
or
'symphonic")
music almost
nvariably
n
my
own
experience
mean
Tchaikovsky,
ometimes
Chopin,
and
occasionally
Brahms.
People
of serious
musical
taste
almost
never
describe
their nterests
y
means
of
a
rubric,
ut
rather
by
reference
o
specific omposers
r, per-
haps,distinctivemusicalepochs. t is strikinghat someof thenew, big,hundred-selection
jukeboxes
will
have a
"classical"
section,
which
s
apt
to
include
some
Tchaikovsky in
an
Andre
Kostelanetz
ersion)
along
with music
fromOklahoma
or other
similar
hows
(in
an
Andre
Kostelanetz
version). Indeed,
"classical,"
for this sizable
audience,
might
be
defined
s whatever
musicKostelanetz
will
arrange
nd
play.
363
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AMERICAN
QUARTERLY
with lack
of concern bouthow
hits are
actuallymade;
an
oppor-
tunityfor
dentification ith
star
singers
r
band
leaders
as
"per-
sonalities,"
with
ittle nterest
n
or
understanding
f
the
technolo-
gies ofperformancer of the radio medium tself.Thus I assume
that the
psychological
unctions f thismedium
or
most
of
ts
audi-
ence include
those
that Herta
Herzog
has
found
n the radio
day-
time
serial or
the
quiz program
nd that
Leo
Lowenthal
has
found
in
popular biographies.5
It is not easy at this stage to
state the precise
ways
n
which hese
indiscriminateistening abits serve
to help the individual onform
to the
culturally rovided
mage
of himself. o discover
his s
one
of the tasks ofresearch.And to this end some furtherines of in-
quirysuggest hemselves.
First,
t
has
oftenbeen remarked
hat modernurban
industrial
societyatomizes
experiences,
solating
each
experience rom
other
experiences.
oes this
same
pattern
perate,
s T.
W.
Adorno
sug-
gests, n the
auditory xperience f popular
music? Such music
is
presented
disconnectedly,specially over the
radio- where it
is
framed
y verbalballyhoo nd
atomized nto
ndividual hits" like
the disparate temson a quiz program.Can it be established hat
this
mode
of
presentation
einforceshe
disconnectednessften
sso-
ciated withmodern
urban ife?
Second, by giving
millions
of
young people
the
opportunity
o
share
n
admiration or
hits,
hit
performers,nd thehit-making
roc-
ess,
are
identifications
ubtly
built
up which
erve
to
lessen
the
ef-
fects f
social
conflictsnd to sustain n
ideology f
social
equality?
Third,
does the music tell
these
people,
almost
without their
awareness, owto feelabout theirproblemsn muchthesameway
that the
daytime erialspackage
their ocial
lessons?
Fourth,
incethis
music
s
often
ance music,does it
help to
cre-
ate
and
confirm
ostural nd
behavioral ttitudes
oward he other
sex?
Does the
facial
expressionssumethe"look" the music s
inter-
preted
s
dictating?
s
the music
felt
s
inculcating
he
socially ight
5lIerta
Herzog, "Professor
uiz
-
A Gratification tudy," Radio and the PrintedPage
(New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1940), Paul F. Lazarsfeld, d., and "On BorrowedExpe-
rience," tudies n Philosophy nd Social Science,vol. 9 (1941). Leo Lowenthal, Biographies
in Popular Magazines," Radio Research
1942-43,
Paul F. Lazarsfeld nd FrankStanton,
ds.
(New York: Harper, 1944) 507.
e Cf. my article Equality and
Social
Structure,"
ournal
f
Political
and
Legal Sociology,
vol. 1, p.
72
(1942).
364
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DAVID
RIESMAN
combination
f "smoothness"with stylized spontaneity," f pseu-
dosexuality
withreserve?
Do these
psychic
nd
gestural
manifesta-
tions then carryover from
he dancing situation
o other spheres
of ife?We shouldnotbe surprisedo find hat suchmolding f the
body-image
nd
body-responses
ffects
irls
more
powerfully
han
boys;
as
the
subordinate roup,
with fewer ther
outlets,girls
can
less afford ven
a
conventionalized
esistance.
