Altogether now? Symbolic recognition,musical media events and the forging of civic bonds among minority youth in Norway

Recognition theory and civic dimensions of media reception

Recognition theory has since the 1990s onwards received major attention within social and political theory (see Markell, 2006, for an overview), Axel Honneth (1995) and Charles Taylor (1994) being its premier proponents. Rooted in Hegel’s master-slave dialectic, it is both a psychological concept grasping mechanisms of identity formation at an interpersonal level, and a concept that helps elucidate how groups develop identities in relation to each other in society. In his seminal essay ‘The Politics of Recognition’, Charles Taylor (1994) terms recognition a ‘vital human need’, arguing that 2

[…] our identity is partly shaped by recognition or its absence, often by the misrecognition of others, and so a person or group of people can suffer real damage, real distortion, if the people or society around them mirror back to them a confining or demeaning or contemptible picture of themselves. (p. 25)

At the heart of recognition theory thus lies the assumption that identities develop dialogically; mis- or non-recognition from the surroundings prompt subjects to develop unhealthy identities, whereas receiving recognition – positive affirmation – is key in developing healthy identities.

Within this tradition, (mis)recognition is seen as key to how persons or groups identify as part of social communities, for instance, as part of national or local communities. In a democratic context, (mis)recognition also involves the positioning of groups as part of political entities or as the other and the positioning of individuals as democratic subjects. As such, the perspective offered by recognition theory supplements the strand of citizenship research which places importance on identity and belonging as constitutive components of citizenship (Couldry et al., 2007; Hermes, 2005; Street et al., 2013) – alongside rights, duties and formal indicators such as voting or discussing politics (Kymlicka, 1995). Similarly, Dahlgren (2000, 2002) in his multidimensional concept of ‘civic culture’ emphasises what he terms ‘civic affinity’ as a key prerequisite to democratic engagement. According to Dahlgren (2002), civic affinity coins ‘a minimal sense among citizens … that they belong to the same social and political entities’ (p. 21). In conceptual terms, an objective of this study is thus to offer a case example that highlights the role of media-engendered recognition in stimulating civic affinities.

Several political and social theorists (Calhoun, 2002; Tully, 2000, 2001); have pointed out how recognition plays out at a public and symbolic level. This line of theory thus implies an important role for media and entertainment. Commenting on the historical evolvement of the concept of cultural citizenship, Pakulski (1997), for instance, points out that cultural citizenship’s domains now start to include ‘symbolic representations, modes of communication and cultural recognition’ (p. 73). Similarly, Fraser (1995) argues that cultural injustice, to which she holds recognition to be ‘a remedy’, is rooted in the ‘… social patterns of representation, interpretation and communication’ (p. 3). News and entertainment media constantly mirror back images of its audiences, which in turn interprets and reflect upon these images. Thus, media and entertainment emerge as an obvious site for (mis)recognition.

Existing contributions that deal explicitly with recognition in relation to the media have either been concerned with how recognition is offered by media texts (see Faimau, 2013), how it is afforded by social media (Lorenzana, 2016), or they have made theoretical claims about recognition (see Maia, 2001). Cottle (2007), focusing on news media texts and journalistic practices, makes a strong theoretical case for the importance of what he terms ‘mediatized recognition’. He argues that the media may play an important role in the ‘symbolic rehabilitation’ of others. Also, several contributions within the field of audience studies (see, for instance, Hermes, 2005: 65–69; Miegel and Olsson, 2012: 8) have alluded to the importance of recognition in how media audiences form civic bonds. However, there is a curious absence of studies empirically exploring how audiences’ reception of media or entertainment may involve experiences of recognition and the potential civic dimensions of such experiences.

Media events, minority youth and hip hop

A number of studies document that news media representations of minorities in Norway are systematically imbalanced and problem oriented (Eide and Simonsen, 2007; Fangen, 2007; Lindstad and Fjeldstad, 2005: 67; NOU 2010: 14, 2010; NOU 2011: 14, 2011; Prieur, 2002: 69). At the level of reception, imbalanced media representations are found to cause a general experience of stigma among minority youth. Here, the formation of individual and social identities takes place in a struggle against mass-mediated stereotypes where minority youth are portrayed as fundamentally different from the ethnic majority (Andersson, 2010; Gullestad, 2003; Rogstad and Vestel, 2011).

