Session Chair: Lexie Young
"Experiences with musical events and impact on sense of community and belonging": Aamiya Smith
My group delves into the dynamic realm of music consumption, exploring its evolution from digital streaming platforms to live musical events. Through comprehensive analysis of existing research, we underscore the intricate interplay between music, identity, and societal shifts. Building upon this foundation, my individual synthesis paper will focus on the profound impact of music events, particularly in fostering social sustainability among adolescents and young adults.
I will emphasize how music festivals and events serve as catalysts for bonding, bridging social gaps, and creating a sense of community and belonging. These dimensions significantly contribute to the overall well-being and social connections of adolescents and young adults engaged in live music experiences. By highlighting the essential role of music in identity construction for this demographic while also including my personal insights and experiences, my synthesis paper can bring a fresh perspective to the symposium. It underscores the social dimensions of music consumption, illustrating how a sense of community and belonging within musical scenes is important to understanding the broader implications of music events on individual and collective well-being. By including my paper in the symposium it can enrich the discussions with more insights into the multifaceted impact of music consumption on social aspects, particularly in the context of adolescents to young adults and live music event attendance.
"Wonder Woman Complex": Kendall McDowell
The "Wonder Woman Complex," a concept developed in the early part of this semester, proposes a unique perspective on identity, asserting its intricate correlation with locational and experiential standards. Seeking to redefine the essence of identity, my aim is to delve into its complex nature, emphasizing its interplay with experiences and surroundings saying it's not fixed but changes with our experiences. But it's not just about identity; I also think it affects how creative we can be. If we see our identity as something that's always changing and connected to our experiences, it can make us more creative. It's like saying our art is not just about our skills but also about who we are and what we've been through. So, the "Wonder Woman Complex" challenges old ideas and makes us think about identity and creativity in a new way. I will highlight these ideas by looking back at old discussions and researching artists who created based upon their life experiences.
"The Effects of Parasocial Relationships on Fans and the Artist": Blake Horne
Over this last semester, we as a class have looked at music through many lenses, how it affects people, and how music can change people’s identities and vice versa. In the smaller group that I am a part with, we looked at closer at the lens of parasocial relationships within music, more specifically between the fan of a certain type of music and the celebrity which wrote said music. We looked at how this music can harm the celebrity, how it can harm the fan, and how these parasocial relationships may not actually be harmful at all, and could possibly even be healthy. For me, I am going to be specifically looking at two things on this parasocial topic. I'm going to be looking at how parasocial relationships within music can harm the fan, and how an obsessive and unhealthy relationship like the one we researched between Ricardo Lopez and Bjork can in the end be more detrimental and harmful to the fan, even if that fan’s intentions were to cause harm to the celebrity. I'm also going to be looking at how parasocial relationships can be healthy, and may actually help one grow as a person, and could possibly even cause someone to become a great musician or artist themselves.
"Musical Parasocial Relationships: Where Does it Become Harmful?": Megan McCambridge
There are many instances where intense fans take it too far. The idolization of the celebrity breaches on stalking and infringes on the line of terrorization. I want to look at where a parasocial relationship becomes harmful. I aim to look for what internal and/or external factors contribute to harmful parasocial relationships. These factors can be personality disorders, or simply characteristics of low self-esteem, loneliness, and/or social anxiety. When fans become too obsessed with celebrities, they become possessive and harmful to not only the celebrity. We see this with “the Bjork Stalker”, Ricardo Lopez, case and Charles Manson and “The Race War”. Both Ricardo Lopez and Charles Manson exhibited similar traits of anxiety and loneliness. I want to examine what other traits and factors they shared that contributed to their harmful parasocial relationships with celebrities.
