Abstract
The days when intense forms of music fandom were largely restricted to young people and commonly understood as a short-term phase associated with the social and psychological specifics of growing up are, it would seem, long gone. From the Rolling Stones to the Sex Pistols and Madonna to the Spice Girls, artists who first emerged decades ago have for some years been selling out concerts and festivals around the world, the bulk of whose attendees are, like the artists themselves, often in their forties, fifties, sixties or beyond. And such middle-aged and older fans – who now comprise well over half of live-music concert attendees (Peoples 2015) – also find themselves courted by myriad music radio stations, magazines, TV shows and online media, as well as comprising an ever-increasing proportion of the consumer base for music streaming services (Statista 2018). As part of this, the ongoing attachment of adult and older fans to identifiable music scenes and subcultures – from Skinhead to Northern Soul – has attracted particular interest both in public discourse and academic research....