What My Music Says About Me: Re-evaluating the ‘Badge’ Function of Music in the Context of Streaming

Abstract

This article re-evaluates Simon Frith’s hypothesis that music serves as a badge for youth identity, based on 15 qualitative interviews with young people aged 17–19 conducted in the fall of 2021. Our findings point to changes in the representation of self through music, as musical preferences are too closely tied to unique identity pathways to provide quick and reliable information about the self to others. Behind this shift, we identify an interplay between the increased accessibility and mobility of music, facilitated by new technological means and a context of increased concern among young people for the construction of their identity. This article highlights the changing nature of musical preferences and their role in self-presentation through music and aims to open up further research on this topic.

Introduction

‘I listen to music all the time, I always have my headphones on’. Such an answer was so common among our participants that we were prompted to ask instead, ‘when are you not listening to music?’ to elicit much shorter responses. The reality for the young people we interviewed is that with their smartphone and a streaming service, they could listen to music at any time, choose any song and listen anywhere. This generates what some have called the ‘omnipresence of an abundance of music’ where listeners are faced with an abundance of (legally) accessible music and encounter very few technical barriers to its consumption (Nag, 2018, p. 20–21). As a result, music has become ubiquitous in everyday life, accompanying many other activities rather than being an activity in itself (Hagberg & Kjellberg, 2017). According to Nag, this shift in music consumption is not only significant when compared to previous conditions but ‘may also impact the self-construction project of the individual streaming user’ (p. 21).

Concerns about the impact of streaming on the self-construction of young people are not unexpected; the relationship between identity and music has long been studied in many fields. Starting with subcultural studies coming out of post-war Britain (Hebdige, 1979) to more contemporary accounts of youth styles and identities (Bennett, 1999; Hesmondhalgh, 2005; Robards & Bennett, 2011). The formation of social identity through music has also been discussed from a psychological perspective (Abrams, 2009), as well as in the context of social interaction (Larsen et al., 2009) and in online settings (Hagen & Lüders, 2017; Kang, 2021). Music has been regarded as a tool for identity, a technology of the self (DeNora, 1999, 2000) and extensive work has been done on musical preferences and their relation to identity and personality (Rentfrow et al., 2009; Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003; Schwartz & Fouts, 2003).

As technology and music consumption evolve, so too does the relationship people have with music itself (Nowak & Bennett, 2020). Regardless, some areas of the literature have remained relatively untouched for several years. When considering the symbolic representation of the self through music, the dominant literature dates from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Research on the topic today remains based on the idea that young people use music as a ‘badge’ to present their identity to others. This notion was first introduced by Simon Frith in 1981 in his book Sound Effect: Youth, Leisure, and the Politics of Rock ‘n’ Roll, in which he paints a picture of youth music consumption in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Frith describes young people swapping records, relying on an older brother’s collection, and saving money to buy LPs. While quite relevant in their time, these descriptions contrast sharply with the consumption practices of today’s youth, who now live in a context of constant availability and accessibility of music, which Frith could not have foreseen in the early 1980s. With this article, we aim to re-examine the ‘badge’ function of music with a focus on the context of music streaming and the link between musical tastes and identity. In doing so, we will examine the symbolic representation of self through music among young people who, as members of the younger generation—Generation Z—have developed their relationship with music through the use of streaming services.

This article is divided into four main sections. First, we will review the literature on the use of music as a badge for identity, from its introduction by Simon Frith to subsequent studies that have confirmed its ‘badge’ function. Within our literature review, we will also present studies that explore the musical practices of contemporary youth. The methodological aspects of the empirical research underlying this article are then described in the second section. In the next section, we present our findings. First, we interrogate the display of musical taste as a badge to display identity within our sample, notably by examining our participant’s musical repertoires ¹ and their normative expectations regarding the taste of others. We then explore new forms of representation of self through music. Finally, we summarize our findings and their implications for further research in the discussion and conclusion.