At the same time, other non-factual media genres such as sports, entertainment and musical programming make up sources for alternative and potentially symbolically inclusive representations of minorities. In Norway, popular music, and hip hop in particular, makes up a particularly interesting case. Hip hop in Norway includes a number of performers of minority background and routinely thematises minority experience, sensibility and identity through music and performance. Hip hop is today one of the most popular genres among Norwegian youth in general (Gramo, 2014/2015). Significantly, hip hop music also enjoys vast popularity among members of the minority population themselves, both as audience and as a means of musical self-expression. Although of urban Afro-American origins, hip hop has been appropriated in a range of geographically and culturally diverse locations (Mitchell, 2001), not least by young immigrants in Europe (Bennet, 1999; Solomon, 2009) and Scandinavia (Krogh and Stougaard Pedersen, 2008). Several studies of Norwegian hip hop have also shown that the genre has been appropriated in various urban-local or regional contexts, including immigrant milieus in (sub)urban Oslo (Knudsen, 2008; Sandberg, 2008; Vestel, 2004, 2012).

Hip hop artists of minority origin are also regular fixtures in major media events in Norway. Among the most prominent examples are the Eurovision Song Contest 2010 (Madcon), the memorial ceremonies after the Utøya massacre (Karpe Diem) and the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony in 2013 (Nico and Vinz). Media events, as conceptualised by Dayan and Katz (1992), involve the collective, highly affective and synchronised attention on the same spectacle. Therefore, although not in any simple reflexionist way, such media events can be seen as ‘high points’ of representation where minority audiences interpret and reflect upon the public exposition of corresponding identities and sensibilities. Hence, such media events offer instances where dynamics of symbolic recognition play out and can be studied. As this study explores the example of the memorial concerts following the Utøya massacre in 2011, such media events may also be embedded in a socio-politically charged context in such a way that may invest audience reception with civic significance.

As a form of public communication, music is in itself highly interesting. As emphasised by a number of music scholars (see, for instance, Born, 2000; Frith, 1996; Hesmondhalgh, 2007; Shank, 2014), a prominent quality of music is its capacity to stimulate identity formation and senses of belonging, which may also have civic bearings (Inthorn et al., 2013; Street and Inthorn, 2010). Perry (2004: 39–42) describes hip hop is an art form attendant but not reducible to substantial socio-political ramifications and issues, a description which Nærland (2014) has shown also applies to the genre in Norway. Also, Krims (2000) and Alim (2004) emphasise how the musical aesthetic of hip hop and the integration of words and beats into flows facilitate articulations of identity. In the Norwegian context, Sandve (2015) has shown how recent audiovisual, mass-mediated expositions of hip hop music involve ‘spectacles of otherness’, where artists by means of musical performance invite reconsiderations of national identity and belonging. Hip hop performances, as part media events, therefore, emerge as a potentially significant source of recognition for minority youth.

In the following, I start by outlining the methodology of this study. I then illustrate through empirical examples what I argue to be three constitutive, and successive, aspects of media-engendered recognition: representation – recognition – belonging. First, I show how hip hop performances are experienced to involve symbolic representation – as to mirror back images of minority audiences themselves and, conversely, to expose minority identity and sensibilities for a wider audience. Second, I show how these representations are experienced to involve recognition – to involve a positive affirmation of their own identity. And finally, I show how experiences of recognition foster feelings of belonging to the Norwegian society as a social entity and, in the context of these media events, the civic bearings of such belongings. To conclude, I critically discuss the insights gained from the analysis.

Methodology

In total, nine informants were identified and recruited through a social activity centre in the city centre of Bergen. Non-Western origin was a main criterion for selecting informants. Of the nine informants, six were of African origins (either from west or east Africa), and three were from the Middle East. Moreover, whereas six of the informants reported to be of Muslim background, three reported to be brought up as Catholic/Christian. Four of the informants were born in Norway (of parents who had recently settled in Norway), while the remaining six of the informants were born elsewhere but arrived in Norway before the age of 7 years. All informants were aged between 16 and 25 years. In total, five of the informants were female and four male. Another main criterion for selecting informants was a pre-stated affinity to hip hop music. The level and mode of hip hop interest varied; whereas all the informants shared a general affinity towards hip hop music, two were also actively engaged in hip hop through either dance or music-making.