"Niche Genre Groups and Their Maintaining of Musical Identities": Stephen Casey
Pulling from the group thesis that I crafted regarding that “as individuals age, their music preferences tend to stabilize, with younger people more open to exploration, while older adults gravitate towards music from a nostalgic era. Concurrently, live music's positive impact on our bodies persists as we age, complemented by the continued mostly positive influence of evolving music technology, enhancing accessibility for listeners,” I seek to provide a paper that addresses these manners in a collective and newfound way. Following the successes of my initial studies regarding “Punk” music and its fanbases, I seek to peer into other genres that are considerably niche. In the previous case of “Punk,” the genre provided a very interesting case study. Since it is considerably more recognized as a rebellious youthful genre, how do those living within the scene age? Through the look into the study, the class examined the ways that people go about living the scene of punk. Following this, I seek to do similar studies and research for other genres. These genres are intended to be niche with a seemingly occult following. I will be attempting to look into the ‘ride-or-die’ variants of music that are hard to imagine people of all ages participating in. From some points of view, the ‘outcast’ genres. To me this will be an interesting experiment because these genres have a much larger pull onto their fanbases. For example, the rave scene exemplifies ride-or-die. No listeners casually or occasionally attend raves, it is instead a lifestyle. How does this affect people differently from more popular genres and musical identities?
"Relationship With Music Effecting Identity": Quinn Rivers
A person’s interaction with music over time and whether or not they identify with that music and genre. Music can affect a person’s identity based on what experiences they have. Whether it is childhood experiences, traumatizing experiences, or memories, people bring them joy. Having that relationship with music can change how you see a specific song, genre, or artist because you connect that memory with that life experience and are pulled back to the moment you hear that song. If a person is fond of that memory and wishes to relive it constantly, they are more likely to listen to more of that artist, becoming a fan of it. However, a person can go from loving a song or artist to being appalled by them based on one lousy memory, therefore choosing to no longer identify with that artist and that fanbase. In contrast, if a person gets sucked into a rabbit hole of an artist’s music because they connected with the first song they heard, then they are more likely to decide to identify with the fanbase and artist, potentially making that their personality. I have included interviews with family members and friends to compare and contrast their relationships with music and whether or not that has impacted their identity and see if there is a pattern while also including my own experiences with identity and music.
Session Chair: Aamiya Smith
"Music in Advertising: How Popular Music Impacts Viewers' Perception of Advertisers": Zander Betterton
My aim with the individual study is to further explore how music in advertising affects the perception of brand in the eyes of the viewer and how music plays a role in the memorability of an advertisement. Preexisting research overwhelmingly studies TV and radio advertising that features music, so I will focus on how music is used in social media advertising, specifically with the increasing prevalence of music used in advertising in short-form videos. This paper will first examine the psychological and memory aspects of music in advertising that were previously studied by Zander et al. and Alexomanolaki et al. (mentioned in case study) Then I will examine current musical trends in advertising and how they are changing with the integration of social media, specifically short form video on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram Reels. Through the lens of music on social media, I will examine how music in advertising contributes to brand identity as well as consumers’ social identities and how those identities contribute to their purchasing decisions. This will all be connected through an examination of the most recent research in music in social media advertising and realistic recommendations that brands and consumers can take to leverage for the best brand engagement or best consumer experience.
"Mental Health and the Potential for Violence": Lacey Falloon
The correlation between mental health conditions and the potential for individuals to exhibit violent behavior toward other people has been a subject of investigation within psychological and sociological areas. This paper will delve into the interrelationship between mental health and the tendency towards violent behavior, aiming to interpret the factors that contribute to this association.
Through a broad review of existing literature, this study highlights the multifaceted nature of mental health and its intricate connection to violent tendencies. It will examine various disorders, including personality and psychotic disorders. Another possible cause is substance abuse. Among these and other mental health disorders, their influence on a person’s ability to become violent towards others will be assessed. Further, this paper will scrutinize the role of things such as socioeconomic factors, trauma history, and access to mental health resources. Additionally, it discusses the significance of early intervention, a proper diagnosis, and effective therapeutic interventions in mitigating the risk of violence associated with specific mental health conditions. Drawing upon evidence and theoretical frameworks, this paper attempts to provide an understanding of the relationship between mental health and the potential for violence towards others.
