Music in Cultural Adaptation

Asian Americans remain vastly underrepresented in American music narratives, and when they do appear, they face a double bind: their identity either becomes their sole defining characteristic or gets erased entirely. This project focuses on Asian American voices speaking about music not as artists, but as listeners and community members for whom music serves vital social functions, from building peer relationships to negotiating hybrid identities.

Research shows music strengthens social bonds by increasing cooperation, releasing bonding hormones, and creating cultural cohesion. For immigrants and their children, music becomes a tool for adaptation (learning English), heritage connection, community formation, and identity negotiation. These oral histories challenge monolithic narratives by revealing how Asian Americans don't simply assimilate from "Korean" to "American" but develop complex identities that shift across contexts. By documenting these experiences, from rap as "social currency" in LA to alternative rock as refuge in Maine, this project preserves stories that complicate our understanding of what it means to grow up Asian American.

• Geography Shapes Identity

  • Location profoundly influences how we experience music and belonging. Where you grow up determines which music spaces feel like home and which feel like foreign territory.

• Music Marks Life Transitions

  • Different genres soundtrack different developmental phases, creating an auditory timeline of growing up. Through associative memory, these genre shifts weren't just taste changes; they marked transitions into new versions of self.

• Music Creates Community

  • Music scenes provide a community that transcends biological family; they were spaces where people built the families and communities they needed, united by shared musical language and the feeling of finally belonging somewhere.

• "Alternative" as Asian American Identity

  • As minorities, Asian Americans are already positioned as "alternative" by their racial identity. Beyond appearances, alternative music scenes also facilitate introspection and transition, providing emotional vocabulary when regular words aren't enough.