All informants had a full command of Norwegian spoken language. All except for one were at the time attending either high school or college, and most of them were in addition holding part-time jobs. Moreover, and key to the scope of this study, the informants reported following Norwegian news and entertainment media on a daily basis. Concurring with studies of news consumption among minority youth (NOU 2011: 14, 2011), their main source of Norwegian news was through sharing and updates in social media and through online newspapers. Whereas the informants reported that they primarily socialised with other young people of immigrant background privately, they all also reported to have close friends of ethnically Norwegian origin. Thus, in general, the informant sample must be described as well integrated. In line with previous research on immigrants and identity formation in Norway, the informants reported a shared sense of dual, or multiple, national belongings (see, for instance, Andersson, 2010). However, they also reported a shared experience of not being accepted as ‘full worthy’ Norwegians, leaving them ambivalent in terms of how ‘Norwegian’ they were entitled to feel. Not unexpectedly, the informants who were born in Norway expressed least ambivalence in terms of national belonging. Moreover, religious background emerged a significant factor, where those informants of Muslim background generally expressed more ambivalence than those of Christian/Catholic backgrounds.

Individual interviews were adopted as the method for this study. This method has a clear advantage in that it secures an extensive amount of time, in private, with each informant. Key to the scope of this study, this allowed for the gathering of in-depth and detailed data with regard to both the media experiences and reflections of each informant. Moreover, as potentially sensitive issues such as exclusion/inclusion and a sense of belonging were central to this study, the privacy and possibility for close conversation afforded by individual interviews were necessary. A limitation of this approach, however, compared to, for instance, focus groups, is that it does not to the same extent capture how media interpretation and sense-making take shape in social interaction. As such, focus groups or observation would provide important complementary insights with regard to how the informants as an interpretive community reflect upon and experience such musical media events.

Based on a semi-structured interview guide, interviews were conducted focusing on the informants’ own reflections on and experiences of hip hop as part of media events in general and the televised memorial concerts following the Utøya massacre in particular. The choosing of these concerts as focal point was strategically motivated. These concerts offer what Flyvbjerg (2006) terms an ‘extreme case’, a context where dynamics of recognition can be seen at play, analysed and then lucidly described. At the same time, a limitation of such a case is that the extraordinary nature of these events may not so easily lend itself to the description of how minority youth engage with media representations on a more routine basis.

In order to probe the extent to which the informants’ reception of these events entailed experiences of recognition, the informants were asked whether they experienced these concerts as projecting a positive or negative image of minorities, and whether these projections in any way affected them on a personal level. Moreover, they were asked to reflect upon whether, and if so how, such experiences of (mis)recognition affected their sense of belonging to the Norwegian society. In addition, the interview guide contained questions charting socio-demographic characteristics and general media habits. All interviews were carried out face to face in spring 2015, and each lasted between 40 and 60 minutes. The interviews were recorded and then subsequently transcribed. In order to maintain required standards of privacy protection, ² all informants are made anonymous in the following analysis.

Representation: mass-mediated hip hop as mirror and exposition

First, in this analysis, I attend to the issue of symbolic representation – which constitutes a premise for symbolic recognition to take place. Are hip hop performers and music taken to involve public representation of the informants’ sensibilities and identities? This question hinges on two factors. The first is concerned with the ‘mirror’ dimension of media representations: do the informants themselves identify with hip hop music and performers, when these figure as part of media events? The second is concerned with exposition: do such appearances engender a feeling among the informants that their identity and sensibilities are represented vis-a-vis a larger audience?

At a basic level, all of the informants gave accounts of personal affinity and identification with the genre. Yet, they also assumed general connections between hip hop music and minority youth. This connection was attributed to expressive, historical and aesthetic aspects of hip hop music and culture. The informants emphasised the ways in which the hip hop genre allows for the vocalisation of personal experiences, and how the lyrical stories about outsiderness inherent to the hip hop genre (Rose, 1994) resonated with their own experiences. Many of the informants pointed out how hip hop from its exigency in the United States was intrinsically connected to the Afro-American experience of marginalisation, yet at the same time also a route through which immigrants can find success. The informants from the western parts of Africa, in particular, emphasised how the rhythm-oriented aesthetic of hip hop music resonates with the often equally rhythm-centric musical traditions from their countries of origin. Two of the informants even evoked genetic arguments, upholding that minorities’ strong affinity to hip hop could be explained in terms of a common genetic disposition towards strong rhythms.

