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Listening to Popular Music

Author(s): David RiesmanSource: American Quarterly, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Winter, 1950), pp. 359-371Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3031227 .

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AMERICAN QUARTERLY

selves and make

guesses bout

the

uses made of

them.He

is

usually

pushed by the difficulties

f

interviewing

oward

the

latter proce-

dure,

that

is,

toward some form f

content

nalysis.

This

is

espe-

cially the case wherehe wants to discover he effects f nonverbal

materials

uch as

music and

paintings.

or he

will find

hat,

on

the

whole, eople

can talk more

readily

bout their

responses o words

than about

their

esponses, ay,

to

a tune.Yet this

very

readiness o

talk,this

availability

f a

critical

vocabulary,

may

hinder s well as

help

the

researcher;

wordsabout words

may

screen

rather

han

re-

veal

underlying eanings.

he current

reference

or

he

Rorschach

test

or

the

Thematic

Apperception

est

("inkblot"

or

pictorial

stimuli) s a way ofgettingt underlyingharacter s evidence hat

verbalresponses o verbal

cues are

likely

o be

stereotypednd con-

ventionalized.

I

do

not

mean

to

deprecate

ontent

nalysis

where his s used

to

suggestpossible

audience

effects.

.

W.

Adorno's

essays

on

radio

music1

nd recently

he

Wolfenstein-Leites'

ook on

the

movies in-

dicate how

suggestive

uch

workcan

be,

where

t is

informed

y

a

graspof the social structure

nto

which

nd out of which

he content

comes.We mustbe on guard againsta tendency o snifft library

or

arm-chair

esearch s

against

field

work;

certainly

he

quickest

short

ut to

understanding

hat

popular

culturedoes for

people-

and hence

to

understanding great

deal

about

American

ulture s

a

whole

is

to

make oneselfthe relevant

audience and to look

imaginatively

t

one's own

reactions.

But

the

danger

xists

hen of

assuming

hat

the

other

audience,

the

audience one

does

not

con-

verse

with,

s more

passive,

more

manipulated,

more

vulgar

n

taste,

thanmaybe thecase. One can easily forget hatthings hat strike

the

sophisticated

erson

as

trash

may open

new

vistas forthe

un-

sophisticated;

moreover,

he

very udgment

f

what

s

trash

may

be

biased

by

one's

own

unsuspected imitations,

or

nstance, y

one's

class

position

r

academicvested nterest.

While

fieldwork

may

not curethis

attitude,

t

may

chasten and

modify t, provided

that

we

can

find

the

vocabulary

to

talk

to

people about experienceswhich are not particularly elf-conscious

'T. W. Adorno, On

Radio Music," in Studies in

Philosophy

nd Social Science

(New

York: Institute f Social Research, 1941), vol. 9, and

"A Social Critique of Radio

Music,"

Kenyon Review, vol. 7,

p. 208 (1944).

2Martha Wolfenstein

nd Nathan Leits, Movies (Glencoe:

The Free

Press, 1950).

360








DAVID

RIESMAN

ones. My judgment

s that the same or

virtually

he same

popular

culturematerials

re

used by

audiences n

radically

different

ays

and for radically differenturposes;

for

example,

a movie theater

maybe used to get warm, o sleep,to neck,to learn newstyles, o

expand one's imaginativeunderstanding f people and places-

these merely egin an indefinitelyxpansible ist. What these vari-

ous ways and purposes

re,

we can scarcely magine ll by ourselves;

we mustgo out and talk to various ortsof people n variousmoods

to get

at

them. t may then appear that it is the audience which

manipulates he product and hence the producer), o less than the

otherway around.

This is a particularlymportantonsiderationn thefield fpopu-

larmusic,

where he

music

ndustry,

ith

ts

song pluggers,

ts

uke-

box

outlets,

ts radio

grip,

eems to be able to mold

popular

taste

and

to eliminate ree hoice

by

consumers. he

industry

tself

may

liketo

think t can

control

matters,

ven at the

price

of

feeling

good

deal of

guilt

over

trashy utput

or dubious

monopolistic rac-

tices.Nevertheless,

here

eems

o

me no

way

of

explaining y

refer-

ence to the industry

ontrollers he

great swings

of musical

taste,

say, from azz to sweet n the last decade; actuallythe industry g-

nores these swings

n

consumer

aste

only

at its

peril.

