ABSTRACT
Scholars often frame difference in terms that can seem abstract and impersonal, far removed from the complex play of rhythms, harmonies, beats, riffs, and rhymes that evoke powerful emotional responses in listeners. The necessary work of identifying hegemonic or resistive positions in three-minute pop songs—through discussions of patriarchy, colonialism, capitalism, whiteness, heterosexuality, and their respective Others—can feel like overkill (like “aiming a bazooka at an ant,” as a prominent music theorist once put it); yet, such analyses of difference are entirely appropriate given the immense cultural influence of popular music and its creators. By no means “an ant,” popular music is a site of identity formation and self-discovery that operates through multiple channels: live performance, recordings, music videos, commercials, game and film music (all amplified through the echo chamber of social media), but also through the life stories of the musicians themselves. Such stories, framed in personal, real-world experiences of difference, invite intimate fan–artist identification, and, in effect, provide fans a space for cathartic reckoning with their own sense of difference.
