As a way of defining the object of attention – as a cultural experience – this is as important as trying to define PM by form: those kinds of songs which appear in the Pepsi Chart of the most popular CD singles. PM permeates both the public and the private spheres of our existence. It may be foregrounded or in the background. It becomes part of experience and helps give identity to moments, to relationships, to events. It is tech- nology that makes that experience possible – the iPod on one’s belt, the CD player in the car. To this extent a lot of PM is sourced as a recording rather than as live performance. Live performances at a local level are still prevalent, yet the line between ‘live’ and ‘recorded’ is now blurred, with the use of prerecorded tracks in public performances.
G PM is a major feature of radio broadcasting. Radio accompanies us everywhere – in the
home, in the car and as background at work or even when shopping. Here, it may be an individual or a shared experience. But in this case the media choose the music.
PM is a considerable feature of TV broadcasting. This is not just about the music programmes or the music channels or about talent shows, but about the insistent use of PM in a variety of contexts. Songs accompany adverts or form part of programme titles sequences. They are heard in the background as part of a scene in drama. They may set the mood or the time for some documentary.
G PM may be a more personal, individually chosen experience, via a music centre in the
home or the personal player that one carries around, or the CD that is played while working at a computer, or material downloaded from the Internet.
G PM is an ubiquitous part of the retail environment in the public sphere – muzak and copy
material in stores. But it also inhabits other parts of this public sphere – elevator music, mall music and bars. Indeed, it is so common that some English pubs actually advertise the fact that they do not play recorded music.
G PM is experienced as a leisure activity in the public sphere – perhaps shopping and
browsing for material, but also as a live experience – part of clubbing, concert-going and festivals. Live music may be part of the pub repertoire. It is something that a lot of people make as well as listen to.
G PM is an adjunct to any number of activities and experiences – from the fitness centre to
the telephone-hold music.
All this contributes to a meaning of PM in the experience of most people. The meaning may be about the ambience of shopping, the pleasure of intense listening, the emotional charge of a meeting in a public place. In many respects, PM has become a ‘taken for granted’ emotional colouring to the processes of everyday living, a part of social practices. It becomes noticeable when it is not there. Many of these examples are about the music from the corporations. A definition of what is popular is manu- factured through reinforcement of particular tracks and particular sounds. To this
Mall Music
Forms of popular music have become ubiquitous in public places such as the shopping mall, so that music is part of everyday life.
What role does popular music play in the texts of other media? (The Bentall Centre)
extent, selective purchase, selective listening at home, selective clubbing, is a kind of resistance to this dominance.
From the above, and especially in relation to audience reception studies, it will be understood that the context of the reception of music is crucial to ways in which it is understood, used and responded to by an audience.
Mall music is designed as a mood enhancer and a device to make a large public space
seem more personal and private. Its style is anodyne because it wishes to be all things to all people. Music in a music store is designed to arouse the emotional levels and the interest of the shopper. It acts as a showcase for the product. Stores will even set up their own in-house pseudo radio station, to engage with and reassure the shopper. It is, like mall music, part of a social practice and the exchange of commodities. Music in a club is part of dance and social interaction. It helps define taste and lifestyle. It forms part of a cultural practice, of social interactions, of identity formation.
Bedroom music, by contrast, is not chosen by others and may be a solitary experi-
ence. It may be part of asserting space and territory, especially as practised by young people. If others are invited into the space then it may be a way of asserting group identity, as well as being a part of social interaction.
In a given context, music may be more or less actively responded to, it will be one part of social activities and cultural experience, it will evoke an emotional response, it will likely place the listener somewhere in the cultural landscape in terms of norms or of resistance.