Music as a Badge for Identity

The idea that young people use music as a badge for their identity was first introduced by Simon Frith in his 1981 book, where he states that young people use music (and more specifically musical preferences) ‘as a symbol for a cluster of values’ and that ‘music served as a badge of individuality on which friendship choices could be based’ (p. 208). While these passing observations about the use of music as a tool in identity work have been widely cited, this book consists more of a global portrait of youth music consumption in Britain at the time. Frith’s real contribution to the literature on music and identity—of youths and adults alike—was made in Music and Identity (Frith, 1996), a chapter in which he elaborates on his conceptualization of identity as ‘a process and not a thing’ (p. 110) and music as experiencing that process. In this chapter, however, he does not mention music as a badge for identity. On this front, research was carried out by others. Among them, North and Hargreaves (1999, p. 76) proposed that this ‘badge’ function of music (as representing a cluster of values) could explain why many studies have found that fans of ‘rebellious’ forms of pop music may be more likely to engage in rebellious behavior than their peers. However, they deplored the lack of empirical evidence behind the ‘badge’ function in sociology, which led them to bring this thesis into their field of social psychology.

North and Hargreaves (1999) set out to provide empirical evidence for the ‘badge’ thesis through four studies. These studies showed that adolescents have normative expectations regarding fans of different music genres, which had perceived social consequences, in the sense that they could be ascribed positive or negative characteristics based on their musical preferences. For example, they found that fans of pop music were thought of as being physically attractive, and fans of classical music were thought of as being intellectual. Crucially these normative expectations were also consistent with the participants’ self-concept. From these findings, they concluded that music does seem to act as a ‘badge’ for adolescents, particularly in the area of interpersonal perceptions. These findings were later corroborated by another study conducted by Rentfrow et al. (2009) who concluded that adolescents not only hold stereotypes about others’ musical tastes but also generally agree with these stereotypes, thus influencing interpersonal perceptions based on musical preferences.

As these studies suggest that musical preferences influence interpersonal perception, further research has asked why and how people convey information about their identity through their music taste. To this end, Rentfrow and Gosling (2003) show that while music is important in people’s lives, ‘individuals [also] believe that the music people listen to provides information about who they are’ (p. 239). In fact, in their zero-acquaintance studies, Rentfrow and Gosling (2006) found that music preferences were the most common topic of conversation between two strangers tasked with getting to know each other. As such, they conclude that ‘individuals’ music preferences convey consistent and accurate messages about their personalities’ (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006: 241). They identified three mechanisms that could explain why musical taste seems to convey information about the self. First, since musical taste is based on an auditory appreciation, the perceived ‘pleasantness’ of preferred music may be related to cognitive processes that could be linked to personality traits. They also suggest that people’s choice of music may be a function of their level of arousal, in which case a calm person may be more attracted to calm music. Finally, people can use music to make ‘self- and other-directed identity claims’ (p. 241), choosing music with the deliberate intent of communicating a certain identity. In this instance, people who view themselves as being ‘intellectual’ might show a preference for complex music to project an image of sophistication (p. 241). This point was also made in their 2003 paper, where they claimed that music preferences seemed to be shaped by ‘self-views’ (p. 1251). In summary, this research has demonstrated the validity of Frith’s ‘badge’ thesis by establishing that music preferences convey accurate information about an individual’s personality because (a) adolescents have normative expectations regarding the psychological and social characteristics of others based on their tastes and (b) adolescents’ self-concepts correspond to the normative expectations associated with their musical taste. These normative expectations enable music preferences to be an accurate source of information about the self, or in other words, allowing their musical taste to be worn as a badge that quickly conveys their identity to strangers.

Although the focus of this line of research shifted away from identity and towards correlating music preferences with the Big Five personality traits ² (Anderson et al., 2021; Nave et al., 2018; Schäfer & Mehlhorn, 2017), these studies provide insight into how music might function as a badge for identity in everyday interactions. They have also been criticized for ignoring adolescents who have eclectic tastes (Schwartz & Fouts, 2003). This omission is significant when attempting to translate these findings into a contemporary context, as tastes are broadening and becoming more eclectic (Pronovost et al., 2021).