Many of the informants expressed a sense of ownership in relation to hip hop. Several also expressed a sense of pride due to what they perceive to be hip hop’s trajectory from being a largely subcultural and ‘street-like’ phenomenon to a musical expression that now enjoys vast popularity among young people in general. As one of the informants reflected,

Before it was like … if you dressed in hip hop style and stuff … then they (the ethnic Norwegians) probably thought that you’re stealing and smoking and stuff … bad kids … ‘we wouldn’t let our kids grow up to be like that’ … you know. But now, everyone listens to hip hop. Everyone dresses in the same kind of style … not with the saggy pants, but more decent you know, both Norwegians and immigrants. It has come together in a way … which I am, in fact, quite proud of really. (Habiba, 23, Muslim, east African origin)

This trajectory is also empirically documented in large-scale longitudinal studies of cultural taste and social background in Norway (Gripsrud et al., 2011), showing that hip hop music has undergone a process of mainstreaming.

Whereas the connection between hip hop music and minorities is real and manifests in the sense that the genre includes a number of minority artists, and that it routinely thematises minority experiences and draws upon musical traditions familiar to many of minority background, this connection must also be regarded as a product of the qualities audiences ascribe to the genre. This connection can be understood in light of what German literary reception theorist Jauss (1982), in his writings on the dynamic relationship between reader and text, terms a ‘horizon of expectations’. The interviews make evident that the informants’ listening to and engagement with hip hop music is informed by a set of expectations that locates the genre, or at least significant aspects of it, as historically, aesthetically and culturally originating from racially and culturally marginalised conditions – with which they themselves also somehow identify. On the contrary, hip hop is also identified as being somehow connected to minorities by audiences from the ethnic majority. Thus, and pivotal to dynamics of recognition, the informants experienced mass-mediated hip hop to both reflect back images of themselves and to involve symbolic representation vis-a-vis the majority audience.

One of the informants, for instance, emphasised that when Kenya-born rapper Stella Mwangi won the national Eurovision finals,

I experienced that as a really good thing because it was an immigrant that won, and then I thought: finally, immigrants can be portrayed in a good light, and not just the negative stuff, right? Also, I became pretty proud because she was black and from Africa. (Eleanor, 19, Muslim, west African origin)

The quote above is illustrative of common conceptions among the informants for several reasons. First, the public exposition of what are conceived to be minority experiences and style is seen as an expressive vehicle to counter negative stereotypes. Second, it highlights the significance of concurring ethnical origin in engendering experiences of representation. Third, in drawing attention to the national Eurovision finals, it highlights the importance of media events in engendering experiences of public representation. When asked to reflect upon the role of hip hop music in giving public representation to minorities, and when such representation takes place, the informants found it natural to talk about either musically based talent shows such as Pop Idol and X-factor and Norwegian Eurovision finals, and most prevalently major media events connected to critical incidents such as the Utøya killings or the Charlie Hebdo killings.

A highly significant aspect of their experiences of such media events was that these experiences involved imaginations of an implied greater audience. Such imaginations were a pervasive feature of the informants’ accounts of the various musically based media events they chose to talk about – either explicitly by concrete reference to a greater audience or by implication. Although media events were a prefigured focal point in the interviews, media formats which capture the attention of both majority and minority audiences naturally emerged as arenas where the informants experienced dynamics of representation to be at play. This is an observation that resonates with Andersson et al.’s (2012) account of how representations of minorities following critical incidents (kritiske hendelser) – including, for instance, 9/11, the caricature controversy and the Gulf war – also have the effect of sparking informal political engagement among minorities in Norway.

Recognition: media events as ‘moments of recognition’

In the following, I concentrate on the informants’ reception of the most profiled mourning concerts following the Utøya massacre, and the prominent role of minority hip hop act Karpe Diem in these concerts. First, I outline the socio-political context in which these mourning concerts took place and then I explore the ways in which Karpe Diem’s part in these concerts were experienced not only to involve representation of minority identity and sensibilities but also to engender recognition.

