Functions and affordances of music in the urban everyday life

A conceptual and bibliographic review

Abstract

There is a diversity of situations and contexts in which music has been and continues to be used in everyday life in urban societies. These uses extend beyond mere aesthetic pleasure and are associated with specific conditions and activities performed by the involved actors. Fueling the discussion on the functions and potentialities provided by these uses, this article aims to initially revisit different perspectives on the effects of music, primarily derived from traditional Musicology, Psychology, and Ethnomusicology. Subsequently, a conceptual framework is proposed to underpin the mechanism by which music is employed, starting from its existence in a particular context, offering various potentialities, and ultimately, the appropriation of some of these potentialities by the involved actors. The central focus of the article then lies in the presentation and synthesis of different functions found in the literature, with the aim of providing a foundation for future research endeavors addressing the uses of music in the daily life of cities.