Feeling the Noise: Teenagers, Bedrooms and Music

Abstract

How does music transform the contemporary teenage bedroom from the mundane (doing homework, sleeping) into a dynamic cultural and social space? Previous research has suggested that, in an exclusively female sphere, the role of music in teenage girls’ bedroom culture was purely one‐dimensional, part of the ideology of romance that rarely went beyond the adoration of the pop idol. More recent research not only demonstrates that both teenage boys and girls engage in bedroom culture, but also that, as a cultural form, music is integral to the creation and evolution of their youth cultural biographies, and works as a ‘soundtrack’ (DeNora 2000) to their social lives. In this paper I explore the dynamic relationship of young people, bedroom space and music. Through in‐depth ethnography, the complexities of the musicalisation of everyday teenage life are examined using the theoretical concept of ‘zoning’. Music is used by teenagers as a way of creating a specific type of atmosphere in their bedrooms. The dynamics of this are primarily controlled by the individual, depending on their age, their mood, the time of day, what other activities they are involved in and who else is occupying that space (friends or siblings for example). The creation of atmosphere through music is often spontaneous, of the moment and inter‐changeable. Significantly, music is a medium through which the boundaries of public and private space are necessarily blurred. For example, music played at a high volume spills out of the bedroom zone into other rooms in the house. Music is also used as a ‘prequel’ and a ‘sequel’, facilitating getting ready for nights out on the town, setting the right tone and atmosphere. The further multi‐layering of bedroom and music zones is also explored in relation to new technologies such as the Internet, which have the capacity to zone music from the physical into the virtual and back again. Finally, what is the significance of music in shaping a teenager’s cultural biography? Here teenagers’ influences on their musical interests are examined as evolutionary, alongside how musical biographies are translated into bedroom content.