Locating the Materiality of Music Artefacts

This paper aims to reinstate issues of materiality within the study of music consumption. While music sociologists usually focus on notions of taste, mediation or repertoires of preferences, the materiality of music artefacts are often neglected in the studies on music consumption. From the iconicity of vinyl discs, the hipness of iPods, to the aesthetic features of posters, artefacts play a major role in how individuals develop and maintain a relationship with their favorite musics, artists and genres. The material interactions between audiences and music artefacts are aesthetic and embody their preferences in return.

            In the digital age of music consumption, there is an increasing trend towards the fragmentation of modes of music consumption. Music audiences are driven towards the use of different material artefacts to surround themselves with music throughout everyday life. Henceforth, artefacts relate music to different forms of interactions and associate it with everyday activities.

            In this paper, I argue that both fields of sociology of music and of material studies need to be intertwined to effectively account within researches of music consumption. By doing so, it becomes possible to uncover the meaning of differentiated types of music consumption and look at forms of aestheticization of everyday life through music and the objects that embody it.