ABSTRACT
Three narrative tropes through which peak music experiences are woven into the personal histories of popular music listeners are first encounters, referring to a person’s first experience of a particular musical object such as a song, artist or genre; gateway experiences, in which possible directions of music listening are revealed or made appealing; and conversion experiences, which are credited with a change in the listener’s taste and consequent identity, for example in becoming a fan. These common frames reveal both similarities and differences in the priorities of listeners. By describing their first encounters, gateway experiences and conversion experiences, people situate themselves in relation to collective orientations to music and the values underlying them, while also emphasising their own uniqueness and agency. The narratives both represent and scaffold the social worlds and lives of music lovers. Across genres, they privilege responses to music which are surprising, emotional and physical, articulating core beliefs in natural affinity and music’s capacity to act. Against popular music’s commercial and mass-mediated context, the narratives considered here enable and to an extent require people to relate to popular music as personal and authentic according to specific, collective values.
