Developing a Cultural Theory of Music Making and Leisure

Abstract

People listen to music in their leisure time, in leisure spaces, as a supposedly free act of agency. Yet social and cultural theorists show that leisure choices and spaces are constrained by hegemonic power, and that cultural forms such as music are products of commodification. This chapter explores these key claims for the use of music and the consumption of music in leisure spaces. It uses the work of Baudrillard on simulacra to explore the potential meaning and purpose of music in the lives of makers, listeners and fans—as a key device in constructing alternative hyperrealities to the capitalized reality of late modernity.