Even in the

field fpopularmusic,

here

s

always

a

minority

hannel

ver which

less popular

tastes

get

a

hearing, ventually erhaps o become

ma-

jority

tastes.

These, then, are some of

the

very general assumptionswhich

guided

me in

setting

down

the

following ypotheses bout

a

ma-

jority

and

a

minority

udience for

popular

music

among teen-age

groups.Thesehypothesesweredirected o the Committee n Com-

munication

f the

University

f

Chicago as a tentative asis forre-

search,

nd

in

the

period

since their

drafting everal studentshave

been

working

n this rea.

They have,

as

was to be

anticipated,

ome

up against

the

great methodological bstacles already indicated:

how

to

isolate

music

from

he

influences

f

other

media; how to

understand

he

relations

etweenmusical conventions nd the con-

ventions fthepeer-groups,hegroups fage-mates; ow, nthe case

of popular tunes,to separatethe melangeof words nd music,per-

formernd piece,song and setting.

It has

provedeasy enough, hrough illboard,Variety, nd other

361








AMERICAN QUARTERLY

trade

sources,

to

establish

popularityratings

for

hits; through

studyof uke-boxpreferences

n

particular

eighborhoodso get an

indication

f class

and

ethnic,

ex

and

age differences;hrough n

analysisof chordprogressionsr arrangementso get clues to what

musical

patterns

nd

conventions

might

e common

o

a

group fhit

tunes.But

to

move from here o

the

more

basic

problems f the use

ofmusicfor

purposes

f social

adjustment

nd social

protest,

r

the

role of music in socializing he young,teasing

the adolescent, nd

quieting

he

old

such things

s

these oom

on thefarhorizon s

unsolvedproblems.

II

Bearingthe difficultyf theseproblems n mind, ventureto

suggest, evertheless,hatoneroleofpopular

music n socializing he

young may

be to

create,

n

combination

with

other

mass

media,

a

pictureof

childhood nd adolescence

n

America as a happy-go-

luckytime of

haphazard clothesand haphazardbehavior, itterbug

parlance, coke-bar

sprees, and "blues" that

are not really blue.

Thus

the

very

real

problems

f

beingyoung

are

evaded-the

mass

mediaalsofurnishomparable tereotypesor therdeprived roups,

such

as

Negroes,

women, GIs,

and "the

lower

classes."

I

do

notmean

to

suggest

hat

in

thus

presenting

he

young

with

a

pic-

ture

of Youth drawn

by

adults there is

conspiratorial

ntent-

rather

there s a

complex nterplay

f forces

between

the adults

who

are the

producers

nd

the

young

who are

the

consumers.

Most

teen-agers, hough

much more

"knowing"

han

the

picture

gives

them

redit

for

being,

do

not

think

bout

this

situation t all.

Amongthose who do, some are aware that theirgroupstandards

are

set

by

outsideforces.

ut their oss of nnocence

as

made them

cynical,

not

rebellious;

nd

they

are seldom

even

interested

n

the

techniques

f

their

xploitation

r its

extent.

A small

minoritys, however,

ot

only

aware in

some fashion

f

the

adult,manipulative

ressure

ut

is

also

resentful f

it,

in

many

cases

perhaps

because

its members re

unable

to fit

themselves

y

any stretchof the imaginationnto the required mages.Such a

"youth

movement" iffers

rom

he

youth

movements f

other oun-

tries

n

having

no awareness

of

itself,

s

such,

no

direct

political

consciousness,

nd,

on

the

whole,

no

specialized

media

of

com-

362








DAVID

RIESMAN

munication.'

f we

study,

for

nstance,

he hot

rodders,

we see

a

group

of young

and pseudo-young)

eoplewho,

n

refusing

o

ac-

cept

the

Detroit image

of the automobileconsumer,

reate

a

new

self-image

though

one in turn liable to manipulation. ikewise,

the oversof

hot azz,

whilenot explicitly

xploring

he

possibilities

of howyouth

might

ake

a handin formulating

ts own self-images,

do

in

factresist ertain onventional

tereotypes.

ut

they

do so by

making

differential

election

romwhatthe

adult media

already

provide.

