Individual lived experience among China’s millennials in contemporary Mandopop since 2000

The advancement of the Internet and media technology has made a difference to the ways people listen to music, and millennials are the demographic group that becomes the most affected. This study aims to explore China’s millennials’ individual lived experience in contemporary Mandopop, including how they characterize and interpret their lived experience in contemporary Mandopop. This qualitative study uses the interpretative phenomenological analysis method that suits to emphasize the interpretation and understanding of the descriptions on lived experiences of individuals in a specific context. Ten China’s millennials who became the audience of contemporary Mandopop were selected to undergo in-depth interviews. Interview data as primary data were recorded, transcribed and translated, and then analyzed thematically; secondary data such as images, audiovisual data about the lived experience related to contemporary Mandopop were obtained from websites and media platforms or sourced from the informants’ collections. The findings of this study offer detailed insights into the lived experience of China’s millennials, which are divided into four phases: ‘participation,’ ‘acquisition,’ ‘decoding,’ and ‘projection.’ ‘Participation’ is depicted in connection with the informants’ daily life as they experience the development of the music media. ‘Acquisition’ is regarded as an indispensable component of the experience or consumption of songs in generating the preferences of the Chinese audience for styles, genres, or works of contemporary Mandopop. ‘Decoding’ can serve as a means of understanding Mandopop during listening through finding distinctive music or emotional resonance even when informants had already developed individual musical tastes in their daily listening experiences. ‘Projection’ reveals that China’s millennials seek for a sense of belonging on media platforms where Mandopop have become an important tool for them to locate themselves in and express nostalgic feeling, and thus starting another cycle with ‘participation’ after their experience and consumption. With media technology playing a crucial role in the subject matter, this study finds out that the individual lived experience in contemporary Mandopop is tied closely to media memory, musical taste and preference, as well as nostalgia and belongingness of individuals living in Mainland China. The style and content of contemporary Mandopop are paramount in captivating and generating empathy for the China’s millennial audience who could make sense to the extent that implications or values are integrated into significant moments in their lifetime. Conversely, despite a globalized era when the Chinese audience advances toward wider options in popular music, contemporary Mandopop still leads to provide homegrown meanings to them while enhancing musical and cultural cognition that is more fitting to the needs of selfidentity among them.

Text 122776.pdf Download (1MB) Official URL or Download Paper: https://ethesis.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/18659

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