"Crafting a Parasocial Relationship: Advertising in K-pop": Finn Mulder
For my individual paper, I will be delving into how media teams form personas for celebrities to create parasocial relationships by preying off of people with mental health issues. For the rest of our research, we have been exclusively looking into parasocial relationships from a fan perspective, and most previous research does as well. What is much less researched is the media team’s perspective of forming a persona that targets specific groups to make them personally attached to a celebrity. Although this is widely seen across the world, I want to dive specifically into k-pop, as media teams there seem to take parasocial relationships to an extreme which has made it more lucrative and popular over the years. Media teams appear to specifically target those with mental health issues to form these parasocial relationships by making them feel as though they really “know” the idols and have a chance to date them through messaging apps like Bubble, V-Lives, and dating bans. These passageways allow fans to feel as though they have a personal connection with idols and that they have more friends than they actually do. Although this relationship can have a positive effect on people who are struggling with mental health, how media teams craft this persona and then market k-pop to suck money out of people who are genuinely struggling is morally wrong.
"Music Therapy for PTSD Patients": Lexie Young
The use of music as therapy can have a multitude of positive effects on patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a disorder that can develop after a person has experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, or set of traumatic events. Having PTSD is extremely taxing on the body as it affects the mental, physical, social, and or spiritual well-being of a person. Those with PTSD can relieve past traumas through flashbacks or nightmares, feel sad or angry, or even detached from others. Music therapy has been shown to have effects on patients with PTSD. This paper will try to support the use of music therapy on patients with PTSD to reduce stress and increase positive emotions. This is an important topic as it could be life-changing for those with PTSD who are constantly stressed or feel isolated. It also shows the impact of music on the brain, which will always be important. As for a new perspective, as someone who has been diagnosed with PTSD, I would be interested in learning more about therapeutic treatment options. I would want to focus on the outcomes of music therapy on varying degrees of PTSD alongside other disorders associated with PTSD.
"Unraveling the Interplay between Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities and Personal Identity Formation": Charlotte Miller
After examining parasocial relationships within celebrities and their fandoms, it is clear that this term can be considered a spectrum that ranges from non-harmful to harmful to the celebrity themselves. Our group decided that the best way to describe these categories of parasocial relationships would be through investigating three different celebrities. Charles Manson had an obsession with The Beatles, which is harmful to others, Taylor Swift and her fandom called “the swifties” is considered non-harmful, and the Bjork stalker, which is harmful to the celebrity. During this process, I found an interest in examining parasocial relationships and how it creates an individual’s personal identity, especially in younger generations. Our previous research went into detail about how much influence a celebrity has on an individual. For example, Taylor Swift encouraged her large following into registering to vote, which then resulted in 65,000 more registered voters. Research has shown that parasocial relationships facilitate the process of identity exploration and development. Social media plays a huge role in a person’s identity and the celebrities they are following on these accounts also determines that. The different platforms throughout social media cause people to change their identity or even create their own if they never got the opportunity to. Due to the fact that the LGBTQ community is more prominit on social media, people now have the ability to become more educated and open about their identity. The Black Lives Matter movement is also an example of a parasocial relationship influencing a personal identity. Many individuals have even stated that they supported the cause because their favorite celebrity posted about it.
"Harmonies of Inclusivity: The Positive Impact of Evolving Music Technology on Listeners with Cochlear Implants": Mackenzie Scalzo
For my synthesis paper, I aim to delve into my research from our third case study. Specifically focusing on our thesis, “the evolution of music technology has a mostly positive impact on listeners via its accessibility.” My intention is to explore how the evolution of music technology has a very positive impact on listeners with cochlear implants. I am extremely intrigued by this topic because of the research I uncovered while doing our last study, and because of my limited knowledge on the subject. I love listening to music and I find it challenging to envision a world where I wouldn’t be able to listen to it constantly. I can’t even fathom what it would be like to have cochlear implants and hear music in a different way than I do now. This is why I believe it should be included in the symposium. Incorporating this subject into the symposium would help shed light on the developments of music listening for individuals with CI’s. I will discuss in my paper how music, for people with these implants, has changed over the course of time and help me bring a very different perspective forward on how people hear music. The paper will not only show how music technology has advanced, but will also demonstrate inclusivity by discussing the importance of making music accessible to everyone despite their hearing abilities.
