Daughters of Rock and Moms Who Rock: Rock Music as a Medium for Family Relationships in Portugal

Abstract

This article discusses the role of rock musicking as a medium for family relationships. Drawing on qualitative data from interviews with women who self-identify as rock music lovers, it analyses intergenerational rock musicking processes and informal learning. Music, together with other activities, aesthetic materials, technologies and narratives, is an essential element in family relationships and part of the parenting cultural toolkit, both for fathers, as the daughters remember and describe them, and for the mothers themselves. For women rock fans who become mothers, rock music articulates more empowering versions of maternal subjectivities, and specific settings-such as car journeys-can constitute "music asylums". Taking two dyadic family relationships (father-daughter; mother-children), I argue that family and domestic spaces are relevant when analyzing everyday rock musicking.

Music Mentors of the Streaming Era: from Algorithms to Influential Figures

“…Especially interesting is the father's position as music mentor, reflected from the data as over shadowing other family members, including the mother. A comparison to former studies by Savage (2015) and Grácio (2016) might illuminate gender differences within the home. While Savage addressed the motherly care for musical exposure, the possible mentees were young children and music was considered by mothers as aid in areas of development (physical, emotional, cognitive).…”