It is not unlikely hat we
will discover hat
the
majority
ole
rep-
resents n many of its aspects
a patternof "restriction
y partial
incorporation."7
hat
is,
the
majority
s
continuously
ngaged
in
the process
of
adaptingelements
f the
minority's
musical
outlook,
whileovertly gnoringrdenigratingminority atterns.Jazz itself,8
many
of
the
dance steps,
nd lyrical mages are almost
entirelymi-
nority roducts
o
begin
with.But theyundergo ignificant
hanges
in being ncorporatednto
the
majority tyle, ust
as
radical intel-
lectual and ideological developments
re modifiedby academic
acceptance.
IV
The minority roup s small. t comprises he more
active isten-
ers, whoare less interestedn melodyortunethan in arrangement
or technical
virtuosity.t has developedelaborate,
ven
overelabo-
rate, standards f music istening;
ence ts music istening
s com-
bined with
much animated discussion of technical
points and
perhaps occasional reference
o trade ournals such as Metronome
and
Downbeat.
The
group
endsto dislikename bands,
most vocal-
ists (exceptNegro blues singers), nd radio commercials.
The
rebelliousness f
this
minority roup might
be indicated
n
some
of thefollowingttitudes owardpopular music:
an
insistence
on
rigorous tandards f udgment nd taste in a relativist
ulture;
a
preference
or
the
uncommercialized,
nadvertised mall bands
rather han name bands; the
development f a private anguage
and
then
a
flight
rom
t
when the private anguage (the
same
is
true
of other spectsofprivate tyle) s takenoverby the majority
roup;
a
profound esentment
f the commercializationf radio and mu-
sicians. Dissident attitudes oward competition nd cooperationn
'See
Harold
D. Lasswell, World
Politics
and
Personal
nsecurity New York: McGraw,
1935).
8
Cf. Kurt List,
"Jerome
Kern and
American
Operetta,"
Commentary,
ol. 3, p. 433
(1947).
365
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AMERICAN
QUARTERLY
our culturemight e represented
n feelings bout
mprovisationnd
small "combos"; an appreciation
for
idiosyncrasy f performance
goestogether ith
dislike f star"
performersnd an insistence
hat
the mprovisatione a
group-generated
henomenon.9
There
are still
otherways nwhich he
minoritymay use
popular
music
to
polarize tself
rom hemajority roup,
nd thereby
rom
American opular
culturegenerally:
sympathetic ttitude r
even
preference orNegro musicians;
an
equalitarian attitudetoward
the
roles,
n
love and
work, f the
two sexes;
a
more
nternational
outlook,
withor
without
wareness,
or
example,
f
French
nterest
in
American azz; an identification
ith
disadvantagedgroups,not
only Negroes,fromwhich azz springs,withorwithout romantic
cult
of
proletarianism; dislike
f
romantic
seudosexuality
n
mu-
sic,
even
without ny articulate
wareness
f
being exploited; imi-
larly
a
reaction gainst
the
stylized
body image
and limitations
f
physical elf-expression
hich
"sweet" music and
its
lyrics
re
felt
as
conveying;
feeling
hat
music
is
too
important
o
serve as
a
backdrop
for
dancing,
mall
talk,studying,
nd
the
like;
a
diffuse
resentment f
the
image
of the
teen-agerprovided
by
the mass
media.
To
carry
matters
beyond
this
descriptive uggestion
f
majority
and
minority atterns
requires
n
analysis
of the
social
structure
in which
he
teen-ager
inds
himself.When he
listens
o
music,
ven
if
no one
else
s
around,
he listens
n
a context f
maginary
others"
-his
listening
s indeedoften
n
effort
o
establish
onnectionwith
them.
n
general
what
he
perceives
n
the mass media
is framed
by
his
perception
f
the
peer-groups
o which
he
belongs.
These
groupsnotonlyratethetunes butselectfor heirmembers nmore
subtle
ways what
s to
be "heard"
n
each
tune.
t
is
the
pressure
f
conformity ith thegroup
that invites
nd
compels
the
individual
to
have
recourse
o
the
media
both in
order
to learn from
hem
what
the
group
expects
and
to
identify
with
the
group by
sharing
a common
focus
for
attention
nd talk.
Moreover,many factors,
ncluding
he
youth
orientation
f the
culture
generally,
ower
the
age
at which
children
venture
nto
the "personalitymarkets"to be judged by theirsuccessin terms
9
This combination
f respect for groupcooperation long with individualspontaneity
can be foundhere in both
unconscious
preference nd explicit formulas. ometimes
hot
jazz
constitutes satire on "sweet" or corny music, hence
of the attitudes that
go
with
them.