Thus, we may distinguish

wo polar

attitudes

toward

popular

music, majority

ne which cceptsthe

adult

picture

f

youth

ome-

whatuncritically,nd a minorityne in whichcertain ociallyre-

bellious

hemes

re

encapsulated.

or

the purposes

of

this

analysis,

I

shall disregard

he many

shadings

n between, nd

also neglect

the audiencesofhillbilly nd

"classical"

music.4

III

Most of

the

teen-agersn

the majority

ategoryhave

an

undis-

criminatingaste in

popular

music; theyseldom

express

rticulate

preferences.hey formhe audiencefor he arger adiostations, he

"name"

bands, the

star singers,

he Hit Parade,

and so forth.

The

functions

f music

forthis group

are social the

music

gives

themsomethingo talk

or kid

about with friends;

n

opportunity

for

ompetitiveness

n udging

which uneswill

become

hits, oupled

'

This

is

of course

not intended o deny

that there

re certainvery small

groups

n the

United

States

who

follow he

patterns

f European youth movements.

Many teen-agefol-

lowers f Henry

Wallace and young eft-wing

ionists

preparing or migration

o Palestine

seem

to

have all

the emotional

paraphernalia f European

movements,

whethernominally

"right"or "left."

'Actually,

both these areas are very

mportant

nes. It would be interesting

o

study

urban

fanciers f

hillbillymusic

as possible

exemplars f the

many city

folk who,though

they

depend

on thecityfor ncome, riends,

nd entertainment,

espiseor

pretend o

despise

it

and

long

nostalgically

or

he

very

rural ife fromwhichthey

or theirparents

may have

fled;perhaps

for uch

people

to

define hemselves

s

country

olk n theirmusical and other

leisure

astes

is

the

only way

they can

accept the city.

As for classical" music,

t

is

worth

observing

hat

people

who tell the

interviewer

hat

they ike,

or "don't

mind,"

classical

or

'symphonic")

music almost

nvariably

n

my

own

experience

mean

Tchaikovsky,

ometimes

Chopin,

and

occasionally

Brahms.

People

of serious

musical

taste

almost

never

describe

their nterests

y

means

of

a

rubric,

ut

rather

by

reference

o

specific omposers

r, per-

haps,distinctivemusicalepochs. t is strikinghat someof thenew, big,hundred-selection

jukeboxes

will

have a

"classical"

section,

which

s

apt

to

include

some

Tchaikovsky in

an

Andre

Kostelanetz

ersion)

along

with music

fromOklahoma

or other

similar

hows

(in

an

Andre

Kostelanetz

version). Indeed,

"classical,"

for this sizable

audience,

might

be

defined

s whatever

musicKostelanetz

will

arrange

nd

play.

363








AMERICAN

QUARTERLY

with lack

of concern bouthow

hits are

actuallymade;

an

oppor-

tunityfor

dentification ith

star

singers

r

band

leaders

as

"per-

sonalities,"

with

ittle nterest

n

or

understanding

f

the

technolo-

gies ofperformancer of the radio medium tself.Thus I assume

that the

psychological

unctions f thismedium

or

most

of

ts

audi-

ence include

those

that Herta

Herzog

has

found

n the radio

day-

time

serial or

the

quiz program

nd that

Leo

Lowenthal

has

found

in

popular biographies.5

It is not easy at this stage to

state the precise

ways

n

which hese

indiscriminateistening abits serve

to help the individual onform

to the

culturally rovided

mage

of himself. o discover

his s

one

of the tasks ofresearch.And to this end some furtherines of in-

quirysuggest hemselves.