On 22 July 2011, the ethnic Norwegian solo-terrorist Anders Behring Breivik shot dead more than 60 aspiring young politicians on the island of Utøya and also detonated a lethal bomb outside the government building. Public life in the following months was characterised by shock, grief and a struggle to make sense of the events. The subsequent three mourning concerts, produced and aired by the premier national public broadcaster (the NRK), must be understood as classic media events, as conceptualised by Dayan and Katz (1992). These events were highly affective, characterised by reverence, emotionally charged speeches and performances, and involved an active and ceremonial mode of audience spectatorship. Significantly, both two members of Karpe Diem are of minority background, and their musical-lyrical style and performance is often centred on play with identity positions with regard to ethnicity and belonging (Sandve, 2015). Karpe Diem is also currently among the most-selling hip hop artists in Norway.

According to the informants, within this context of collective affective engagement, matters of public representation did become all the more urgent. This was not least due to the fact that in the hours following the massacre it was widely speculated that the Utøya killer had to be a Muslim terrorist. As one of the informants, who himself is of Christian-Catholic background, states,

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to say this, but after 22 July myself and many people of minority background were very, very relieved that an immigrant didn’t commit the massacre. (Abba, 20, Roman-Catholic, west African origins)

Another informant, who was back in his country of origin at the time of the massacre, reports that in the time before the identity of the killer was clarified, he and his family were sure that they would never be let into Norway again.

Set against this background, the informants all ascribed high significance to the presence of Karpe Diem in the memorial concerts that followed. Giving evidence of both the extraordinary mode of audience engagement and the emotional investment into Karpe Diem’s performances at these concerts, one of the informants commented,

I remember this as a period of time when I was … when most people were … in a kind of trance-modus. I remember I thought those clips (of Karpe Diem) to be insanely beautiful, and I watched them over and over again. (Abba, 20, Roman-Catholic, west African origin)

A common reflection among the informants was that the presence of a musical act whose members are of minority background and whose musical style resonated with their own tastes exposed their own experiences and sensibilities to a wider national audience. Importantly, this sense of public representation was also interpreted in a more active sense, as to involve recognition. As one of the informants reflected,

When you see someone (Karpe Diem) that has been through the same stuff as yourself, but is present at that kind of platform, then you feel ‘ok, its possible to achieve something’, something cool, fun … and positive with your life, instead of heading down that other direction, right? Instead of digging yourself down in negative thoughts you feel that you can do positive stuff for others. […] Because all those people that watched, they were affected by these moments I think, in some way or the other. (Ali, 22, Muslim, west African origin)

As exemplified by the preceding quote, and key to recognition, these events were experienced to involve a positive affirmation of their own background and sensibilities.

In the following, I will outline the factors that emerged as most significant in confounding such experiences of recognition. As illustrated by the following account, one important factor was the fact that Karpe Diem was given presence among seasoned and popular ethnic-majority Norwegian artists:

They (Karpe Diem) were equals … with the other artists with similar profiles or status, if you like. Because … the organisers could have chosen everything from Kurt Nilsen to Lars Vaular ⁴ who have also done well for themselves. But they (Karpe Diem) got the opportunity, and they … they were genuine and they showed … showed love. (Pascal, 25, Muslim, west African origins)

Another and perhaps equally important factor in confounding experiences of recognition, that transcends mere presence, relates to the perceived quality of these performances. As the preceding quotes make evident, the informants judged Karpe Diem to conduct themselves and manage this situation in a skilful and genuine manner.

The informants’ accounts also illustrate what appears to be a significant affective dimension of media-engendered recognition. Many of the informants gave accounts of having strong emotional responses when seeing the performances. Referring to his own repetitious watching of the online clip of Karpe Diem’s performance at Oslo Spectrum, one of the informants provided the following telling reflection:

In that particular moment … You can see in the eyes of everyone that sings along that they feel it very deeply. I got a lump in the throat myself when I watched it, right? And I’ve seen this performance many times and feel the same every time, because … because when they sing about ‘peacocks’ and ‘grey bullets’ ⁵ they talk about what happened at 22 July. And, I think that … eh … this is important … for young people of minority background to see this, these characters, cause there is not that much else to look up to in a way. It is important to see something that you recognise yourself in sometimes. Then you get a kind of … warm understanding … do you see what I mean? … that you are being understood. (Ali, 22, Muslim, west African origin)

The above quote thus highlights how musical aesthetics and representation together allowed for a strong and emotional experience of being recognised. It also brings to attention how music, perhaps more than most other expressive forms, is able to energise audiences by means of affective modes of communication.

