Show me your playlist and I tell you who you are

An investigation of the social psychological foundation of musical playlists

Thèse de Bachelor , 2010 , 36 Pages , Note: 1,0

Psychologie - Psychosociologie

In the age of social networking and music streaming, playlists are a common tool for organizing, sharing or exchanging music in the digital realm. Most research, however, emphasizes mainly political, legal, and ethical constraints of music sharing practices yet, neglects their social impact.
Thus, this paper investigates the social-psychological foundation of the playlist and analyses its functionality in establishing social relations and communication. Following the theories of Cooley, Mead, Simmel and Solomon, I conducted and analysed interviews with young Swedish men and women, in which they talked about their experiences and attitudes towards playlists. Moreover, all participants compiled their own personal playlist, based on certain personality traits, which were aimed to be recognized by the others during the focus group discussion. The analysis of the data yields the following conclusions: The playlist is a social object, facilitating new forms of communication. The social nature of the playlist is based on the transformation from objective- into subjective culture. By internalizing new technologies, such as the playlist, objects gain social value, thus mere musical content becomes a social form. It is through sharing and exchanging musical compilations that the playlist, as a social form, serves as a vehicle or medium, facilitating new forms of sociation and communication. The communicative function of the playlist is due to its construction through emotions as uniquely subjective judgements, based on the “I” as an emotional self-feeling. Thus, musical compilations take part in the self-construction process, and can serve as a tool for the symbolic expression of the self.
Moreover, the analysis points out that there are differences in how well certain parts of the self can be communicated by a playlist. Emotional expressions of the self are translated into particular universal music patterns most successfully. Furthermore, the analysis shows that some people like to browse through the playlists of others and judge them thereupon, which results in some type of musical voyeurism, termed “playlistism.” In conclusion, I argue that the musical playlist is both, socially implicated and socially implicating,

Content

TABLE OF FIGURES

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Purpose and the question of issue
1.2 Prior Research - what is music sociology and why is it important?

2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley
2.2 Key Concepts
2.2.1 The concept of self
2.2.2 The concept of medium
2.2.3 The emotional foundation of musical preferences
2.2.4 From mix-tape to playlist

3. METHOD
3.1 The gathering of data
3.3 Limitations

4. RESULT AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Analysing the playlist
4.2 The process of data analysis
4.3 The “I”-construction of a playlist
4.4 The playlist as a medium and social phenomenon
4.5 Interpreting playlists - listening to the sound of the self

5. CONCLUSION

6. REFERENCES

7. APPENDIX
7.1 Interview guide
7.2 The Big Five personality traits
7.3 Personal Playlists

• Université: Uppsala University
• Note: 1,0
• Auteur: Kathrin Rochow (Auteur)
• Année de publication: 2010
• Pages: 36
• N° de catalogue: V205581
• ISBN (ebook): 9783656323730
• ISBN (Livre): 9783656325093
• Langue: anglais
• mots-clé: playlist, music, identity, social self, social constructionism, Simmel, George Herbert Mead, sociology, musicology, mix-tape, mp3, Spotify, social phenomenon, Charles Horton Cooley, focus group, The Big Five personality traits