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‘How we feel the music’: popular music by elders and for elders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2012

Murray Forman
Murray Forman
Affiliation:
Communication Studies, 204 Lake Hall, Northeastern University, Boston MA, USA, 02115 E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This article is inspired by the voices and perceptions of elder music fans and performing musicians, especially those older than 70 years of age. Based upon field interviews and ethnographic observations, it challenges the deleterious influences of social labelling and ageist perspectives (including casual yet damaging attributions of nostalgic yearning) that tend to delegitimise the musical interests or tastes of older citizens. By also emphasising musical performance, the article explores the active forms of music making as a strategy that mitigates notions of elders as non-productive consumers. The analysis further engages the contexts of musical performances within regulated institutional settings of assisted living residences, interrogating the logic and discourses of commercial management or State bureaucracies as they are expressed through organised musical recreation activities.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 31 , Special Issue 2: As Time Goes By: Music, Dance and Ageing , May 2012 , pp. 245 - 260
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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