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Listening as Religious Practice (Part One): Exploring Quantitative Data from an Empirical Study of the Cultural Habits of Music Fans

Abstract This article explores and reflects upon the role that music consumption may be playing in the flexible field of cultural expression, identity formation, and meaning-making activity in the West, as overt commitment to organised religion continues to decline and prove fragile. Using quantitative data from a 2009–2010 study of 231 music users, the authors locate and analyse the respondents’ declarations about their listening practices in relation to their other socio-cultural habits and life-commitments. The article explores the genres and themes of music listened to, the means by which the music is accessed, the frequency of listening, and the scale and nature of non-musical commitments. The significance of differences between replies of male and female respondents and between replies of self-identified religious and non-religious respondents is also considered. The article concludes that, while listening habits differ only slightly between religious and non-religious respondents, there are differences in three significant respects: music use with respect to political self-expression; access of ‘life-worlds’/the narratives that people live by; the frequency and technological format of listening.