Wall, Raine & Smith/The Northern Soul Scene, 4. Beyond the Master Narrative of Youth: Researching Ageing Popular Music Scenes

This chapter, first published in The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Musicology (ed. Derek B. Scott, 2009: Ashgate), discusses the suitability of the post-subcultural paradigm as a potential means to consider aging participation and music scene longevity. This chapter questions the master narrative of youth evident in popular music research, and, by theorizing music as pleasure and as an aspect of everyday life, it argues that the appeal of participation is not dependent upon age, nor does it derive solely from a desire for community or resistance, but is rather tied to identity formation and reflexive engagement.