Autobiographical significance of meaningful musical experiences: Reflections on youth and identity

Abstract

 Meaningful musical experiences during youth can leave a lasting impression on an individual by shaping their identity and place in the world. This study examines such experiences in relation to autobiography and the formation of self-identity.

An online questionnaire (N = 50) was distributed to the general public to establish, in broad terms, how individuals understood musical experiences in their youth as important to their past and current identity. Following the online study, ten questionnaire participants were selected to be interviewed to further examine the meanings created within their nominated musical experiences, and how these meanings had been autobiographically contextualised against the backdrop of the memory of these experiences.

Questionnaire data was analysed using Thematic Analysis to establish shared autobiographical- and identity-related concepts. Meanwhile, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis served as the methodological framework for analysing the participant interviews, to support a more individualised interpretation of each participant's experience. The responses from the online questionnaire were analysed to reveal a network of identity- and autobiography-relevant themes, which were organised under three wider thematic categories: the self, the social, and the musical. Analysis of the interviews, guided by Identity Theory (Burke & Stets, 2009), revealed individual differences in participants’ processes of identity formation, relationships with music, and attitudes towards their past selves. However, as with the analysis of the questionnaire data, higher-level themes emerged between participants around ideas of self-creation, setting a path in life, and general maturation.

These findings frame autobiographically significant musical experiences as variable in their potential to contribute to identity formation, depending on differing contextual factors in each individual's case, whether those factors ultimately pertain to themes of the self, the social, or the musical. Nevertheless, these various factors are united by the overarching view of identity as a constructed and malleable phenomenon. By inviting participants to reassess the autobiographical significance of music that, at one time, supported processes of identity creation and management, it was possible to analyse the varying importance of music to our different participants' own senses of self, as understood through their autobiographical memory.

References

 Burke, P. J., & Stets, J. E. (2009). Identity theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.