Community, family and leisure immersion

Abstract

This study explores the ambiguous term 'community' and how close groups of people come to form one. By extracting two core elements, often attributed to designations of community, mutual affection and shared appreciation, this study elucidates how fans of the rock band Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons established close bonds referred to as family through their lengthy and passionate involvement in the leisure outlet of a music scene. Due to extensive personal involvements in various music scenes, fans ultimately came to find the music and coterie of Jerry Joseph & the Jackmormons as a place where they could address their individual needs in the comfort of like-minded others who, over time, came to define the closeness of their relationships as family through shared love of music, interaction and care for each other's well-being.

The Temporal Phases of Leisure Experience: Expectation, Experience and Reflection of Leisure Participation

“…Nisbett and Wilson (1977) described the halo effect as the tendency for people to ascribe further positive traits to an individual, group or place that has earned initial favorability in the eyes of the subject, whether or not those additional ascriptions are accurate (elsewhere this has been called "the rosy view" in Mitchell et al, 1997, or a "Pollyanna" effect in Hultsman, 1998. As the participants of this study all had lengthy tenures of following the band coupled with numerous significant friendships in the music scene (Harmon & Kyle, 2016), the tendency to idealize the memory of involvement was a concern. Having said this, the goals fans set for participation are often idealized in some regard, so it should not be viewed as a significant limitation to expect a "polished" memory of participation in an activity that has been largely positive in the past.…”

Building a life note-by-note: music and the life course

“…For the fans of the Jackmormons, whether it occurred at an individual or a collective level, there were numerous opportunities to build off, or draw from, their personal histories with music and their lengthy tenures as fans to create a meaningful life through music. Alongside the friends with whom they shared the music over years, if not decades (Harmon & Kyle, 2016a), this allowed for the broadening of their social support networks through establishing and refining of intangible resources like music, and tangible ones like close friendships. That they all reflected on music as being important from their earliest memories signals the power of music as a resource for living a meaningful life, even when life is challenging, distressing, or downright tragic (Harmon & Kyle, 2016b).…”

“…Significant life events like graduation from college, marriage or buying one's first house all show our growth as an individual, our accomplishments, and set the foundation for where we are headed. Friendships often take on the closeness of family, and may serve as a reflection of who we were, are, and remain to be (Harmon & Kyle, 2016a). These tight-knit connections we form with others can oftentimes span decades and are mutually beneficial to all parties involved in the sharing of experience, growth and appreciation.…”

Extending the leisure substitutability concept

“…It was not until they found the music of Jerry Joseph that they began to 'drift' away from their current level of involvement. Some who still maintained a high level of involvement with WP even after the passing of their lead guitarist were eventually introduced to the music of Jerry Joseph and the Jackmormons and predominately found the music and the scene that comprised it to be more to their liking for a variety of reasons, mostly due to the intelligence and applicability of the lyrics, power of the music and closeness of relationships they formed in their newfound affiliation (Harmon and Kyle 2016).…”

“…Through this personal development, fans were able to refine what it was they sought through their involvement in terms of enjoyment and meaning through music (DeNora 2000). Additionally, fans were able to find like-minded others who had similar life experiences and interests that strengthened the foundation of social relationships that led to the development of close-knit communities (Harmon and Kyle 2016;Dunlap 2009).…”