First,

t

has

oftenbeen remarked

hat modernurban

industrial

societyatomizes

experiences,

solating

each

experience rom

other

experiences.

oes this

same

pattern

perate,

s T.

W.

Adorno

sug-

gests, n the

auditory xperience f popular

music? Such music

is

presented

disconnectedly,specially over the

radio- where it

is

framed

y verbalballyhoo nd

atomized nto

ndividual hits" like

the disparate temson a quiz program.Can it be established hat

this

mode

of

presentation

einforceshe

disconnectednessften

sso-

ciated withmodern

urban ife?

Second, by giving

millions

of

young people

the

opportunity

o

share

n

admiration or

hits,

hit

performers,nd thehit-making

roc-

ess,

are

identifications

ubtly

built

up which

erve

to

lessen

the

ef-

fects f

social

conflictsnd to sustain n

ideology f

social

equality?

Third,

does the music tell

these

people,

almost

without their

awareness, owto feelabout theirproblemsn muchthesameway

that the

daytime erialspackage

their ocial

lessons?

Fourth,

incethis

music

s

often

ance music,does it

help to

cre-

ate

and

confirm

ostural nd

behavioral ttitudes

oward he other

sex?

Does the

facial

expressionssumethe"look" the music s

inter-

preted

s

dictating?

s

the music

felt

s

inculcating

he

socially ight

5lIerta

Herzog, "Professor

uiz

-

A Gratification tudy," Radio and the PrintedPage

(New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1940), Paul F. Lazarsfeld, d., and "On BorrowedExpe-

rience," tudies n Philosophy nd Social Science,vol. 9 (1941). Leo Lowenthal, Biographies

in Popular Magazines," Radio Research

1942-43,

Paul F. Lazarsfeld nd FrankStanton,

ds.

(New York: Harper, 1944) 507.

e Cf. my article Equality and

Social

Structure,"

ournal

f

Political

and

Legal Sociology,

vol. 1, p.

72

(1942).

364








DAVID

RIESMAN

combination

f "smoothness"with stylized spontaneity," f pseu-

dosexuality

withreserve?

Do these

psychic

nd

gestural

manifesta-

tions then carryover from

he dancing situation

o other spheres

of ife?We shouldnotbe surprisedo find hat suchmolding f the

body-image

nd

body-responses

ffects

irls

more

powerfully

han

boys;

as

the

subordinate roup,

with fewer ther

outlets,girls

can

less afford ven

a

conventionalized

esistance.

It is not unlikely hat we

will discover hat

the

majority

ole

rep-

resents n many of its aspects

a patternof "restriction

y partial

incorporation."7

hat

is,

the

majority

s

continuously

ngaged

in

the process

of

adaptingelements

f the

minority's

musical

outlook,

whileovertly gnoringrdenigratingminority atterns.Jazz itself,8

many

of

the

dance steps,

nd lyrical mages are almost

entirelymi-

nority roducts

o

begin

with.But theyundergo ignificant

hanges

in being ncorporatednto

the

majority tyle, ust

as

radical intel-

lectual and ideological developments

re modifiedby academic

acceptance.

IV

The minority roup s small. t comprises he more

active isten-

ers, whoare less interestedn melodyortunethan in arrangement

or technical

virtuosity.t has developedelaborate,

ven

overelabo-

rate, standards f music istening;

ence ts music istening

s com-

bined with

much animated discussion of technical

points and

perhaps occasional reference

o trade ournals such as Metronome

and

Downbeat.

The

group

endsto dislikename bands,

most vocal-

ists (exceptNegro blues singers), nd radio commercials.

The

rebelliousness f

this

minority roup might

be indicated

n

some

of thefollowingttitudes owardpopular music:

an

insistence

on

rigorous tandards f udgment nd taste in a relativist

ulture;

a

preference

or

the

uncommercialized,

nadvertised mall bands

rather han name bands; the

development f a private anguage

and

then

a

flight

rom

t

when the private anguage (the

same

is

true

of other spectsofprivate tyle) s takenoverby the majority

roup;

a

profound esentment

f the commercializationf radio and mu-

sicians. Dissident attitudes oward competition nd cooperationn

'See

Harold

D. Lasswell, World

Politics

and

Personal

nsecurity New York: McGraw,

1935).

