Mass Communication and Identity Construction: Theory and a Case Study of Song-Recordings by a Popular Musician

Abstract

This study examines the role of mass communication in identity construction by focusing on song-recordings written and performed by John Mellencamp, a mass communicator who has consistently identified himself with the Midwest generally and rural Indiana particularly. This research argues that Mellencamp's album, Scarecrow, may be productively grasped as (1) communication that extends a tradition expounded by such Midwesterners as Mark Twain and Grant Wood and (2) as mythology. Focusing closely on two Scarecrow tracks, this study conceptualizes mythology as a “vital contemporary creator of meaning” (Campbell, 1991, p. 335). The tracks are then analyzed by attending to those musical details of each that either reinforce or contradict its linguistic/mythic meanings. While similar analyses of popular music are not unprecedented in communication research, no prior study has attempted to integrate mythological textual analysis and musicological analysis in an effort to advance understanding about how mixes of myth and music “foster cultural identification” (Sellnow & Sellnow, 2001, p. 396). A new rhetorical category of song is proposed.