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Article
Soundtracks of Acrobatic Selves: FanSite Religion in the Reception and Use of the Music of U2
Journal of Contemporary Religion (2011)
  • Vaughan S Roberts
  • Clive Marsh, University of Leicester
Abstract
This article addresses the question of how responses to the arts and popular culture, as mediated through on-line fan activity, may contribute to the development of religious/spiritual exploration in contemporary Western societies. It offers a critical reading of 40 short essays posted by fans of the rock band U2 on a fan site from the perspective of how respondents expose their personal, critical reflections on their developing selves. The function of the U2 songs reflected upon, the listeners’ responses, the strategies/processes used, and the resources upon which they draw in the task of reflection are noted and examined. The article maps a multi-disciplinary programme for examining responses, uses one sociological framework (as provided by the work of Margaret Archer) as a case study of how this multi-disciplinary framework may prove fruitful, and concludes by noting the benefits for contemporary religious/theological understanding of the on-line activity studied.
Keywords
  • religion,
  • affective space,
  • meaning-making,
  • distributed self,
  • virtual communities
Publication Date
October, 2011
Citation Information
Vaughan S Roberts and Clive Marsh. "Soundtracks of Acrobatic Selves: FanSite Religion in the Reception and Use of the Music of U2" Journal of Contemporary Religion Vol. 26 Iss. 3 (2011)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/vaughan_roberts/42/