8

Cf. Kurt List,

"Jerome

Kern and

American

Operetta,"

Commentary,

ol. 3, p. 433

(1947).

365








AMERICAN

QUARTERLY

our culturemight e represented

n feelings bout

mprovisationnd

small "combos"; an appreciation

for

idiosyncrasy f performance

goestogether ith

dislike f star"

performersnd an insistence

hat

the mprovisatione a

group-generated

henomenon.9

There

are still

otherways nwhich he

minoritymay use

popular

music

to

polarize tself

rom hemajority roup,

nd thereby

rom

American opular

culturegenerally:

sympathetic ttitude r

even

preference orNegro musicians;

an

equalitarian attitudetoward

the

roles,

n

love and

work, f the

two sexes;

a

more

nternational

outlook,

withor

without

wareness,

or

example,

f

French

nterest

in

American azz; an identification

ith

disadvantagedgroups,not

only Negroes,fromwhich azz springs,withorwithout romantic

cult

of

proletarianism; dislike

f

romantic

seudosexuality

n

mu-

sic,

even

without ny articulate

wareness

f

being exploited; imi-

larly

a

reaction gainst

the

stylized

body image

and limitations

f

physical elf-expression

hich

"sweet" music and

its

lyrics

re

felt

as

conveying;

feeling

hat

music

is

too

important

o

serve as

a

backdrop

for

dancing,

mall

talk,studying,

nd

the

like;

a

diffuse

resentment f

the

image

of the

teen-agerprovided

by

the mass

media.

To

carry

matters

beyond

this

descriptive uggestion

f

majority

and

minority atterns

requires

n

analysis

of the

social

structure

in which

he

teen-ager

inds

himself.When he

listens

o

music,

ven

if

no one

else

s

around,

he listens

n

a context f

maginary

others"

-his

listening

s indeedoften

n

effort

o

establish

onnectionwith

them.

n

general

what

he

perceives

n

the mass media

is framed

by

his

perception

f

the

peer-groups

o which

he

belongs.

These

groupsnotonlyratethetunes butselectfor heirmembers nmore

subtle

ways what

s to

be "heard"

n

each

tune.

t

is

the

pressure

f

conformity ith thegroup

that invites

nd

compels

the

individual

to

have

recourse

o

the

media

both in

order

to learn from

hem

what

the

group

expects

and

to

identify

with

the

group by

sharing

a common

focus

for

attention

nd talk.

Moreover,many factors,

ncluding

he

youth

orientation

f the

culture

generally,

ower

the

age

at which

children

venture

nto

the "personalitymarkets"to be judged by theirsuccessin terms

9

This combination

f respect for groupcooperation long with individualspontaneity

can be foundhere in both

unconscious

preference nd explicit formulas. ometimes

hot

jazz

constitutes satire on "sweet" or corny music, hence

of the attitudes that

go

with

them.

:366








DAVID RIESMAN

ofpopularity.As high

schools adopt the social

customs

nd

listen-

ing

habits

previously

ostponed

ntil

college,

o

the

grammar

chool

tendsto ape the high

school

n

dating patterns, roms,

nd

so

on.

At the same time,the personalities

f the

popular

music

industry

have everyreason to cultivate hechildmarket nd are quitewill-

ing to "rob the cradle."

This

convergence f forcesmeans that

chil-

dren are compelled

o learn how to

respond

o

music,

n a fashion

their

peer-group

will find

acceptable,

at

increasingly

arlier

ages.

Under these

pressures,

music

can

hardlyhelp becoming

ssociated

with both the

excitements

nd

the

anxieties

of

interpersonal

ela-

tionships.

