AgSIT and Lifecourse

Here are some somewhat disjointed thoughts on Banding Together by Jen Lena and Is Rock Becoming The New Jazz? from Rick Beato.

For the tl;dr, skip to 10:32.

I think Rick makes an interesting point. Is what Lena's claim about dominant trajectories really just a life-course effect? Is it that the audience (i.e. the genre community) ages and takes their music with them? How much is the genre trajectory really just the lifecourse trajectory?

Rick calls it "demographic level."

• Avant-garde is the young, whippersnappers breaking rules that they haven't fully learned yet.
• Scene-based is youth settling into geographic stability and creating their own communities.
• Industry-based is the capitalistic exploitation of adults as they start careers and become economically stable.
• Traditionalist is the nostalgic institutionalization of the music of those who are older.

Lifecourse Stages*

• Stage I: Achieving Independence (16-23)
• Transition from lives centered psychologically and emotionally on parents to lives in which we stand on our own.
• Stage II: Balancing Family and Work Commitments (18-40)
• Stable worker, partner/spouse, and parent roles with the challenge of establishing oneself firmly in these roles and forgoing other options.
• emerging adulthood
• Stage III: Performing Adult Roles (35-70)
• An occupational plateau for many employed adults, who seek other challenges such as trying to be good workers, parents, and spouses.
• Stage IV: Coping with Loss (60-90)
• The central challenge during this period is to cope with a series of losses, including the loss of one’s occupational role through retirement, loss of significant relationships through death, and the eventual loss of health, energy, and independence.

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* - DeLamater, John and Daniel Myers. 2007. Social Psychology, 6th ed. Thomson Wadsworth: Belmont, CA. P. 440