Memoryscapes and mediascapes: musical formations of 'pensioners' in late 20th-century Sweden

The late 20th century in Sweden saw the growth of music solely aimed at an elderly audience. This article discusses music within pensioner organisations, first assessing a cassette compilation marketed through the members' magazine of Sweden's largest pensioner organisation and, second, embarking on ethnographies of meetings within a study circle in music-listening arranged through a pensioner organisation, conducted in 1999-2000. The music selection in the cassette compilation diminishes certain genres of the included period and foregrounds others, adding up to a specific homogeneous national memoryscape. A central theme in the study circle was the production and negotiation of generational and individual memoryscapes. The two mediascapes produced different memoryscapes, one being nationally and temporally bounded, the other being at the same time local, transnational and transtemporal. To conclude, the article claims that if we wish to understand the nexus of ageing and music in contemporary society, we need to listen not only to musicians, entrepreneurs and care institutions, but also to their intended audiences.