"By consuming pop music, people want to express who they are, to which
group theybelong, what their identity is. People's identity, however
and contrary to what many believe, is not strictly individual. Instead,
people's identity is highly social and draws on the socio-cultural
values (what I here propose to call VALUES) in society - VALUES that
become 'objectified' or institutionalized and may thus be communicated
to others. If such institutionalized socio-cultural values are not
conceptualized, and if one is not able to understand how institutions
work in signaling people's identity, one is not able to explain a
phenomenon such as the advent of pop music."
WILFRED DOLFSMA