Streaming and the Broadening of Taste

As we have seen, musical preferences (and their related expectations) are central to the ‘badge’ thesis. As a first indication that this thesis could be reexamined, research suggests that young people are moving away from having a few favorite genres of music towards a broad appreciation of ‘everything’. To this end, Pronovost et al. (2021) surveyed the musical tastes of 16–29-year-olds and found that a significant proportion of their participants claimed to listen to ‘everything’, while some were unable to identify specific genres as their favorites. Instead, most participants claimed to have a diverse and extensive repertoire that is constantly growing, drawing from different genres and eras of music. Their results also suggest that how preferences are conveyed is evolving. As they listened to more genres, participants seemed to be more inclined to specify what they did not listen to ‘I listen to everything except for___’. In this case, excluding certain genres may be a more efficient way of communicating their repertoire. However, participants showed some difficulty in identifying which genres or sub-genres their music belonged to, as the boundaries between genres seem to blur, a phenomenon also noted by Rimmer (2012). In their paper, Pronovost et al. describe the taste of their participants as ‘omnivorous’. The omnivore thesis, a popular concept in the realm of the sociological study of taste, was introduced by Richard Peterson who defined it as a disposition to appreciate any cultural product, which does not necessarily translate into an appreciation of everything (Peterson & Kern, 1996). While omnivorous taste was originally associated with higher socio-economic classes, with the accessibility of music (and broader cultural goods) the reach of omnivorism also seems to be widening (Rimmer, 2012; Savage & Gayo, 2011). Although there remain ongoing debates around the omnivore thesis, data points to a broadening of musical tastes, which for the most part do not seem to be limited to a few select genres. In the context of this study, we ask how this change might affect the normative expectations associated with fans of different musical genres.

Finally, recent research on music streaming tends to show its effects on listening contexts and behavior, as well as in the transformation of people’s relationship to music as a whole. Regarding the constant presence and availability of music, Fuentes et al. (2019) investigate the practice of soundtracking, which sees music listening as a dispersed practice that enriches or enables other integrative practices: commuting, walking, running, working, hanging out, driving (Hagberg & Kjellberg, 2017). In terms of the presentation of self, Kang (2021) has shown how the Spotify integration on Tinder allows users to convey information about themselves through a chosen ‘anthem song’, as well as providing a list of their most listened-to artists, both of which can be manipulated to achieve a particular goal. Knowing that this data could be distorted, participants also evaluated and judged the authenticity of other users’ projected music preferences. Since the mid-2000s, social media websites offer different opportunities for self-presentation, and in some ways, more control over that presentation as different types of sharing can serve different goals and enhance one’s belonging to a group (Johnson & Ranzini, 2018). Thus, changes affecting self-presentation need to be inserted into the broader context of self-construction (Nag, 2018). In this paper, we argue for the importance of self-presentation because of its effects on the self-concept, either by the effect of reinforcement or steering (Valkenburg, 2017). We also argue that new technologies are playing an important role in the changing relationships young people develop with music, which could affect its use in the presentation of self.

Methods and Data

The data presented in this article are drawn from a series of in-depth semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with 15 participants in the fall of 2021. All participants were CEGEP ³ students living in the greater urban center of the city of Montreal (Canada) ⁴ and ranged in age from 17 to 19 years old. Of these 15 participants, six identified as men, eight identified as women, and one identified as being agender, neither a man nor a woman. While the interview questions were designed to take approximately 60 min, many participants were eager to discuss their use of music and most interviews lasted between 75 and 120 min.

These data were collected as part of a study into the roles of music in the construction of identity during youth. This study aimed to consolidate the existing literature on the intersections between music and identity by examining how these different processes interact in the context of broader identity construction projects. We also aimed to explore this relationship in the context of the omnipresence of musical abundance, where music is more available, mobile and personalized than ever before. In this article, we focus on this new context and we explore these data with regard to how our participants view and think of their music as a representation of their ‘self’, and how they use it to present their ‘self’ to others. In the context of this article, we adopt the following definition of self-concept: ‘Self-concept is the collection of beliefs and attitudes of an individual about him or herself’ (Valkenburg, 2017, p. 479). These beliefs and attitudes consist of traits, qualities and characteristics that individuals attribute to themselves and that can be elaborated or received through group membership, perceptions of one’s behavior or perceptions of others projected back onto the self (Codol, 1982).

Participants were recruited through the circulation of our call for participants, which was also shared with students by school personnel. Considering the aim of our study, participants were selected based on their interest in music: we were looking for participants who listened to music often (every day) and in great volume. In addition, recruitment efforts were focused on CEGEP students, mainly because these students are in a position where they must answer identity-related questions, such as choosing a university program, while at the same time having greater freedom to explore their options. This combination of exploration and commitment (Marcia, 1980) makes this period particularly important for the construction of identity. Moreover, this demographic (referred to as Generation Z) has the particularity of having developed their relationship with music through streaming services since the beginning of their adolescence. This is significant in light of research conducted with the previous generation (millennials), who witnessed the switch from CD and mp3 formats to streaming, and who report a sense of loss of the materiality of music (Nag, 2018; Nowak & Bennett, 2020). By interviewing participants who have built their musical practices around streaming from the start, we aim to better understand the impacts of streaming on their relationship with music and its connection to identity.

