What symbolic interactionism adds to the academic study of popular music: concepts, methods, and contributors

Popular music has become a growing focus of attention among scholars in recent years, and many symbolic interactionists have joined this conversation. This growing interest reflects a broader recognition that culture stands at the center of social life and deserves serious academic treatment. Another factor is the realization that popular music permeates daily experience and offers a microcosmic lens for understanding larger social and historical structures.

The question arises: what distinctive contributions can symbolic interactionism bring to the academic study of popular music? Many of the research tools and analytical frameworks that interactionists have honed over decades of fieldwork are no longer exclusive to their discipline. For instance, interactionists have conducted ethnographic studies of popular music that vividly describe the clothing, gestures, and performances of both artists and audiences. Joseph Kotarba’s early work at an all-ages rock club in 1980s Houston chronicled the coexistence of satanic headbangers, punks, and Christian heavy metal fans. Researchers in communications also employ ethnographic methods effectively, as demonstrated by Rob Drew’s lifelike depictions of karaoke scenes. Some scholars draw on their own experiences as performers or audience members. Theodore Gracyk brought a philosophical perspective to the study of rock as a mass art. Even elegant prose isn't exclusive to interactionists, as Tia DeNora’s rationale for a multi-disciplinary study of music illustrates: “The study of how music is used in daily life helps to illuminate the practical activity of casting ahead and furnishing the social space with material-cultural resources for feeling, being and doing.”

The most valuable and lasting contribution of symbolic interactionism lies in its concepts—and the very process by which those concepts are created. Rooted in pragmatism and shaped by the intellectual temperament of its practitioners, interactionism has not pursued sweeping theories meant to account for all social phenomena. Instead, interactionists employ concepts to portray specific slices of social reality, focusing on how people cooperatively make sense of the situations they encounter. Herbert Blumer laid the groundwork for this approach with his notion of sensitizing concepts, which draw attention to the distinctive qualities of a phenomenon and suggest paths for further study. These concepts range from broad features of interaction—such as the act, the situation, or the role—to more specialized visions of the self as it develops across a lifetime. The power of this conceptual development may indeed represent interactionism’s strongest impact on the broader discipline of sociology.

The articles gathered in this special issue apply many creative concepts to contemporary styles of popular music. An exception to the pattern is the work of Phillip Vannini and Dennis Waskul, who provocatively frame music itself as a metaphor for society. Unlike earlier mechanistic or organic metaphors, theirs fosters an interactionist exploration of the aesthetic construction of meaning and self.

The next three pieces examine heavy metal, a richly complex genre that has received more scholarly scrutiny than perhaps any other modern musical form. Adam Rafalovich applies the self concept to investigate how heavy metal music celebrates masculine individualism. Karen Bettez Halnon draws on Mikhail Bakhtin’s idea of the carnival to show how grotesque versions of heavy metal music paradoxically serve to dis-alienate their adolescent listeners. Danielle Bessett employs the concept of gender identity to analyze how both men and women connect with the “angry young woman” genre, from Babes in Toyland to Ani DiFranco.

Joanna R. Davis explores the power of the scene concept, showing how adult punk fans maintain a coherent sense of self through a synthesized, cumulative identity. The local music scene and its members’ aging identities shape one another in a dialectical process. Davis’s work aligns with the broader trend in popular music studies away from the subculture concept and toward the scene, a notion traceable to John Irwin’s landmark interactionist study of California lifestyles in the 1960s and 1970s.

Bakker and Bakker’s contribution stands out for two reasons. First, they apply semiotic theory to the culture of vinyl club DJs, showing how the concept of turntabling illuminates the cultural, technological, and interactional dimensions of contemporary dance music. Second, one author, Theo, works as a DJ in Montreal, while his father Hans is co-author and the proud parent.

The final three pieces apply standard interactionist concepts across a varied musical landscape. Scott W. Renshaw draws on Erving Goffman’s idea of secondary adjustment to analyze the revived swing dance scene. Peter J. Martin adapts Howard Becker’s concept of the art world to the musical networks of Hollywood studio musicians, Liverpool rock bands, and New York City jazz players. Marcus Aldredge, also using the art world framework, examines the dynamics of an open-mic scene in Brooklyn, New York.

Acknowledgments are extended to co-editor Phillip Vannini, whose editorial readiness at the tap of a “send” key was invaluable. His teachers in symbolic interactionism evidently succeeded in following Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young’s injunction to “teach your children well.”