“By my fair one's side...”, music and identity

Abstract

For the past twenty years, studies of music have more and more frequently made use of the notion of identity. Yet the meanings given to “identity” in these studies, and the functions ascribed to it, have not always been precisely defined. This paper tries to clarify the relationship between music and identity configurations. Based on studies dealing with the theory of identity and with musical identities, it suggests that the social significations of music – including signifiers of identity – must be understood as resulting from the intertwining of production, reception and the musical object itself. Music is not a language, but a symbolical system with an infinite number of interpreters; it can consequently generate many diverse interpretations, which vary according to the situation and what is at stake, and needs to be specifically fashioned to be put to political uses.