Our interview questions aimed to gain a thorough understanding of the participants’ identity construction projects and the role of music within them, both present and past. We also asked questions about our participants’ musical practices: What do they listen to, when do they listen to music, with whom and why? Through these elements, their interrelation and inter-influence, we were able to piece together our participants’ use of music in everyday life, as well as its significance throughout their lifespan. Looking more closely at their tastes, our participants were consistent with the findings of Pronovost et al. (2021): most said that they listened to everything (with some genres excluded) or struggled to identify which genres their favorite music belonged to. Very few participants were able to identify one or two genres that they called their favorites. Finally, the vast majority of participants mainly used streaming services (Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music) for their music consumption. While interviews are not the most reliable source regarding cultural consumption practices, our interest lies in the self-concept of our participants and their subjective view of themselves. Thus, we were more interested in the declared tastes of our participants, and the meaning they attributed to them than in their actual streaming behaviors.

Findings

Based on this literature review, and how the use of music as a badge for identity has been documented, we would expect to find that our participants held normative expectations about the tastes of others and used their tastes to convey information about themselves to others. Instead, we found a much more complex relationship between the self and musical practices which seems to have evolved beyond the notion of a ‘badge’. To investigate this phenomenon, we first consider the issue of normative expectations and stereotypes within our sample and then explore how the meaning of taste has become increasingly individualized and embedded in unique identity pathways.

Normative Expectations and Stereotypes

The quick appraisal of identity allowed by the ‘badge’ rests on reliable normative expectations about musical tastes. When asked about their perception of the taste of others, our participants did not share any normative expectations. While some shared some associations between taste and characteristics such as ‘if you listen to heavy metal, maybe your parents listen to it or maybe you’re repressing your emotions’ or ‘I think that if someone listens to heavy metal, I’ll think they are really kind and admirable people’, no two participants had the same associations between tastes and characteristics or identities. We consider these judgments to be loosely based stereotypes. The distinction between a normative expectation and a stereotype is crucial because stereotypes are not regarded as reliable sources of information. Hence, we found that participants talked in terms of stereotypes mainly because they did not expect others to live up to them; in this sense, beliefs about fans of different music genres are not normative expectations for them. If they did share such beliefs, they were careful to add ‘but it’s only a stereotype’ or that with these judgments ‘you can easily be wrong and be completely off the mark’. Many participants emphasized the fact that they did not judge others negatively solely because of their musical taste. ⁵ Alice, who had previously shared a negative judgment of the rap artist Pop Smoke, quickly added that she ‘would never judge someone based on that’. Although she holds stereotypes associated with this artist, she would not form her opinion of someone solely on the fact that they only listen to him. Instead, statements such as ‘I find that it’s really a stereotype, but different kinds of people listen to different kinds of music’ were a common way of sharing perceived differences based on musical taste, while steering clear of specific normative judgments. In contrast with previous studies (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2006), our participants generally claimed that musical taste could not give you a quick glimpse into who others are, but rather they often tried to understand how their taste ‘fit’ into their identity, which could only be achieved by getting to know them. Furthermore, one participant shared that ‘the person is not their musical taste’ and that ‘you’re not what you listen to’, distinguishing what a person ‘is’ and what a person ‘likes’. In sum, our findings suggest that our participants did not have normative expectations about the (psychological and social) characteristics of people who like specific music styles. While we found that music remains closely tied to identity and could be a source of information (and distinction) about the self and others, this information seemed to be divorced from taste itself. In the following section, we will delve further into how our participants perceived the musical taste of others.

Music as a Representation of Others

Indeed, musical preferences seem to represent only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to the appraisal of the identity of others. For some, like Florence musical taste is considered alongside the way they dress, how they speak and their temperament. Although it is only one piece of the puzzle, it remains important for the bigger picture: ‘I base the judgment on a lot of different information, but music taste can give you a greater understanding of who the person is’. Others, like Benjamin, felt that music preferences alone do not provide enough information about others. Instead, he would also need to know whether they listened more to the lyrics or the rhythm:

If it’s for the lyrics I feel like it can give you an idea of how the person feels in their day-to-day life, because of the message that the songs convey, if they get hooked on the lyrics it means that they are important to them. If it’s the melody, it’s harder to say.