:366
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DAVID RIESMAN
ofpopularity.As high
schools adopt the social
customs
nd
listen-
ing
habits
previously
ostponed
ntil
college,
o
the
grammar
chool
tendsto ape the high
school
n
dating patterns, roms,
nd
so
on.
At the same time,the personalities
f the
popular
music
industry
have everyreason to cultivate hechildmarket nd are quitewill-
ing to "rob the cradle."
This
convergence f forcesmeans that
chil-
dren are compelled
o learn how to
respond
o
music,
n a fashion
their
peer-group
will find
acceptable,
at
increasingly
arlier
ages.
Under these
pressures,
music
can
hardlyhelp becoming
ssociated
with both the
excitements
nd
the
anxieties
of
interpersonal
ela-
tionships.
V
So
far,
have
obtained
some
fifteen
ong
interviews
with
young
people about popular music. Since
these
nterviews
were
n
the
na-
ture
ofa
limited
re-test,imply art
of the
ong process
f
develop-
inga questionnaire
hich ould
then
be
used
on a
selected
ample,
made
no
effort
o obtain a
sample
but
engaged
in random house
and street
nterviewing
n
white
(and nisei)
South Side
Chicago,
seeking
o
varyonly ex,age,
and
economic
tanding
n
a
veryrough
way. The respondents anged from fourteen o twenty-twond
from
probably upper-lower
o middle-middle lass.
In
addition,
I
sought data
on
the
higher
ocial
strata
from
the
always
avail-
able
"sample"
of
traditional
ocial
psychology-
namely,
my
stu-
dents
and data
on
the
Negro community
rom
few
discussions
with
Negro
students nd musicians.
One
advantage
in
interviewing een-agers
bout
their music
listening
abits s that as
compared,
or
nstance,
with
nterview-
ing on
politics-
onemeets ittleresistance save for an occasional
overprotectivemother), ince all
do listen and like to talk about
their
tastes;
if
the interviewer ad cards with hits listed
on them,
they
would
doubtless
enjoy ranking
he
cards and then explain-
ing theirrankings.
However,
the group as a whole as
compared
with housewives
tended
to
be inarticulate, ven if not
shy; a
good deal
of
directionwas
needed in some portionsof the inter-
view, and this ran the
obvious risk of tilting he responses.'0
fter
10I
have also found hat dual
interviewing,n which my colleague Reuel
Denney par-
ticipated,
an
help
to
establish
asier rapport nd deeper probing nd can allowmuch closer
analysis
of
the interviewing rocess tself.Here
one
of
the
pair
of
interviewers
an take
notes or fend offthe baby
while the other chats
with
the respondent; f
course, the
two
nterviewersave
to be
sensitive
o
each other's ues
if
they
re
not to
get
in
the way.
367
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AMERICAN QUARTERLY
introductoryuestions concerning he respondent's
ge, schooling,
familydata (for example, siblings,
ather's
ccupation,
residential
mobility, nd,
where
possible, socio-economic
tatus and
mobility
strivings), turned o general uestions bout radio istening abits:
length
f
time,place (that is, where,
nd with
whom,
istening c-
curs), favorite ypes
of
programs,
nd the like. Then came
the
questions about music. (Depending
on the
rapport,
he order was
sometimes eversed.)The schedulewas long and open-ended, oint-
ing towardtheproblemsndicated
n
the analysisabove."
One
question
which sometimes
ed to
illuminating
nswers
was
this: "How
do
you
and
they (your friends)
decide what
is a
good
or bad piece?" One seventeen-year-oldirl, he daughter f a rail-
road telegrapher,aid,
"If
it's popular we go for t;
if
t's
played on
the Hit Parade." Her
answer to
whether
her
social
life
would
be
affected
f she
hated music
was,
"That's all
there s
to
do for
kids
our
age."
Yet the time
she
craved
music most
was
when she
was
alone;
the
somewhat ultry
ove
ballads
that
were
her
favoriteswere
perhapsvicarious ompany.
ike
virtually
ll
the other
espondents,
sne vigorouslydenied attending
broadcasts or having any desire
tomeetherfavorite erformers.I don'tswoon overanybody," he
said.