Session Chair: Charlotte Miller
Moderator: Kade Little
"The Subjectivity of Nostalgia": Bennett Kirby
When we experience nostalgia, we are experiencing a conscious state that pulls various emotions from different indices throughout our lifetime. By experiencing nostalgia, we are pulling what is usually falsified, idealized information from our past that works to keep our identity consistent over time. Keeping our identity consistent over time is vital to forming and holding onto the idea of the “self” as time progresses and there is constant change in our lives. Nostalgia is the vessel through which this “self” is preserved. Intuitively, music plays a significant role in how we view our past, with many eras of music defining the eras of our lives. Music is a baseline for our nostalgic experiences by creating an aesthetic we strive to achieve. Therefore, the piece missing from nostalgia that can prompt one to enter the conscious state of nostalgia is music, as it is directly related to different indices, whether they are over some time (such as music on the radio from the summer of 2012 or the soundtrack of FIFA 15) or in a solitary moment (music playing at a birthday party or on vacation). These ideas addressed in our group case study report were all based on the individual, and, in class, there were many discrepancies between what was and was not nostalgic. In this synthesis paper, I will present the unique idea that because music is based on the aesthetic we strive to achieve, the indices we create for ourselves, especially ones that are falsely formed through individual thought, and the “self,” nostalgia must be a subjective experience and, therefore, is difficult to define fully. Everyone will have their own experiences, specifically musical experiences, that will bias their notion of nostalgia because the idea is isolated to one’s personal experience.
"Biculturalism and Nostalgia: How Heritage Dictates Personal Reminiscence": Lilianna Allen
To summarize the research and discussions facilitated this semester in HNR 3603 Music and Identity, I seek to fully capture the clarity I gained in three aspects of this course. First, my journey in understanding and defining identity. I had several preconceived assumptions about what identity was and where it came from, however, these assumptions were not fully flushed out. In this paper, I will fully explain my growth in mindset about this core understanding and how this growth affected my mindset and perspective for the rest of the course. Second, I gained clarity surrounding the ways in which our identity plays a role in the music we listen to. I found our class discussions very interesting because we were all hearing the types of music we liked and disliked, unaware that it was a reflection of our identity in some aspect. I will record some of the most impactful discussions we had as a class and why they influenced my perspective. Lastly, I was enlightened about nostalgia and how it is woven into the discussion of music and identity. I was very fortunate to have a group who dove deep into this topic and researched it well. By the end of our case study, we felt confident in our ability to discuss all things, nostalgia and identity with curiosity and understanding. In particular, I enjoyed researching how different people with different backgrounds experience nostalgia. I researched how people with bicultural backgrounds are more prone to have nostalgia and deep reminiscences due to their desire to preserve their fundamental culture.
"Sonic Sentimentality: Unearthing the Power of Nostalgic Tunes in Marketing”: Noah Shaw
Advertisement, every day we are inundated with advertisements from companies from all over. They all have their own brand, all have their own jingle. How do you make sure your brand stands out and will be connected with positive emotions for your consumers? My paper will be on music and advisements. This paper will focus on the benefits of using nostalgic music in advertising and how it affects consumer's buying decisions.
"Melodies of Memory: Unveiling the Emotional Ties Between Music and Nostalgia": Amir Hamidpour
Through this case study and other people's presentations of their case studies I learned a lot about how music can develop and form people as they grow in all stages of life, but also how it can help people grow via looking at the past through nostalgia which was what my group's case study was primarily about. Many of the studies showed how music has no limit when it comes to helping a person find fulfillment in their sense of self or identity, music is not limited by age nor is it limited by location or gender. It was also fascinating seeing the advancements in music and what factors in musical data are used to make these advancements. Moving forward I will be writing my final paper about how Music is connected to nostalgia and different ways nostalgia will make you feel depending on memories associated with a specific piece of music. The negatives and the positives that come with musical nostalgia. Also what feelings are described as similar to that nostalgic feeling, similar to when you taste something and compare it to something you’ve tasted before. Then I will create a correlation between my findings for a complete conclusion and possible new findings.