Belonging: musically imagined civic communities

The informants’ accounts bring to attention how their reception of these performances also entailed experiences of symbolic inclusion. As the following reflection by one of the informants illustrates, the prominent role of a hip hop act such as Karpe Diem in these events functioned as a source for the symbolic recognition of minority identity, in a way that positioned them as part of community – not as the suspicious or exotic other:

I think it is an incredibly good thing that someone who is not ethnically Norwegian … in a way … project themselves as ethnical Norwegians and say: we feel the pain, this is horrible, we stand together.

(Pascal, 25, Muslim, west African origins)

As the quote above illustrates, the performances of Karpe Diem were construed as not only involving the public presence of minorities – as being represented – but also to involve a positive contribution towards the trauma that Norwegian society underwent at the time – as being recognised – and included into an imagined ‘we’. This is an observation that resonates with Georgina Born’s (2000) notion of ‘musically imagined communities’ (p. 35). For Born, the collective and same-time fixation on mediations of music may function as an important vehicle for the forging of what Benedict Anderson (1983) famously coined ‘imagined communities’.

Many of the informants themselves made connections between these media events, the feeling of being recognised and their actual engagement in collective life subsequent to the Utøya massacre. As one of them reflected,

To see someone, a minority-performer stand there at the stage and show understanding for what had happened … I think that represented us who are of minority background really well, ’cause they show respect for all that has happened … I went to the (local) memorial ceremony in Bergen myself. […] And also last year, at the 22 July, I did the same thing and put flowers there, because I wanted to show that I care about all that happened … to show that I care about Norway. It is not like I am concerned about Norway all the time, but when such cruel things happen I want to show … that I’m Norwegian … that I have compassion for Norway. (Aamir, 19, Muslim, Middle Eastern origin)

The experience of recognition thus seems to have worked as inclusionary at a more practical level – the informants felt entitled to take part in the collective mourning processes. An interesting aspect of such engagement is that it also involves an extension of the imagined community of media spectatorship, into the ‘real’ community of people physically coming together for memorial ceremonies.

As the preceding accounts make evident, the informants’ engagement with these performances worked as inclusionary at a social level – stimulating feelings of belonging to Norway as a social community. However, I will in the following argue that these feelings of belonging also entail significant civic dimensions. Whereas Georgina Born’s concept of ‘musically imagined communities’ do well in capturing how mass mediations of music may work to engender social communities, I will in the following argue that mass mediations of music may become the expressive ‘raw’ material for the imaginations of what are also civic communities. This, however, is an argument that rests upon the contextual conditions that these media events and their reception were embedded in, rather than explicit connections made by the informants in the interviews.

The media events following the Utøya massacre functioned as a symbolic arena for the reconstruction of the image of Norwegian society. Public life in Norway in this period saw a number of speeches, appeals and official declarations, not least as part of these media events, foregrounding fundamental democratic ideals. These ideals included openness, multicultural tolerance, solidarity, non-violence and also legal proceduralism (exemplified by the broad consensus on giving the Utøya killer a fair trial). As such, these media events were both embedded in and articulations of a societal context charged with collective as well as political tensions and drive. Thus, these musical media events also involved the imagination of a community centred on a set of core collective political values – or in other words: a civic community. The function of musical performances as ‘raw’ material for such imaginations is an observation supported by central theoretical contributions into the political nature of music. John Street (2012), for instance, argues that social and political conditions invest music with political meaning. Similarly, political theorist Jane Bennett (2001) argues that music may, given a politically charged context, ‘… enchant political ideas – investing those ideas with emotional significance’ (p. 113).

Conclusion

In the context of musical media events, this case study offers an example of how recognition can take place at the level of media reception. The analysis has illustrated how recognition played out in the course of the following three-step dynamic: (1) media expositions of minority identity and sensibilities engendered a feeling of public representation that (2) allowed for an experience of recognition, which (3) engendered a sense of belonging to Norwegian society as a social community. As has been shown, media events, following major critical events such as the Utøya killings, intensify such dynamics of recognition, constituting what I have called ‘moments of recognition’. Hence, this study brings to attention an important temporal dimension of the ways in which media representations may set into action dynamics of recognition; it is not merely a question about what is being represented and how but also when and under which political and cultural conditions. The study has further identified key factors in strengthening these experiences of recognition. The very presence of minority artists among ethnically Norwegian artists was in itself experienced as an upward revaluation of minority identity. In this, the perceived quality of the musical performances – Karpe Diem’s ability and merit – emerged as an interrelated and equally important factor. Finally, the affective appeal of these performances emerged as a significant factor in energising experiences of recognition.

