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Talking About Old Records: generational musical identity among older people

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2012

Matt Connell
Matt Connell
Affiliation:
School of Arts and Humanities, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK E-mail: matt.connell@ntu.ac.uk
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Abstract

This paper explores ethnographic findings gathered during my work as a DJ and academic, particularly in relation to a community arts project called Talking About Old Records. This project brings together teenagers and older people from a range of backgrounds at collaborative workshops using DJ technology and old records. These facilitate conversations about what music means to the participants. This paper puts the emphasis on the older people, exploring the emergence of generational musical identities from the 1940s onwards. Relationships between the spread of personal listening technologies, ‘youth music’ and the birth of the teenager in the 1950s are explored in the context of older people's fears about a loss of musical sociality, fears which are articulated against a background of cyclical manifestations of intergenerational musical conflict and scandal.

Type
Articles
Information
Popular Music , Volume 31 , Special Issue 2: As Time Goes By: Music, Dance and Ageing , May 2012 , pp. 261 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

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Discography

Haley, Bill and the Comets, ‘(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock’. Decca, 29124. 1954Google Scholar
Baker, Chet, ‘My Funny Valentine’, My Funny Valentine. Blue Note, 28262. 1994 [1954]Google Scholar
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Filmography

Brooks, Richard (dir.), Blackboard Jungle, with Glenn Ford, Anne Francis and Louis Calhern. 1955Google Scholar
Sears, Fred F. (dir.), Rock Around the Clock, with Bill Haley, Rudy Pompilli and Al Rex. 1956Google Scholar