I
also
discovered
hat
respondents enerally elt
much safer n
statingtheir
musical
dislikes
than their
musical
likes;
the former
werevolunteered
eadily,
while
the atter ame
out only
f
approval
for
he
preference
eemed
n the
offing.
hat
is, manywould quickly
reject
a
whole
rea: "I hate
hillbilly,"
r "I
can't stand
fast music,"
or
"Negroes
are
too
jumpy."
More
rarely omething
pecificwas
'
A
few sample questions:
favorite
unes and how far back these, and the lyrics, an
be
recalled);
favorite
ands; perhaps
a
discussion bout the
shift
from
wing to sweet and
the reasonsfor
t;
what
the hit-making rocess
s and what
effect
disclosure
f such nforma-
tion
has
on
the
respondent; uestions
bout the function f
popular
music
n
the peer-group,
e.g.,
for
dancing,kidding round, ppearing ophisticated,
nd
what would
be
the effect n
his
popularity
or on
his
more
generalfeelings
f
"belonging"
o
the
community if the
respondent
ould no
longer
isten
where
went into
this,
nd
the
respondentwas willing
to
make the
experiment
f
thought,
e
said,
in
effect,
I
would
be
isolated,"
or
"I would be
lost,"
or
sometimes,
It would make
no
difference");
ttitudes
toward
Negro musicians;fa-
vorite
movie stars
and fan attitudes
generally; eelings
bout
people
with
different usical
tastes (oftenrevealingwithin family onstellation,ithervis-h-vis dults or vis-h-vis ib-
lings);
attendance
at radio
broadcasts; possible
relations
between mood
and amount
and
type
of music
istening.
Of course
t oftenturnedout that
a whole
congeries
f
questions
was irrelevant
or
he
particular espondent,
r he was
incapable
of
answering hem;
further
interviewing
hould
sharpen
he
questions
hat
can
be
asked
and
shed further
ight
on
those
that
provoke nxiety,
udden
awareness,
udden
rapport,
nd so forth.
368
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DAVID
RIESMAN
rejected: I dislikeTommy
Dorsey; he has
no
rhythm,ust blasting
of
horns."Or, "'Bubble Gum'
is the craziest
ong."
Many
said
they
disliked ommercials nd
several
hat
they
would
not
buy anything
thatwas advertised.As inhigh-brow ircles, o inmiddle-brownd
low-brow nes, enthusiasm
would seem to be a greater ocial danger
than
negativism:
he
fear s to be
caught liking
what
the
others
have decided not
to
like.
Among
these
youngpeople,
music seemed
to
be one of
the
prin-
cipal
areas
for
peer-groupraining
n
the
appropriate
xpression
f
consumerpreferences; y
learning
to talk about
music,
one
also
learned
o talk about other
hings.Yet thevocabularyused to dis-
cussmusic, s it turned p in the nterviews, as in themajority f
cases not
a
very
differentiated
ne,
but rather he
"swell,"
"lousy,"
"I
go
for
hat,"
nd
so
on
which
ignify references
or
ther
ultural
commodities,angible
nd
intangible. ndeed,
one
differentiation,
s
already ndicated,
etween
my hypothetical
majority
nd
minority
wings
ies in the latter's
development
f
strict and often
highly
articulate
tandards
for
udging azz.
This eadsus to a final aradox.Thehot azz lovers reprotesters.
They are individualists
ho
rejectcontemporary
ajority onform-
ities. n
the
very rocess, owever,
o
they
not
n
many, erhapsmost,
cases
simply
move
into another
peer-group
which
holds them
fast,
and
adopt
a new
conformity
nder
the
banner of noncon-
formity?
While
my
handful
f
interviewsn
white
South
Side
Chi-
cago
brought
o
light only
a
single hot-jazz fan,
there have been
a
number
of such
fans
among
the
students
at
the
University f
Chicago.
Sometimes
hese
are
young
men
strikingly
enough here
are
very
few
hot-jazz girls,
ave
in
an
occasional
"symbiotic" ela-
tion
to a
hot-jazz boy
who
grewup
as
somewhat
ebellious ndi-
viduals
n
a
small
high
chool
groupwhere heystood almost alone
in
theirmusical orientation.
hen,
when
they came to
the univer-
sity, hey
found
manyother
uch
people and for he
first imeexpe-
rienced he
security nd
also the
threatof peerswho shared their
outlook.