With the right information, however, Benjamin explained how music can help you glean a broad picture of someone:

it helps to like paint a picture in my head of, it’s very cliché but it’s a big picture of the person, it’s not going to help you get into the nuances and really get to know the person, but it can give you an overall idea of how the person feels, or what values they can convey, stuff like that.

While they mentioned the role that musical taste played in their perceptions of others, participants showed some difficulty when explaining exactly what music conveyed; perhaps because this information is part of a broader set of information or characteristics that makes others ‘who they are’.

We found one exception where music could be used to quickly assess the other person’s identity: when music preferences were shared. The discovery of shared musical tastes was a source of great excitement for our participants. As Victoria explains: ‘if you realize that the person knows your favorite band or that you listen to the same music, it’s like an instant bond, even if you hardly know the person it’s like they become your best friend’. Many participants felt that shared musical tastes could indicate that they were ‘similar people’ without knowing much more about them. For example, Mathilde considers that ‘you can see what someone’s culture is [from what they listen to], if someone listens to musique québécoise, ⁶ I’ll be like, “oh, you’re like me”’. This assessment is quick, mainly because her own identity allows her to fill in the gaps in her knowledge of the other. A similar sentiment was expressed by Beatrice, who explained that she has a lot of things in common with her friends who listen to musique québécoise, because this taste indicates that they were raised in this culture by parents who were sensitive to cultural transmission. In this case, shared musical taste was a marker of social homophily (McPherson et al., 2001). These shared experiences could also be emotional. Sarah shares that since ‘music selection is really personal, when you listen to the same style of music as someone else, you really understand each other on an emotional level’. From a similar experience, Florence elaborates on the reasons for this emotional understanding:

I certainly feel that you feel closer to someone who likes the same style of music as you because, not that the person has experienced the same emotions, but it’s implied that potentially you have a similar experience listening to the same style of music or the same artist or whatever.

These results seem to suggest that musical taste could still be used to quickly assess the identity of others. However, in this case, music seems to act more as a marker of shared experiences. Indeed, the information gained from taste is more based on their own identity (which they project on the other based on this shared taste) than based on an understanding of what this taste means outside of their appropriation of it.

Music as a Reflection of the ‘Self’

Another aspect of the ‘badge’ function of music resides in the presentation of self through musical taste. Here, the normative expectations associated with young people’s musical preferences should be in line with their self-concept. When looking at our sample, however, their representation of self through music did not operate at the level of their tastes. As we have seen, our participants largely did not have normative expectations about the taste of others. Furthermore, many participants did not think that others would accurately guess their musical preferences, especially if they did not know them well. To this effect, Benjamin reports that ‘people look at me and see me on the surface, they’d be surprised by the kind of music I listen to’. However, he believes that the people who know him well understand how his music is consistent with his identity and personality. Similar to how they perceived the taste of others, our participants shared that the representation of their self through their music was intimately linked to what they perceived to be their unique and individualized identity. That is to say that for our participants, the relationship between their identity and music seemed too complex to be worn as a badge. Instead, they displayed two different reasonings underpinning the link between music and their representation of self. First, a few participants saw their music as a good representation of their self-concept because of the role that this music took in their self-construction. For others, their music reflected a key characteristic of their self-concept, and they thus regarded that it represented them well. In this closing section of our analysis, we will explore both of these links connecting music and the self.

For some of our participants, music played a key role and was a driving force in the construction of their identity. While others used music mainly as a support (emotional, narrative, social) for the construction of their identity (Le Bart, 2012), for these participants, it took center stage. They considered their music to be a good representation of their identity because of the extent to which it contributed to its construction. For example, Leo deliberately used music as a socialization tool through which he learned and assimilated values and desirable behaviors that his parents did not teach him. He spoke of music as building blocks with which he ‘built’ himself. He says, ‘My music represents me excessively well since that’s what I built myself with’. In a similar case, William spoke of the transformative power of music. He explains how music intervened at different moments in his life and led him down a particular path culminating in where he is today, studying to become a musician himself:

INT: You say that everyone can interpret music differently, but for you, what does music represent?

William: For me it represents who I am as a person, if it wasn’t for the Beatles, I wouldn’t be studying music at this CEGEP, if it wasn’t for music, I wouldn’t be here at all.

