ABSTRACT
Interaction is the essence of all varieties of interactionist sociology, and in fact of everyday life. One of the founders of symbolic interaction, Herbert Blumer, stated unequivocally that society consists of people engaging in symbolic interaction. Interaction can occur through any number of media: speech, visual symbols, written text, and—of course—music. Interaction is first and foremost the mechanism for generating and sharing meanings. Symbolic interaction over music can range from the most personal and intimate to the most public and mass mediated. In order to illustrate the role interaction plays in the popular music experiences, this chapter provides two examples from the ends of the continuum. The first is personal interaction with one's self regarding what we will define as a distinctly sociological concept of the pop song. The second is the much more public interaction that takes place at music scenes.
