ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Annotated Bibliography



Annotated Bibliography

Marshall, P, (1997), Celebrity and Power: Fame in Contemporary Culture, Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, pp 56-75.

Feld, S, (1984), Communication, Music, and Speech about Music, Yearbook for

Traditional Music, pp. 1-18.

Perlman, M, (1993), Idioculture: De-Massifying the Popular Music Audience, Postmodern Culture, pp. 40-57.

Critical Analysis of three articles

The study of music fandom is necessarily an interdisciplinary endeavor, drawing not only on musicology but also on aspects of media studies, sociology, and gender studies. The fan experience itself is a relatively uncommon topic within musicology, with exceptions such as Sharon Hochhauser's 1999 study of Moody Blues fans, four mixed reception histories, and phenomenological studies. Reception studies examine the critical reception and legacy of composers or musical movements, such as Russell Stinson's study of the 19th century revival of Johann Sebastian Bach's organ music by Mendelssohn and his contemporaries, or Carys Wyn Jones's investigation of rock music's emerging canon. Phenomenological studies, such as Harris Berger's Metal, Rock, and, Jazz, engage intensely with the actual experiences of independent music listeners in search of an emic aboriginal perspective.

The study of fans in some of the earlier researches with these approaches, and in some ways represents a mixture of the two in its examination of fan reception and interaction on a broader scale. The media's role in promoting and distributing musical products also forms a critical aspect of the study, and theories of the media's functions in this intermediary position become of crucial importance. The fields of gender and GLBT studies also form an important pillar of fan studies. In particular, many participants in fan fiction consider the practice to be a way to explore gender and sexual identities that are marginalized in the mainstream media. The economic and commercial factors inherent to popular music form a significant part of the world of fandom. As Richard Crawford notes in America's Musical Life, the landscape of American music is one in which commerce has always played a role, and the activity of music fans is a critical part of this commercial aspect. In the 19th century, much of America's music-making focused on amateur musical participation, from Lowell Mason's advancement of musical literacy as a vehicle for edification and education to the explicitly economically-driven sheet music industry. This sheet music industry arose in the latter half of the century and formed the model for the music business in the 20th century.

After the music industry shifted its focus to star performers and recorded music, these participants remained the central engine of the music industry, even if they were no longer necessarily amateur musicians themselves. As will be shown, fans' relationships with this industry are highly variable, ranging from acceptance and enjoyment to a willful ignorance of its influence and even explicit opposition to it. In the 20th century, these reproduced media images became a dominant way in which music fans experience music and participate in it. The weakening of boundaries around certain cultural expressions encourages direct interaction between musicians and their fans ...