Much like Leo’s building blocks, William believes that the music he listened to made him who he is today: ‘music molded me into the person I am today, was the blueprint for the person I would be today’. Here, self-presentation is not through taste, but through ‘music’ in a general sense and the multiple areas in which it intervened in their lives. These participants talked about the music they listened to, and the artists they liked, but spoke more about what music did for them. While they see music as an ‘extremely good’ representation of the self, it is deeply rooted in an individual self-construction project and cannot be quickly conveyed to strangers.

For the majority of our participants, however, music was seen as a good representation of their self because it was seen as a reflection or a manifestation of a characteristic that was central to their self-image. In this case, it was not a specific musical taste that came into play, but rather the diversity or range of tastes. For Camille, her tendency to listen to everything and anything is linked to a broader disposition towards variety and diversity in all areas of her life:

I think its certain personality traits that make me like all music genres, and that make me open to listen to everything […] it also encompasses the fact that I have a lot of different friends, that I’m diverse in general in life, and music is a good example of that.

She links this disposition to a personality trait or a set of personality traits that make her who she is. While she feels that her musical range represents her well, she resists the idea that musical tastes can define who you are. Again, she emphasizes that she does not see herself represented by a particular taste, but rather by the fact that she is ‘quite diversified in my life in general, and music is a good example of that’. We find another example of this with Benjamin:

I think that what represents me the best is the fact that I listen to different types of music, I think that that’s a really good representation of my personality. I don’t really have big passions or anything I’m really good at and that I’ve been doing for a long time, so I think that listening to a lot of diverse music represents the fact that I’m like, an all-rounded person.

Like Camille, the diversity of music that he listens to is seen as a manifestation of the diversity he seeks in other areas of his life. In addition to diversity, we also found similar responses regarding the eclectic nature of taste. Victoria shares that although her tastes are eclectic and might be confusing to others because they do not seem to ‘fit’ together, she finds many of her interests to be equally eclectic:

INT: Do you think that your music represents you well?

Victoria: I think so yeah, I think the fact that my musical tastes are eclectic represents me because, well, I’m a person who dabbles in everything and sometimes it seems like my tastes don’t make any sense, but I’m a girl who loves, like, let’s say my two big interests are makeup and CrossFit, it doesn’t really go together, so I think the fact that my music is all over the place represents that part of my personality.

Beyond these characteristics around taste (diverse, eclectic), Florence emphasizes her attitude towards her consumption of music as a representation of her ‘self’.

INT: And do you think that your music represents you well?

Florence: I think so, especially the fact that I listen to a lot of different things, it’s like, I can’t stay on one project at a time, I can’t choose, making decisions is hard for me. So, same thing for music, I can’t choose, like, if you ask me to choose a playlist on my phone that’s like your playlist, I’ll be like no, my music is just the ‘songs’ tab [laugh] it’s just all of my music. So yeah, I think that it represents me pretty well, and even that it represents the different aspects of my life and my different interests.

Her inability to choose a favorite type of music, or to choose the songs that she wants to listen to, reflects a trait that is central to her self-image. Thus, the links between music and identity remain strong and remain a differentiating element for our participants—not through a specific taste, but rather through the range, diversity or eclectic nature of their taste. We hypothesize that because these ‘characteristics’ of taste relate to a trait of the self that is salient in their own perception of it, they are harder to wear as a badge. But could eclecticism simply be a new taste profile used as a badge? While this question demands further research, we would not lean into this possibility because this representation of the self seems to be embedded in a unique self-construction project that is difficult to communicate quickly to strangers. Moreover, the meaning of taste (or taste profiles) seems harder to decipher because of these individualized uses of music and the lack of normative expectations associated with it. As many participants mentioned, their musical tastes make sense once people get to know them but not necessarily at first glance.

Discussion and Conclusion

This article aimed to re-examine the ‘badge’ function of music within the context of the ubiquitous abundance of music provided by streaming services. The ‘badge’ function of music, as proposed by Frith (1981), suggests that young people use music as a badge to present key aspects of their identity to others. Previous research suggests that this function works because young people not only have reliable normative expectations of fans of different music genres but also that the normative expectations associated with their tastes are consistent with their self-concept. However, among our participants, while music was seen as a source of information about others, and a good representation of self, this representation seems to have evolved beyond the original conception of the badge and its association with taste. We propose that the broadening of tastes has a significant impact on the formation of normative expectations based on taste, which directly affects the ability to form quick assessment of identity as the badge thesis entailed. Moreover, we propose that this relationship between taste and identity could be further weakened by the embeddedness of music into unique and individualized identity construction projects.

