What I've Been Reading Lately...

Since I've started my research on music and memory, I look for any research that may exist that seeks to make the same connection. Luckily, I came across Tia DeNora's Music in Everyday Life. Certainly, DeNora went above and beyond my focus; however, she is able to walk the fine line between academic and general press- in that her writing is academic (in that it is well researched and places her own research in the canon of knowledge that exists about the subject), but it isn't so academic that it was a struggle to make it through the text. DeNora conducts research similar to my interests- in that I want to understand how individuals make use of music, as well as how they attach meaning (using an interpretive and symbolic interaction approach).




I've just started this book on Dylan. As I've mentioned in a previous post, I (somehow) was left out of the Dylan experience. I think the years of my life when many people are attracted to his music for the first time, I was too busy listening to Jawbreaker or Superchunk. After seeing Todd Haynes' I'm Not There (which I enthusiastically recommend that everyone watch), I became more interested in Dylan.



And lastly, I'm also reading Peter Martin's Sounds and Society, which thus far has been extremely informative for my upcoming entry into a doctoral program. Martin touches on many of the themes that DeNora also discusses; however, he also places this research within the context of theory- in the hopes that the sociology of music will become more "scientific". I'm thoroughly enjoying it, but as opposed to DeNora, it takes more of my focused attention and interpretation.