"The MisIdentification of Nostalia in Today's Society": Norah Cook
The original definition of nostalgia is a yearning for the homeland. The official definition today is a sentimental longing for the past, typically a period that has positive or happy personal associations. These definitions may seem similar, but the nuances of their meanings show an inherent difference that displays the way that our society misuses the word and concept of nostalgia.
To be a nostalgic person by today’s definition is often associated with being overly emotional—stuck in the past with no forward movement. However, nostalgia is something that is foundational to identity formation. Who you are and where you are from are some of the most integral pieces of your identity as an individual and nostalgic experiences allow you to recognize those important pieces of yourself. The definition of being a “nostalgic person” limits our society and downgrades the value of nostalgia. Many people do not want to be associated with being emotional and stuck, so we brand ourselves as being completely free of nostalgic experiences when those very experiences are perhaps one of the most important parts of identity and identity formation.
Nostalgic experiences are not always positive, and we, as a society, should not try to force them to me. Negative experiences and negative emotions are also important to your growth as an individual and the formation of your identity. Therefore, nostalgic experiences can also occasionally include the reminiscence of a past time with negative personal association.
The experience of nostalgia is subjective and flexible from person to person. But the way in which our society collectively defines it is important to emphasize its role in the identities of people.
Moderator: Zander Betterton
"New Tech, New Me": Emmi Yates
Throughout the completion of our case studies, I became interested in how the rise in technology use has impacted the formation of parasocial relationships. I would assume that the increase in the presence of technology would encourage parasocial relationships leading to a drastic increase in their prevalence. Technology allows individuals to research celebrities with just a few clicks and to follow their lives on social media. Although this positive correlation between technology and parasocial relationships would make sense, I was hoping to find sources with more information to spark further implications. Surprisingly enough, there seem to be few articles detailing this correlation in specific. Rather than finding sources on the increase in technology over time, I found loads of information on the influence of these relationships on technology use. Even the recent coronavirus pandemic has encouraged social media usage to maintain interpersonal relationships which encouraged these parasocial relationships by extension. One article discusses how YouTube has influenced the occurrence of parasocial relationships. It considers how “YouTube celebrities become friends sharing their opinion”.1 As we know, this can become harmful but can also do such good for society as encouraging civilduties and healthy lifestyle habits.
"Stream Your Soundtrack, Define your Identity": Regan Stillman
Music platforms have revolutionized the way people of all age groups engage with and consume music. These platforms, ranging from streaming services to social media, have a profound impact on individuals across various generations.
For younger audiences, music platforms serve as an essential part of social identity and cultural expression. The ability to curate personalized playlists and share musical tastes on social media allows them to connect with peers and define their individuality. Streaming services provide instant access to a vast library of songs, enabling younger listeners to explore diverse genres and discover new artists easily. The interactive nature of these platforms also fosters a sense of community, as users can comment, like, and share their favorite tracks, creating a virtual space for music enthusiasts.
In contrast, older generations, who may have grown up with physical music formats like vinyl records and CDs, experience music platforms differently. For them, these platforms represent a shift in the way music is consumed, moving from ownership to access. Streaming services offer convenience and a more cost-effective approach compared to buying individual albums. Older listeners often appreciate the nostalgia of revisiting classic tracks, and the ease of creating and sharing playlists allows them to reconnect with the music of their youth.
Beyond just streaming services, live concerts as a music platform also have a large impact on people and their identity across different age groups. Music itself has changed over generations but also how concerts are conducted has changed. Diving deeper into this type of music platform I would like to continue to look over.
Overall, for the previous assignments I have done a lot of research into how music platforms change and mold identities over different age groups but I would like to look more into that affect, why it occurs and how the rapid change affects older generations. Going from physical music to online music and AI generations playlists, will have some sort of effect on older generations who are not as connected and I would love to dig deeper into that.