In a context where diverse tastes were the exception to the norm of narrow musical taste, certain characteristics and identities could be associated with these preferences. Where such associations exist, they can also become reinforcing, as young people can use taste to make specific identity claims (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003). However, as recent research on young people’s musical taste (Pronovost et al., 2021) and the tastes of our participants suggest, diverse taste now seems to be the norm and specific taste the exception. Furthermore, there seems to be a blurring of boundaries between different genres, with young people sometimes struggling to identify the genre to which their music belongs. In this context, there do not seem to be stable grounds on which they could associate characteristics or identities with their musical preferences. For example (and this did occur in our sample), two people can have a certain taste in common, within their constellation of taste, and have little else in common. In this sense, our participants mentioned that stereotypes are not reliable. This may explain why our participants had no normative expectations about others’ musical tastes and only a few stereotypes. Since taste does not say or mean much about someone in isolation, our participants placed it in the context of a global portrait of a person’s identity. Thus, while our participants believed that musical preferences could convey information about the identity of others, this information and the meaning of musical preferences were highly individualized.

Similarly, their responses reflected an individualized association between music and identity when it came to what they thought their musical preferences said about them. In this regard, we found two broad trends in the reflection of the ‘self’ through music. For the first subset of participants, music reflected the self because of its highly subjective and crucial role in its construction. This reflection of the self through music is thus intrinsically embedded in their unique self-construction project. A second subset of participants believed that their music was a good representation of their ‘self’ because they saw it as manifesting a trait that was central to their self-image. While for many of them, this meant that the diversity of their taste was a manifestation of their openness to new things, it remained closely linked to their broader sense of identity. In this sense, music is not seen as a tool that allows for a quick appraisal of identity, but rather as a tool that helps to gain a deeper understanding of one’s own identity and the identity of others. While the notion of the ‘badge’ could be reconceptualized within these new realities, the idea of a ‘badge’—associated with quick appraisal—does not seem to fit the evolving relationship to music. In this sense, music seems to serve more as a map of the self rather than a badge of the self.

These trends could relate, on one hand, to the increased concern with individuality and reflexivity (Giddens, 1991). Illeris (2003, p. 358) explains that

Today all young people are very preoccupied with who they want to be, because they experience that there are some crucial choices to be made, that they will have to make them themselves, and that they will also have to bear the consequences on their own.

This applies increased pressure and concerns regarding the construction of self (Villatte et al., 2017). In terms of its impacts on youth cultures, Hodkinson and Lincoln explain that

rather than forming fixed collective groupings rooted in social position, young people today are more likely to respond to the enhanced uncertainties of youth in a more individual-centered fashion, by negotiating personal paths through a myriad of temporary and partial identities. (2008: 29)

For our participants, music was inextricably linked to their unique experience and could not be used to quickly convey information about themselves to strangers. This evolving relationship between music and the self seems to interact with technological advances that allow for increased exploration and personalization of musical repertoires (Webster, 2021), as well as an increased presence and control over music in everyday life. Thus, we see a dual relationship between two forces: on the one hand, the individualization of practices and identity construction projects, interacting on the other hand with technological advances in the music industry. It is, as Fuentes et al. (2019) suggest, that technological changes enable new behaviors, which in turn influence technological changes.

Although this article focused on the context of streaming and did not explore this relationship with the wider context in which these young people operate, our findings open up an interesting discussion on the evolving role of music in the representation of self. Furthermore, while the exploratory nature and the size of our sample is a limitation of our study that cannot be generalized to the broader population, our findings regarding the evolving function of music in the presentation of self beyond a ‘badge’ function and toward a more complex representation of unique identity construction project call for further research. Such research could also explore new functions and reasoning behind the representation of the ‘self’ through music. While other factors are certainly at play, the relationship between music and identity seems to be closely linked to questions of how music is consumed, and the possibilities afforded by the technology of the time. We propose, therefore, that as technology changes, so do young people’s uses of it—including its identity-related uses. While research on new technologies often investigates digital spaces, further research could investigate the interplay between the accessibility and availability of music (as afforded by these technological changes) and the use of music in making identity claims in physical spaces and face-to-face interactions. In conclusion, we believe that our findings and those of recent research open up the possibility of revisiting what we know about the relationship between music and identity in the context of streaming; notably through changing taste profiles, as well as through the individualized meanings that music take in the construction of identity.