Youth, communication media and cultural consumption

Abstract

It would appear at first sight that Catalan is not “cool” and that neither is music or culture in Catalan: according to the data of the Communication and Culture Barometer for 2007, just 7,8 % of the people of Catalonia listen to music in Catalan and only 30 % read magazines in this language. It should be noted, however, that cultural habits have changed: access to the Internet, which has opened the doors to the consumption of culture from everywhere, has favoured specialised cultural consumption: for example, the readership of specialist publications has increased while that of the generalist media has declined. In this respect, music magazines such as Enderrock (which made its appearance 20 years ago) have had to undergo a radical transformation, starting up new channels of circulation (website, online social networks, TV programmes, iPod and iPad applications, etc.) while carrying out a number of diverse actions (contests, demos, concert cycles...). This paper describes how magazines have adapted themselves to the current music scene, becoming a motor of Catalan music promotion. Likewise, magazines have successfully created a linguistic model that is well-suited to today’s Catalan music panorama, using a language “without italics or barbarisms”.

Key words: social use of Catalan, youth, music, magazines, communication media, cultural consumption.