V

So

far,

have

obtained

some

fifteen

ong

interviews

with

young

people about popular music. Since

these

nterviews

were

n

the

na-

ture

ofa

limited

re-test,imply art

of the

ong process

f

develop-

inga questionnaire

hich ould

then

be

used

on a

selected

ample,

made

no

effort

o obtain a

sample

but

engaged

in random house

and street

nterviewing

n

white

(and nisei)

South Side

Chicago,

seeking

o

varyonly ex,age,

and

economic

tanding

n

a

veryrough

way. The respondents anged from fourteen o twenty-twond

from

probably upper-lower

o middle-middle lass.

In

addition,

I

sought data

on

the

higher

ocial

strata

from

the

always

avail-

able

"sample"

of

traditional

ocial

psychology-

namely,

my

stu-

dents

and data

on

the

Negro community

rom

few

discussions

with

Negro

students nd musicians.

One

advantage

in

interviewing een-agers

bout

their music

listening

abits s that as

compared,

or

nstance,

with

nterview-

ing on

politics-

onemeets ittleresistance save for an occasional

overprotectivemother), ince all

do listen and like to talk about

their

tastes;

if

the interviewer ad cards with hits listed

on them,

they

would

doubtless

enjoy ranking

he

cards and then explain-

ing theirrankings.

However,

the group as a whole as

compared

with housewives

tended

to

be inarticulate, ven if not

shy; a

good deal

of

directionwas

needed in some portionsof the inter-

view, and this ran the

obvious risk of tilting he responses.'0

fter

10I

have also found hat dual

interviewing,n which my colleague Reuel

Denney par-

ticipated,

an

help

to

establish

asier rapport nd deeper probing nd can allowmuch closer

analysis

of

the interviewing rocess tself.Here

one

of

the

pair

of

interviewers

an take

notes or fend offthe baby

while the other chats

with

the respondent; f

course, the

two

nterviewersave

to be

sensitive

o

each other's ues

if

they

re

not to

get

in

the way.

367








AMERICAN QUARTERLY

introductoryuestions concerning he respondent's

ge, schooling,

familydata (for example, siblings,

ather's

ccupation,

residential

mobility, nd,

where

possible, socio-economic

tatus and

mobility

strivings), turned o general uestions bout radio istening abits:

length

f

time,place (that is, where,

nd with

whom,

istening c-

curs), favorite ypes

of

programs,

nd the like. Then came

the

questions about music. (Depending

on the

rapport,

he order was

sometimes eversed.)The schedulewas long and open-ended, oint-

ing towardtheproblemsndicated

n

the analysisabove."

One

question

which sometimes

ed to

illuminating

nswers

was

this: "How

do

you

and

they (your friends)

decide what

is a

good

or bad piece?" One seventeen-year-oldirl, he daughter f a rail-

road telegrapher,aid,

"If

it's popular we go for t;

if

t's

played on

the Hit Parade." Her

answer to

whether

her

social

life

would

be

affected

f she

hated music

was,

"That's all

there s

to

do for

kids

our

age."

Yet the time

she

craved

music most

was

when she

was

alone;

the

somewhat ultry

ove

ballads

that

were

her

favoriteswere

perhapsvicarious ompany.

ike

virtually

ll

the other

espondents,

sne vigorouslydenied attending

broadcasts or having any desire

tomeetherfavorite erformers.I don'tswoon overanybody," he

said.

I

also

discovered

hat

respondents enerally elt

much safer n

statingtheir

musical

dislikes

than their

musical

likes;

the former

werevolunteered

eadily,

while

the atter ame

out only

f

approval

for

he

preference

eemed

n the

offing.

hat

is, manywould quickly

reject

a

whole

rea: "I hate

hillbilly,"

r "I

can't stand

fast music,"

or

"Negroes

are

too

jumpy."

