This chapter outlines symbolic interactionist approaches to understanding music with a particular emphasis on the sensitizing concepts of subculture, self, identity, community, scene, sense of place, idioculture, interaction, organization, and authenticity. Sensitizing concepts that serve to illuminate a topic area and to analytically connect across different topic areas are at the heart of the symbolic interactionist perspective. Moving beyond the compartmentalization of music into just “youth subcultures,” this chapter argues for a more integrated understanding of music as a central feature of human lives. Music is integral to social life and a ubiquitous feature of everyday life, and thus its study contributes not just to a better understanding of music but also to our understanding of central sociological issues of culture, community, belonging, and identity.