ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the experience of audiences, a crucial theme in a class that strives toward a complete understanding of music as a social text. The ways that we listen, and the ways that we imagine listeners and listener communities, have significant power. In the lesson topics in this section, three models explore the complex ways that listeners engage with music: the remarkable ways that teenage girls have used music to build a girl culture and to articulate their desires and concerns, the complexities of heteronormative masculinity as it relates to fans of music and sports, and those male artists in light classical and pop styles who dedicate their art to middle-aged women—an overlooked and fascinating fan base.