"How AI has Driven Musical Identities": Rachel Day
The development of technology has greatly impacted the music industry and how people identify with music. Since people now have access to all music through streaming platforms such as Spotify, people are better able to discover their individual music taste rather than being limited to what is on the radio. First, I will explore how the way that people listen to music has evolved with technology and the effects on collective and personal identity. As determined in our group case study, there are many ways that music consumption and musical identities have shifted over time and that the two topics are correlated. I would like to use the research that we for our first two topics as an introduction to music and identity in specific points in time and different stages of life. This would lead to my next section where I would like to explore the impacts of the integration of AI and Big Data in music streaming apps. There are many features in the music streaming apps that are based on technology advancements in AI and Big Data. The first feature I would like to discuss is the algorithms that the streaming apps must personalize the music that is recommended to each user. This feature has shifted musical identities since people are able to distinguish what they listen to from the music that is considered popular at the time. The final step for this is how AI has added to the personalization and began to change the music industry. The introduction of the Spotify AI DJ has changed how many people listen to music as well as how they interact with the platform. These rapid technological advancements have changed how people listen to music and identify with it.
Session Chair: Kendal McDowell
"War Music as Social Identity Signifier" : Reis Fischer
For my final paper, I will write about war and music and go further into depth about the topic. When I was researching the effects and what type of music was listened to by soldiers during the Iraq war, I became really intrigued by how it has affected people throughout all wars. I will be looking into more of the articles that my group and I found, and I will explain more in-depth about war and music and how it affected people’s identities. I want to be able to explain further the full impact it has had on society and soldiers. Music is an essential part of someone’s identity, and I have a solid foundation for the work we have done together in class. For example, something that stuck out to me was how different groups of people within the military mostly listened to different music than one another; for example, higher ranked members such as NCOs and COs would listen to different music than the enlisted, or different cultures/races would tend to stick together and listened to music that they were comfortable with. I would also like to figure out how some types of music won out against other types of music when it is the music that is identified with the war. For example, when people think of the Iraq war, they think of heavy metal and hardcore rap, or how, in the Vietnam War, early metal (such as black sabbath) and rock and roll became the staple music of that time, beating out other genres. I hope my final paper will shed some more light on this very intriguing topic. There is so much more to learn about this topic, and I believe that my group and I have barely scratched the surface.
"How Our Perception of Sound Affects Our Relationship with Music": Quinn DeWitt
Looking further into our groups thesis about how as we age, our music tastes have a preference towards stabilizing and tends to get more normal the longer we live. Drawing from this, I want to look into how our music tastes are affected by our physical hearing ability. The basis of this paper will be centered around the article I explored about how our ability to distinguish resonance and harmony seems to decrease as we age.1 I plan to start using this as a springboard for how all the naturally occurring physical changes as we age affect our senses, specifically hearing, and how this in turn affects the type of music that we listen to. There is evidence that we prefer music we are used to due to a combination of nostalgia and physical changes. Additionally, I plan to explore how the lack of senses can affect our music tastes. This will be looked into from multiple angles. Firstly, from the point of deaf people who used to have hearing, as well as people who were born deaf perceive music. Next, I will explore if anyone with senses other than hearing distorted, such as being blind, have a different relationship with music as compared to someone who has all their senses. Finally, I’ll round out the essay by looking into how different generations tastes in music change as they age, and possibly tie it into the earlier idea of how physical degradation of our bodies affect our music tastes.
"The Lifelong Impact of Music on Identity": Kade Little
My paper will explore how music shapes who we are throughout our lives. I will argue that music isn't just something we enjoy; it actively influences our identity. Starting with childhood, where it impacts our cognitive and emotional development, and moving through adolescence, where it becomes tied to self-expression and social connections, to adulthood, where it helps us navigate life changes and build connections. I will dig into the science behind how music affects our brains and emotions, combining research from psychology, sociology, and neurobiology. By weaving together studies and personal stories, I will try to show how engaging with music shapes and reshapes our sense of self over time. I hope my paper offers a unique and comprehensive view of the lifelong impact of music on our identities, making it a valuable addition to the symposium.