ABSTRACT
Music can indeed represent a source for the construction of a coherent sociocultural identity and become an object in which groups of people can see their central values held and reflected. At its most basic level, music is a symbol of identity through its sound, which contains and resonates with distinctive meanings and memories. Sub-Saharan African music, by comparison, was frowned upon by some students, even though Fung argued that Westerners prefer this music, a view supported by Patricia Shehan on the basis that the music's structural organisation into repeated verse-refrain resonates with Western music. Life-style choices and consumption patterns can reflect cultural hierarchies and status, whilst taste in music has the potential to affirm one's class. Aesthetic judgements may thus be actively constructed and recreated in social rela.
