My Kind of Sound

Book excerpt: This volume explores the importance and significance that music has in our lives. The relationship between music and identity is based on conceptions about meanings and identification, especially powerful when connected with youth and popular music. We narrate ourselves in a musical way and we must study ‘music as culture’ rather than ‘music in culture’. The contributions to this book attend to emerging phenomena such as the rise of the Reggaeton music around the world, the importance of music in anime media, and music industry changes and uncertainties in the new millennium. Music is art, but it is also an industry and a business, and the two are intertwined: through the sale of tickets, original formulas are obtained and, in the same way, products (not just musical, but multimedia) are born from alternative culture, eventually becoming mainstream. In addition, this book also takes into account iconic artists such as Nirvana, David Bowie or Miley Cyrus, and the important contribution of music to the narrative and success of popular TV series, analysing cases such as Babylon Berlin and Vikings. From Blade Runner (1982) to current television mainstream productions, the music-image alliance does not only satisfy and distract us, but also challenges us and forces us to rethink our view of the world.