Product Description

The power of music to influence mood, create scenes, routines and occasions is widely recognised and this is reflected in a strand of social theory from Plato to Adorno that portrays music as an influence on character, social structure and action. There have, however, been few attempts to specify this power empirically and to provide theoretically grounded accounts of music’s structuring properties in everyday experience. Music in Everyday Life uses a series of ethnographic studies - an aerobics class, karaoke evenings, music therapy sessions and the use of background music in the retail sector - as well as in-depth interviews to show how music is a constitutive feature of human agency. Drawing together concepts from psychology, sociology and socio-linguistics it develops a theory of music’s active role in the construction of personal and social life and highlights the aesthetic dimension of social order and organisation in late modern societies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #33903 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 196 pages

Review
"...Original in conception and based on years of research, this book offers interpretive and cultural sociologist a novel point of entree into the study of embodied lived meaning." Daniel Thomas Cook, American Journal Of Sociology

"With Music in Everyday Life, DeNora has crafted an important cultural analysis of the consumption of music....Music in Everyday Life is a thoughtful, well-written book that contains important theoretical and substantive contributions. It should be well received by sociologists of popular music, sociological social psychologists, and ethnomusicologists alike." Contemporary Sociology

Customer Reviews

It describes how music REALLY works in the REAL life...
I think this work by a sociologist is a good reminder to the readers of academic or theoretical writings found in the music circles because it tries to give a description of how music (no matter "classical" or pop) REALLY works in real life. Just take two such descriptions from this book: Aaron Copland's "Fanfare for the Common Man" is used in the airlines to ease the passengers' pressure (especially relevant after 911!) and the reflection that the author sometimes typed rhythm from classics (say Habenera from "Carmen") while waiting before a computer (like when I am typing this review). These cases of micro-"music performance" seem trivial enough that they often escape our attention. But that is just how music is "backgroundize" as a sonic wallpaper in everyday life and at the same time however, gets deep into our (and our students') memory! As a music teacher, however, my question is, can we really try to get some time to THINK and UNDERSTAND what we hear, but not just let it pass through our ears?

Easy reading and cientific demanding
Wonderfull book!
Music and sociology in a direct aproach but with cientific eye.
Good to track ways in music and of knowledge in everyday life.