Hartley - Social Positions of an individual

How do social positions of individuals relate to The Kinks - All of The Day and All of The Night?

Hartley lists 7 elements that go to create the social positions of an individuals:

Self - Personally I have an interest into this style and era of music, even though I am not from the generation of when this music would have been popular.

Gender - When the kinks were around in 1964 they did not particularly target a specific gender audience. Therefore I assume that there is still no specific gender targeted. Furthermore the group and I will target both males and females socially.

Age Group - Due to this song being released in October 1964 and got to 2nd in the UK singles charts suggests the social popularity of the song. Age groups are key within this song because of  pre - existing audiences from 1964 will still be a fan of the song as it was a big hit. This suggests that this song will have a wide range of audiences but most likely individuals in their 30's and onwards because it was possibly a huge social interactions. In addition, although I personally enjoy this style of music it is not to say that ever person around my age would be into this single as this is purely personal taste in music.

Family- This element can affect the music genre of what an individual listens to. Reasons for this can vary from possibly taking on the same taste from music your parents have enjoyed and played whilst growing up. If this is a case the single 'All of The Day And All of The Night' may be a familiar single to some individuals. However having a good or bad relationship with your family could also affect your musical taste.

Class - Ina  stereotypical way you would assume that individuals of a height class would listen to classical music, and that individuals of a low class may listen to rap, because of their social positions within society. However music has become more diverse, whereby the type of music an individual is into is not classified by their class anymore.

Nation - As a nation we deicide the UK's top 40 singles, this is significant when it comes to social positions of individuals because this chart may define us as a nation but more importantly as individuals. This is due to the fact if a certain single is number one and an individual has not heard it, they will most likely go out of their way and pull the media product towards them. In relation to the single 'All of The Day And All of The Night' when it was number 2 in 1964, their was only one method to hear the single and that would be a popular radio station. This suggests we as a nation will try and stay in the know if it means being social accepted.

Ethnicity - This element focuses more on the nationality (where you come from) than an individuals social position. Different type of genres and sub genres within music are popular in certain nationalities and unpopular in others. For example, 'The Kinks' were a band in the 1960's who were particularly popular in Great Britain and possibly America but most likely not in India or China.


John Fiske adds to this list:

Education - Public and private education does create a social difference within individuals, but I would not say it creates much difference between music genres an individual is interested in.

Religion - Depending what religion is being considered, depends on how strict that religion may be on media products such as music videos. Reasons for this are increasing daily, due to the fact that music videos are not as regulated as they should be and can often be quite explicit. Therefor from a Christian perspective these video may not be acceptable to watch socially through their religion.

Political allegiances - There are many political song out there in the media. For example 'Imagine' by John Lennon where is song expresses his view on governments and war. When a song is released concerning political allegiances, people will either support is or be against it. Which ever side an individual takes determines their social positing when concerning politics.  'All of The Day And All of The Night' will not have this issue as it is not a song concerning political allegiances.

Region - What area you are from has increasing become more important within technology. Just about every technological device, or website (social networking) would prefer to have your location. Reasons for this would be that the internet is advancing and the location is key, as it can learn a lot about you from your region. This links to the social position of an individual because the internet could most probably work out what type of music an individual would like just from your region, and would start pushing media products upon the individual or audience from that specific region.

Urban versus rural backgrounds - This element may be also be viewed stereotypically, as urban areas may view an individual to listen to rap or hip - hop, because of the area they are from. This would be because many rappers are from urban areas and worked their way up which may inspire individuals socially. However from rural backgrounds are not usually viewed in a stereotypical way of listening to certain types of music and therefore have no social expectation to live up to.