This article re-evaluates Simon Frith’s hypothesis that music serves as a badge for youth identity, based on 15 qualitative interviews with young people aged 17–19 conducted in the fall of 2021. Our findings point to changes in the representation of self through music, as musical preferences are too closely tied to unique identity pathways to provide quick and reliable information about the self to others. Behind this shift, we identify an interplay between the increased accessibility and mobility of music, facilitated by new technological means and a context of increased concern among young people for the construction of their identity. This article highlights the changing nature of musical preferences and their role in self-presentation through music and aims to open up further research on this topic.

中文翻译：

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我的音乐讲述了我：在流媒体背景下重新评估音乐的“徽章”功能

本文基于 2021 年秋季对 17 至 19 岁年轻人进行的 15 次定性访谈，重新评估了西蒙·弗里斯 (Simon Frith) 的假设，即音乐是年轻人身份的象征。我们的研究结果表明，音乐对自我表征的影响发生了变化，因为音乐偏好与独特的身份途径联系得太紧密，无法向他人提供有关自我的快速可靠的信息。在这一转变的背后，我们发现了音乐的可及性和流动性的增强之间的相互作用，这得益于新技术手段和年轻人对自身身份建构日益关注的背景。本文强调了音乐偏好不断变化的性质及其在通过音乐进行自我呈现中的作用，旨在开启对该主题的进一步研究。