More

rarely omething

pecificwas

'

A

few sample questions:

favorite

unes and how far back these, and the lyrics, an

be

recalled);

favorite

ands; perhaps

a

discussion bout the

shift

from

wing to sweet and

the reasonsfor

t;

what

the hit-making rocess

s and what

effect

disclosure

f such nforma-

tion

has

on

the

respondent; uestions

bout the function f

popular

music

n

the peer-group,

e.g.,

for

dancing,kidding round, ppearing ophisticated,

nd

what would

be

the effect n

his

popularity

or on

his

more

generalfeelings

f

"belonging"

o

the

community if the

respondent

ould no

longer

isten

where

went into

this,

nd

the

respondentwas willing

to

make the

experiment

f

thought,

e

said,

in

effect,

I

would

be

isolated,"

or

"I would be

lost,"

or

sometimes,

It would make

no

difference");

ttitudes

toward

Negro musicians;fa-

vorite

movie stars

and fan attitudes

generally; eelings

bout

people

with

different usical

tastes (oftenrevealingwithin family onstellation,ithervis-h-vis dults or vis-h-vis ib-

lings);

attendance

at radio

broadcasts; possible

relations

between mood

and amount

and

type

of music

istening.

Of course

t oftenturnedout that

a whole

congeries

f

questions

was irrelevant

or

he

particular espondent,

r he was

incapable

of

answering hem;

further

interviewing

hould

sharpen

he

questions

hat

can

be

asked

and

shed further

ight

on

those

that

provoke nxiety,

udden

awareness,

udden

rapport,

nd so forth.

368








DAVID

RIESMAN

rejected: I dislikeTommy

Dorsey; he has

no

rhythm,ust blasting

of

horns."Or, "'Bubble Gum'

is the craziest

ong."

Many

said

they

disliked ommercials nd

several

hat

they

would

not

buy anything

thatwas advertised.As inhigh-brow ircles, o inmiddle-brownd

low-brow nes, enthusiasm

would seem to be a greater ocial danger

than

negativism:

he

fear s to be

caught liking

what

the

others

have decided not

to

like.

Among

these

youngpeople,

music seemed

to

be one of

the

prin-

cipal

areas

for

peer-groupraining

n

the

appropriate

xpression

f

consumerpreferences; y

learning

to talk about

music,

one

also

learned

o talk about other

hings.Yet thevocabularyused to dis-

cussmusic, s it turned p in the nterviews, as in themajority f

cases not

a

very

differentiated

ne,

but rather he

"swell,"

"lousy,"

"I

go

for

hat,"

nd

so

on

which

ignify references

or

ther

ultural

commodities,angible

nd

intangible. ndeed,

one

differentiation,

s

already ndicated,

etween

my hypothetical

majority

nd

minority

wings

ies in the latter's

development

f

strict and often

highly

articulate

tandards

for

udging azz.

This eadsus to a final aradox.Thehot azz lovers reprotesters.

They are individualists

ho

rejectcontemporary

ajority onform-

ities. n

the

very rocess, owever,

o

they

not

n

many, erhapsmost,

cases

simply

move

into another

peer-group

which

holds them

fast,

and

adopt

a new

conformity

nder

the

banner of noncon-

formity?

While

my

handful

f

interviewsn

white

South

Side

Chi-

cago

brought

o

light only

a

single hot-jazz fan,

there have been

a

number

of such

fans

among

the

students

at

the

University f

Chicago.

Sometimes

hese

are

young

men

strikingly

enough here

are

very

few

hot-jazz girls,

ave

in

an

occasional

"symbiotic" ela-

tion

to a

hot-jazz boy

who

grewup

as

somewhat

ebellious ndi-

viduals

n

a

small

high

chool

groupwhere heystood almost alone

in

theirmusical orientation.

hen,

when

they came to

the univer-

sity, hey

found

manyother

uch

people and for he

first imeexpe-

rienced he

security nd

also the

threatof peerswho shared their

outlook.

What

happens then,

when this

discovery

s

made, is something

we

are far from

understanding; bviously, he

problem ouches on

the

whole

congeries f issues

connectedwith social

and intellectual

369








AMERICAN QUARTERLY

mobility,

he

American

rites de

passage,

the role

of big cities and

intellectual

enters.We

may perhaps

assume

that the

hot-jazz

fan

can employ

his

musical

deviations

from

he

standpoint f the great

majority) o concealfromhimself ther urrenders e makes to his

peer-group. r,

he

may

find

within he

field

of

jazz further ossi-

bilities fprotest y taking stillmoreesoteric

tance,for xample

in

favor

f

"pure"

Dixieland

or

of some similar

now-frozenult. But

what

if his

peer-group,

onceivably

s the

resultof his

own initia-

tive,

moves with

him

there lso?

Does

popular

music tself ffer im

enough variety

to

permit

him to use it

alternatinglyo establish

prestigefulocial distancefrom thers nd needed

ties to them?And

how does it compare n thisrespectwithotherculturalproducts,

such as books,

movies, rt, and modern

urniture?

Difficult

s these

questions are,

it seems

to be easier

to

under-

stand

the

uses of

music

n this

sociological

ense

than it

is

to

un-

derstand

the variations

n what

people

of

different

sychological

types ctually

hear

when

hey

isten

o music.

s

it

foreground

oise

for

hemor

background

oise?

What

is

it, precisely,

hat

they "per-

ceive"?

Ernest

Schachtel

has made a brilliant

beginning

n the

questionofwhatmeaningphysicalformshave forpeople, through

seeingwhat they

make

of Rorschach

nkblots."2xperts

n

auditory

perception

ave

not

succeeded,

o far

as I

know,

n

finding

n

audi-

tory

timulus

s

useful

s

the

Rorschach

est n

circumventing

ul-

tural

stereotypes.

ur

problem

s

to reach the

people

for

whom

musicor plastic

art

or the movies re

appealing

n

part ust

because

they

re

more

comfortable ithsounds

and

images

than

with

print

and words.We are broughtback to our problemof how to com-

municate

with

hem.

VI

While

the interview

uide

I

developed

on the basis

of

these

re-

search

suggestions

overed

movies, magazines,

nd

favoriteradio

programs

s

well

as

music,

t

did not

explore

the

whole

range

of

popular

culture ctivities

and

inactivities

uch

as

just sitting),

r

pay

sufficient

ttention-though

it did

pay

some

attention-to

hobbies,pets, dating,and other leisurepursuits. am convinced

that we

cannot understand he

role

of

any

communication

medium

'Ernest

Schachtel, The

Dynamic Perception nd the Symbolism

f Form,"

Psychiatry,

vol.

4,

p.

79 (1941).

370








DAVID

RIESMAN

in isolation fromthe

other media and

from

other

leisure

activi-

ties, any more

than we can understand

ndividual

manipulation f

the materials n the media without nderstandinghegroupwhich

the individualbelongs to, wants to belong to, or wantsto be set

apart from.

This truism

ed

me to

the

furtheronclusion

hat one

cannot

hope

to understand he

influence

f

any one medium, ay music, with-

out

an

understanding

f the

total character tructure f

a

person.

In

turn,

n

understandingf his musicaltastes, nd his use of them

for

purposes of

social conformity,dvance, or rebellion, rovides

revealing lues to his character, o be confirmednd modified y a

knowledge f hisbehavior nd outlook n manyother pheres f ife.

Thus the earlier

nterviewswhich dealt with popular culture ex-

panded into still

longer nterviewswhich touched upon attitudes

towardpolitics,

owardone's family nd friends,owardphilosophic

values, and

towardmany other hings hat we thoughtmight hed

lighton character

nd its social setting. With these nterviews

n

hand,

some

150

in number,most of them still awaiting ntensive

analysis,we

believe we can move forward o asking new questions

whichwill give us a betterappreciation f the manifold ses, the

plasticity

f

music

for ts variegated udience. Plainly, we

cannot

simply sk "who

listensto what?" beforewe findout who "who"

is

and what

"what"

is by

means of

a

psychological

nd

content

analysis hat getsunderthe surface f things.

'8 I am indebted o

the Committee n National Policy of Yale

University

or he

support

which nabled me to

pursuethese nquiries.

371

listening to popular music

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