Well-worn Grooves - Music, Materiality, and Biographical Memory

Iain A. Taylor

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Recorded music, as both aesthetic listening experience, and as material culture, has a deep mnemonic resonance for a great many people. Starting from Csikszentmihalyi?s (1993) theorisation on the significance of artefacts in the structuring of ?well-worn grooves? of consciousness, this article considers the biographical function of the metaphorical (and literal) ?well-worn grooves? of music-based artefacts such as records. Building upon existing arguments from material culture studies and popular music studies, this article used excerpts from research interviews with self-identified ?music enthusiasts? to argue that an attentiveness to the complex and intertwined relationships between popular music listening, and it?s materiality, presents possibilities for looking beyond a broadly canonic understanding of popular music history, arguing for a greater attentiveness to the richness of the individual music-based biographies as a means of exploring the relationship between popular music and the past.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalPopular Music History
    Volume12
    Issue number3
    Publication statusPublished (VoR) - 13 Nov 2020

    Keywords

    • Music; Memory; Records; Collection; Materiality; Biography

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