Lost in Music: Mapping the 21st Century House Music Event Experience

Abstract

The shift towards the DJ as a mainstream performer challenges the possibilities of the live music eventscape. House music – a specific form of electronic music – represents a current trend in the UK, and this paper explores the nature of its consumption as a live event experience different to other types of music events. It aims to demonstrate the unique reality of an event as a combination of experiences (e.g. Petterson & Getz, 2009. Event Experiences in Time and Space: A Study of Visitors to the 2007 World Alpine Ski Championships in Åre, Sweden. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 9(2-3), 308–326.); arguably this can only be truly conceptualised by the individual, and so the ‘Event Experience Mapping Model’ (EEMM) methodology has been designed to conceptualise an individual’s sensory and emotional ‘immersion’ within the eventscape. This is done primarily in the context of recreational habits, emotional responses and social engagement, thus combining multiple facets of event experience within one study in the milieu of twenty-first century house music. The EEMM used a questionnaire to garner broad themes associated with this event type; this produced an ‘Experience Matrix’ which can then be completed by an individual to produce an individual ‘Experience Map’. Key to this principle is that this ‘map’ this will differ from person to person and thus the EEMM allows for this to be expressed in an individual ‘map’. The map demonstrates the intersections of four aspects of experience and thus plots which aspects are more/ less prevalent within that individual’s experience.