Chapter 1
Interacton
SAMANTHA ALMOND
DORATHY CHAMBERS
TEYLOR MUSGROVE
BEN SMITH
KIM SENG
Class Activity
 Get with your neighbor
 Tell them your favorite song when you were
growing up
 Write it down
 Share with the class
Symbolic Interaction
 Symbolic Interactionism is based on
researchers study of how people react or
respond to things that have symbolic
meaning.
 Interaction is the essence of all varieties
of interactionist sociology and of everyday
life.
Symbolic Interaction
 Herbert Blumer stated:
“Society consists of people
engaging in symbolic
interaction.”
 Blumer’s view of the
perspective is that people
act on things based on the
meaning those things have
for them.
Interaction
 On an everyday basis we interact with each other.
 Through interaction we become human. We respond
to social situations, negotiate social meanings, shape
our behavior, experience and manage emotions, and
shape and refine culture. ( Sandstrom et al. 2006).
 It is first and foremost
the mechanism for
generating and sharing
meanings.
Symbolic Interaction
 Symbolic interaction over music can range
from the most personal and intimate to the
most public and mass-mediated.
 In order to see the role interaction plays in
our music experiences we will provide two
examples:
Symbolic Interactions
 The first is personal interaction with one’s
self regarding what we will define as a
distinctly sociological concept of the “pop
song.”
 The second is the much more public
interaction that takes place at “music
scenes”
The Pop Songs: “Stuck In Your
Head”
 What makes a pop song?
 -It’s melody driven, short with a length
time of less than three and half mins.
 -Fun danceable lyrics dealing with issues of
love.
 - “ call me maybe,” by Carly Rae Jepsen is
an example of a pop song.
 Or other examples such as:
Ten Common Characteristics of
Pop Songs
 Joe Kotarba’s 2012 Study “ The Sociology of
Popular Music” concluded pops songs have ten
common traits.
1. It’s “catchy” meaning it gets inside a person’s
mind.
2. They’re lyrics of love and romance considered
more of “chick songs because its geared more
towards young women with simplicity, perhaps
optimistically
3. Listeners of non-pop songs generally distance
and distinguishes themselves between those who
like pop songs, youth oriented ones.
4. Can be contagious in drawing the listener in.
- Enjoyable, while occupying the mind with good
feelings
5. Lyrics doesn’t have to be catchy. Can be openended to allow the song to be catchy.
6. When a pop song is experienced alone, the effects of
the song are personal and immediately pleasurable.
7. When the pop song is experienced in the presence of
others, she shared experience is simple, pleasurable,
and fun – play rather than intellectual or artistic
meaning-making and sharing
8. The pop song is perceived as formulaic, as a
replication, or merely as fashionable. Whether you like
the song or not.
9. The pop song provides good soundtrack music to
play in the background because it does not require
intellectual attention.
10. Repetitious play in the mass media reinforces the
catchability of the pop song.
Shared Experience Is Simple
 Our friends and others like it too
 Has experiences we can relate to
 Common feelings that we all have had The
Lumineers "Ho Hey"
Pleasurable and Fun to Play
 Song causes good/positive feelings
 Puts us in a good mood/improves our
moods
 Can give us energy
 Makes dull/boring work fun and enjoyable
Aerosmith "Walk This Way"
Pop Songs
 Pop songs don’t require our full attention
 Don’t require the artist to be talented (Milli
Vanilli)
 Song can give us empowerment
Music Can Change Our “Motion
In Life”
 Accelerates our activities
 Quicken our pace
 Sounds good on Soundtracks (changes
energy of movie)
Repetitious Play Reinforces
Catchability
 Lyrics are easy to remember Beastie Boys "(You
Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)”
 Radio repeats the song often
 Catchy rhythm
 At first it may annoy us…then we start to like it
The Music Scene
Tunes in the Community
What is a Social Scene?
A social scene is a place setting where a group
of people come together organizing; thinking
culture. Interacting culture. Social scene is
what makes up the music world. The music
world works with social scene to give people
the music that they want.
Men who have studied “the
Scene”
 John Irwin describes the scene commonly
known as music, theatre, and dance. People
attend these scenes at a price.
 Barry Shank-focuses on the effects of these
music scenes.
 Richard Peterson and Andy Bennett-focuses
on the way participants use local scenes to
distinguish from others.
Latino Music Scenes
 There are different types of Latino music
scenes (examples);
o Rock en Espanol
o Salsa
o Tejano
o Norteno
o Mariachi
Rock en Español
 Rock en Español is
international, centers of
performance is;
o Mexico
o Central America
o South America
o Spain
o United States
Rock en Español
 Latinos like large crowds and dancing.
 Their audience is young adults in their 20’s.
These young adults are either in college or
working at a productive job. (p.36 )
 Men attend Rock en Espanol to meet
women, or attending for famous artists.
Political Themes
•The political themes found in Rock en
Espanol represent the social class. (p. 36)
-There is little or any lyrical words on
personal disadvantage or discrimination in
Rock en Espanol.
Many Latinos focus on political issues in the
lives of other Latinos.
Sense of Place
 The producers of the music try to involve a
sense of home.
Example: If a coffee house offer Rock en
Espanol music then they add bright and
colorful atmosphere of Latino Culture.
The Scene
 Idioculture- A group creates norms and
behavior patterns that are different from those
in the subculture of which it is a part.
 The Scene becomes an important cultural
resource in Latino communities. Latino culture
evolves and changes throughout every
generation. Everyone has their own type of
music and that music shapes their style.
Conclusion
 Music is designed to be shared
 The actual experience, feelings and meaning
of music is determined and shaped by the
social worlds within which it exists.
 These worlds can be small such as within
ourselves, or they can be large, elaborate,
complex, political and cultural.
CAN YOU GUESS THESE SONGS?
 Get in groups of 6
 Guess the different songs
 Whoever gets the most right will get candy
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Fleetwood Mac “Dreams”
Miley Cyrus “We Can’t Stop”
James Taylor “Fire and Rain”
Macklemore and Ryan Lewis “Can’t Hold Us”
Michael Jackson “Beat It”
Keith Urban “Somebody Like You”
Of Monsters and Men “Little Talks”
Katy Perry “Roar”
Imagine Dragons “It’s Time”
Eminem feat. Rihanna “The Monster”
Lorde “Royals”
Indina Menzel “Let It Go” (From Frozen)
Daft Punk feat. Pharrell Williams “Get Lucky”
Justin Timberlake “Suit and Tie”
Eagles “Hotel California”
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Gotye “Somebody I Used To Know”
Chicago “You’re The Inspiration”
Elton John “Candle In The Wind”
Luke Bryan “Drunk On You”
Bee Gee’s “How Deep Is Your Love”
Songs played off of iTunes
END
References:
 Sandstrom, Kent L., Daniel D. Martin, and Gary Alan Fine.
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2006. Symbols, Selves, and Social Reality, 2nd edn. Los
Angeles, CA: Roxbury.
http://kduncan.phoenix.wikispaces.net/Symbolic+Internacti
onism
Rock en Espanol picture:
http://gruporeforma.mural.com/graficoanimado/primerafila
/cobertura83/img/NOTA0_2.jpg
Salsa picture: http://rockinghats.com/images/salsa.png
Idioculture definition:
http://www.answers.com/topic/idioculture
Kotarba, Joseph A., Merrill, Bryce, Williams, J. Patrick,
Vannini, Phillip. Understanding Society Through Popular
Music. New York, NY:Routledge. 2013