Page 54 - Cultural Change and Ordinary Life

Understanding and theorizing cultural change 45

appearing that could be best understood and used from within this context.
The argument sets a research agenda that has a number of components. First,
in accord with the claims about ordinary life made above, it is important to
begin research on the local level and to consider processes of belonging. This
does not rule out considering the place of globalization (see Chapter 3) and
global media, or mean the return of nostalgic concepts of face-to-face com-
munity (see further, Savage et al. 2005 and Chapter 5), but enables analysis of
the interaction between the local and global in concrete places, where most
people live (see also, for example, Morley 2000). Second, the significance of
identity formation and reformation in ordinary life needs research across a
range of dimensions. It is important to stress that one of the key research
questions is the relative importance of the connection to particular media in
this sense, rather than any assumption that any one medium is of most
importance (for example, on the relative importance of radio, see Longhurst
et al. 2001; and on the relative importance of popular music to young people,
see Carrabine and Longhurst 1999). This rests on the argument that those who
are studying a particular medium tend to overemphasize its importance across
the social spectrum and to individuals.
A good example of a study that has taken the agenda of examining
contemporary relative media use forward is that by Laughey (2006). He dem-
onstrates how fluidity of commitment by young people to different forms of
music is played out in personal terms as well as a range of public performances.
This captures the way in which music flows through contemporary life in a
range of interacting ways. Laughey’s work is based on detailed research on
young people in the north-west of England and I can only briefly comment on
some of it.
Laughey argues against the ways in which music use has been situated
within approaches that emphasize and deploy the idea of youth subculture.
While there are now a number of conventional criticisms of this literature,
which have been rehearsed in a number of places, Laughey takes a particular
slant. For example, he shows how such theories have tended to emphasize
generational conflict and separation rather than influence. Moreover, he
argues that there are subtle shifts in musical taste within a generally wide-
ranging set of tastes:
Two types of narratives about music tastes and performances that
accorded to different timeframes will thus be substantiated: narratives
that are embedded – frequently in family contexts – through memories
facilitated by (domestic) music experiences; and narratives that are rad-
ically contextualised (Ang 1996) – frequently in peer group contexts – in
immediate relation to the whims of music fashions.
(Laughey 2006: 5)
In accord with my argument for an understanding of ordinary life as
based in audience interactions and performances, Laughey explores the com-
plex dynamics between the personal tastes and the public performances of a
range of musically based practices. An important part of this discussion is
where he shows the different positions that are taken up by young people with
respect to music. He discusses these positions along two particular dimensions: