Article
Soundtracks of Acrobatic Selves: FanSite Religion in the Reception and Use of the Music of U2
Journal of Contemporary Religion
(2011)
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
Disciplines
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/