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About this talk

We often tell the story of popular music through generations, where each cohort has its own tunes and ways of listening. In Japan, parents, children and grandparents often end up at the same concerts, following the same idols and lurking in similar digital spaces. What does it mean to share a fandom with someone thirty (or fifty) years younger? This talk is based on fieldwork with Japanese music audiences since the early 2010s. Moving between popular music, virtual idols and vocal synth cultures, I look at how listeners of different ages interpret the same performers and where their readings collide. These shared fandoms, I suggest, can be spaces where generations negotiate different understandings of cultural history and national identity.

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