Celebrating nostalgia or critiquing naivety: Reading pop music reunions through discourses of the fan life course | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 7, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2046-6692
  • E-ISSN: 2046-6706

Abstract

This study explores how fans give meaning to pop music reunions through the lens of the life course. It does so through a content analysis of forum comments about TV series , which reunites chart-topping music acts from the past decades. The fans interpret in three modes closely related to their life-course position: first, now young adults, the fans read the reunion as a nostalgic phenomenon. Second, they consider the reunion as an ironic event. Third, they question ’s formula by reflecting on it through the prism of their current position in the life course. These readings reveal how the fans celebrate a nostalgic reflection on the pop acts of their youth; yet also offer a critique on their former, ‘naïve’ teenage/child-selves.

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2019-06-01
2024-04-23
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): ageing; ironic reading; life course; nostalgia; pop music; reunion
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