ABSTRACT
Why do people engage with music, by listening, by performing and in myriad other ways? What can music do, and how? These are questions that fans, musicians and others who participate in popular music culture are often inclined to answer, in terms epitomised by peak music experiences. This book brings sustained and critical attention to this popular discourse. Peak music experiences are central to two related ways in which music assumes importance for individuals and groups. First, music gives rise to singular experiences that stand out from other experience, as especially affecting or meaningful and sometimes transcendent in a holistic sense. People cherish these experiences in retrospect and consciously seek them out. Second, peak music experiences anchor stories shared by musicians and music fans who attribute autobiographical meaning and sometimes profound consequences to them. They are a way to remember and explain things about music and about people’s lives. This chapter introduces the themes of the following chapters and describes the ethnographic research on which the book is based.
