Representation of age and ageing identities in popular music texts

Abstract

From this study, it is evident that mainly negative representations of age and ageing are available in popular music texts. It is imagined that the negative representations of age and ageing can be dispiriting, confidence and esteem lowering for older people and their potential impact might be considered carefully by artists. However, while evidence exists that negative and positive emotions can influence health and well-being, further qualitative research is needed to explore what impact precisely the negative texts have on those experiencing ageing.

‘Behind the Digi-God's back’: social representations of older people's digital competences and internet use in regional Finnish newspapers

“…The present study is, therefore, in line with previous research indicating that negative media portrayals of older people predominate the media (Westerhof and Tulle, 2007; Note: N = 121. Bai, 2014;Kelly et al, 2016;Makita et al, 2021). Furthermore, the results of the present study corroborate previous research indicating that older people are portrayed in the media as illiterate digital immigrants (Loos et al, 2017a).…”

“…A significant amount of research has focused on the representation of older people and ageing across different media (Barrett et al, 2014;Ylänne, 2015), such as magazines and newspapers (Wada et al, 2015), television (Oró-Piqueras, 2014;Kovács et al, 2021), popular music (Kelly et al, 2016), the internet (Loos et al, 2017a;Loos, 2018;Loos and Ivan, 2018), social media (Makita et al, 2021) and advertisements (Williams et al, 2010;Baumann and de Laat, 2014;Prieler et al, 2015;Ylänne, 2015). Previous research indicates that older people, particularly people over 65 years of age, are underrepresented in the media and that media images do not therefore realistically reflect the demographic reality (Westerhof and Tulle, 2007;Bai, 2014;Barrett et al, 2014;Baumann and de Laat, 2014;Prieler et al, 2015;Ylänne, 2015).…”

“…Previous research has indicated that negative media portrayals of older people predominate the media (e.g. Westerhof and Tulle, 2007;Bai, 2014;Kelly et al, 2016), with the exception of portrayals of older people in marketing (Ylänne, 2015). However, even research into the representation of older adults in television marketing has found that there is a strong tendency for advertisers to portray age through employing hegemonic cultural schemas of older people as incompetent and desexualised (Baumann and de Laat, 2014).…”

A global campaign to combat ageism

“…These stereotypes focus predominantly on the negative aspects of ageing, with older age typecast as an inevitable decline in physical and mental capacities and a period of dependency. Language and media, including films, television, popular music, print and social media, most often echo and reinforce these stereotypes, because ageist depictions tend to be the norm 7 – 9 . As we get older, we experience ageism from others, but also from ourselves, because of the unconscious internalization of society’s negative attitudes and stereotypes towards older people.…”

Randomized Trial Evaluating Targeted Photographic Health Communication Messages in Three Stigmatized Populations: Physically-Disabled, Senior, and Overweight/Obese Individuals

“…Research on improving health for seniors is imperative because aging is associated with numerous diseases and the senior population is growing in size in many countries including the United States (Jin, Simpkins, Ji, Leis, & Stambler, 2015). Moreover, seniors are negatively stereotyped and underrepresented in both mainstream media and social media (Edström, 2018; Fraser, Kenyon, Lagace, Wittich, & Southall, 2016; Kelly, Watson, Pankratova, & Pedzeni, 2016; Levy, Chung, Bedford, & Navrazhina, 2014; Ye & Ward, 2010) and relatively uncommon in photographs on the Internet (Buller et al, 2010).…”