Popular music scenes and aging bodies

Abstract

During the last two decades there has been increasing interest in the phenomenon of the aging popular music audience (Bennett & Hodkinson, 2012). Although the specter of the aging fan is by no means new, the notion of, for example, the aging rocker or the aging punk has attracted significant sociological attention, not least of all because of what this says about the shifting socio-cultural significance of rock and punk and similar genres – which at the time of their emergence were inextricably tied to youth and vociferously marketed as “youth musics”. As such, initial interpretations of aging music fans tended to paint a somewhat negative picture, suggesting a sense in which such fans were cultural misfits (Ross, 1994). In more recent times, however, work informed by cultural aging perspectives has begun to consider how so-called “youth cultural” identities may in fact provide the basis of more stable and evolving identities over the life course (Bennett, 2013). Starting from this position, the purpose of this article is to critically examine how aging members of popular music scenes might be recast as a salient example of the more pluralistic fashion in which aging is anticipated, managed and articulated in contemporary social settings. The article then branches out to consider two ways that aging members of music scenes continue their scene involvement. The first focuses on evolving a series of discourses that legitimately position them as aging bodies in cultural spaces that also continue to be inhabited by significant numbers of people in their teens, twenties and thirties. The second sees aging fans taking advantage of new opportunities for consuming live music including winery concerts and dinner and show events.

Introduction

Since the closing decade of the 20th century it has become increasingly clear that many of the tastes and lifestyle practices once deemed to be the exclusive remit of youth are now, at least in a westernized context, characterized by more multi-age forms of participation. This extends to popular music scenes in western countries with many such scenes, including rock, punk, and dance, comprising memberships spanning several generations (Bennett & Hodkinson, 2012). Although the spectacle of the aging fan is by no means new,¹ the notion of, for example, the aging rocker or the aging punk has attracted significant academic attention, not least because of what this says about the shifting socio-cultural significance of rock, punk and similar genres as multi-generational scenes (Bennett, 2013). Applying the related concepts of cultural aging (Katz, 2005) and lifestyle (Chaney, 1996) the purpose of this article is to critically examine the phenomenon of the aging music fan as a salient example of the more reflexive way in which aging is now anticipated, managed and articulated in contemporary social settings. A key focus will be on how aging members of particular music scenes in the western developed world negotiate a place for themselves through evolving a series of discourses that legitimately position them as aging individuals, and aging bodies, in cultural spaces that also continue to be inhabited by significant numbers of people in their teens, twenties and early thirties. The article will also consider how, as aging audiences for rock and pop have become increasingly larger, the live music industry has responded to this in ways that strive to accommodate the tastes and lifestyle preferences of an aging cohort of music fans through initiatives such as winery concerts, seated dinner and show events, and music festivals that offer a more comprehensive range of amenities geared towards the lifestyle tastes and preferences of aging music fans.