What
happens then,
when this
discovery
s
made, is something
we
are far from
understanding; bviously, he
problem ouches on
the
whole
congeries f issues
connectedwith social
and intellectual
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AMERICAN QUARTERLY
mobility,
he
American
rites de
passage,
the role
of big cities and
intellectual
enters.We
may perhaps
assume
that the
hot-jazz
fan
can employ
his
musical
deviations
from
he
standpoint f the great
majority) o concealfromhimself ther urrenders e makes to his
peer-group. r,
he
may
find
within he
field
of
jazz further ossi-
bilities fprotest y taking stillmoreesoteric
tance,for xample
in
favor
f
"pure"
Dixieland
or
of some similar
now-frozenult. But
what
if his
peer-group,
onceivably
s the
resultof his
own initia-
tive,
moves with
him
there lso?
Does
popular
music tself ffer im
enough variety
to
permit
him to use it
alternatinglyo establish
prestigefulocial distancefrom thers nd needed
ties to them?And
how does it compare n thisrespectwithotherculturalproducts,
such as books,
movies, rt, and modern
urniture?
Difficult
s these
questions are,
it seems
to be easier
to
under-
stand
the
uses of
music
n this
sociological
ense
than it
is
to
un-
derstand
the variations
n what
people
of
different
sychological
types ctually
hear
when
hey
isten
o music.
s
it
foreground
oise
for
hemor
background
oise?
What
is
it, precisely,
hat
they "per-
ceive"?
Ernest
Schachtel
has made a brilliant
beginning
n the
questionofwhatmeaningphysicalformshave forpeople, through
seeingwhat they
make
of Rorschach
nkblots."2xperts
n
auditory
perception
ave
not
succeeded,
o far
as I
know,
n
finding
n
audi-
tory
timulus
s
useful
s
the
Rorschach
est n
circumventing
ul-
tural
stereotypes.
ur
problem
s
to reach the
people
for
whom
musicor plastic
art
or the movies re
appealing
n
part ust
because
they
re
more
comfortable ithsounds
and
images
than
with
and words.We are broughtback to our problemof how to com-
municate
with
hem.
VI
While
the interview
uide
I
developed
on the basis
of
these
re-
search
suggestions
overed
movies, magazines,
nd
favoriteradio
programs
s
well
as
music,
t
did not
explore
the
whole
range
of
popular
culture ctivities
and
inactivities
uch
as
just sitting),
r
pay
sufficient
ttention-though
it did
pay
some
attention-to
hobbies,pets, dating,and other leisurepursuits. am convinced
that we
cannot understand he
role
of
any
communication
medium
'Ernest
Schachtel, The
Dynamic Perception nd the Symbolism
f Form,"
Psychiatry,
vol.
4,
p.
79 (1941).
370
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DAVID
RIESMAN
in isolation fromthe
other media and
from
other
leisure
activi-
ties, any more
than we can understand
ndividual
manipulation f
the materials n the media without nderstandinghegroupwhich
the individualbelongs to, wants to belong to, or wantsto be set
apart from.
This truism
ed
me to
the
furtheronclusion
hat one
cannot
hope
to understand he
influence
f
any one medium, ay music, with-
out
an
understanding
f the
total character tructure f
a
person.
In
turn,
n
understandingf his musicaltastes, nd his use of them
for
purposes of
social conformity,dvance, or rebellion, rovides
revealing lues to his character, o be confirmednd modified y a
knowledge f hisbehavior nd outlook n manyother pheres f ife.
Thus the earlier
nterviewswhich dealt with popular culture ex-
panded into still
longer nterviewswhich touched upon attitudes
towardpolitics,
owardone's family nd friends,owardphilosophic
values, and
towardmany other hings hat we thoughtmight hed
lighton character
nd its social setting. With these nterviews
n
hand,
some
150
in number,most of them still awaiting ntensive
analysis,we
believe we can move forward o asking new questions
whichwill give us a betterappreciation f the manifold ses, the
plasticity
f
music
for ts variegated udience. Plainly, we
cannot
simply sk "who
listensto what?" beforewe findout who "who"
is
and what
"what"
is by
means of
a
psychological
nd
content
analysis hat getsunderthe surface f things.
'8 I am indebted o
the Committee n National Policy of Yale
University
or he
support
which nabled me to
pursuethese nquiries.
371
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