Returning to Dahlgren’s (2002) notion of ‘civic affinity’, this study has also shown how the informants’ engagement with these musical representations stimulated what he terms ‘a minimal sense among citizens … that they belong to the same social and political entities’ (author’s emphasis). However, whereas the sense of belonging to the Norwegian society as a social entity is manifest in the informants’ accounts and reflections, their sense of belonging to Norway as a political entity is made plausible by and rests upon inferences from contextual conditions. The socio-politically charged conditions in which these media events and their reception were embedded make probable that the community to which the informants felt included within was, if only momentarily, also centred on core democratic values. As such, this study has highlighted how music in the context of such media events potentially functions as the expressive ‘raw’ material for the imaginations of communities centred on core democratic values or what I have termed ‘musically imagined civic communities’. This re-actualises a more general, yet often overlooked, aspect of the democratic relevance of music; by means of its inherent capability to stimulate feelings of belonging, music may constitute a resource for motivating audiences to act as citizens.

However, the examples and insights brought forward in this study are in need of problematisation. First, ethno-cultural identities are fluid and multidimensional and do not map on so easily to musical representation as what may appear from this study. A limitation in this study is thus that the informants were strategically selected due to their pre-stated hip hop interest. Hence, this study primarily tells us something about how hip hop-interested minority youth experience hip hop to engender recognition. However, given what is known about the high popularity of hip hop among minority youth in general, there is reason to believe that the dynamics of recognition explored and highlighted in this study may apply more broadly.

Second, this study also runs the risk of presenting an idealised image of the hip hop genre. It is a genre that may affect identity formation and sense of belonging in a multitude of different ways that are not necessarily unifying or progressive. As suggested by Andersson (2010), for instance, hip hop music forms part of transnational social imaginaries where immigrants identify with international diasporas, rather than with nations. A limitation of this study is thus that it highlights how hip hop music can be seen to stimulate national belongings given highly specific, and indeed exceptional, contexts such as that of the national mourning concerts following the Utøya massacre. How musically based representations may work to stimulate imaginations of civic communities on a more routine and day-to-day basis, where media consumption is much more fragmented and less intense, is a question that requires both a closer analysis of minorities’ everyday media habits and more fine-grained ethnographic approaches. Moreover, although hip hop in this study emerges as an artistic practice that counters negative stereotypes of minority youth, it is certainly also a genre that promotes its own set of confining stereotypes – be it in the form of aggressive masculinity, consumerism or sexism. Thus, making generalising claims that mass-mediated hip hop music unambiguously constitutes a source of symbolic recognition for minority youth is at best simplifying and in many contexts simply not the case.

A third aspect that needs to be problematised is the way in which such media events necessarily involve a staging of multiculturalism (Solomon, 2016). This, in turn, relates to the authenticity of recognition. Following Taylor’s (1994) line of thought, whereas the inclusion of persons of immigrant background in media programming, be it as news anchors or in entertainment shows, may be motivated by the best of intentions, it involves the risk of ending up as acts of ‘patronising’ or, worse, ‘condescension’ (pp. 69–70). From this perspective, recognition may, in reality, be ‘granted’ on the premises of the majority culture, involving an asymmetrical process of recognition. The memorial concerts after the Utøya massacre were indeed staged in order to promote multicultural acceptance, and the press subsequently unanimously celebrated Karpe Diem as the ‘poster boys’ of Norway’s multicultural future (Nærland, 2015). Also, a reoccurring criticism against Karpe Diem has been that the group fit all too easily into idealised majoritarian conceptions of immigrants. Whether the intentions behind the staging of Karpe Diem as part of these media events were genuine or not lies outside the scope of this study to investigate. However, the informants in this study evidently experienced Karpe Diem to have earned their presence in these events, not on the basis of quota or managerial strategies but because of the band’s ability and quality. This suggests that at the level of reception, at least, recognition was experienced as authentic.