Browsing by Subject "populaarimusiikki"

The work of an artist performing popular music requires comprehensive commitment, and to be successful, the artist must not only be in a favorable starting point, but also practice long-term. Success is not achieved alone, and a supportive environment has been found to be essential when aiming for the top. Commitment to training as well as motivation and belief in one's own abilities are easily put to the test without a supportive environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the encouragement received by successful singing artists performing popular music and the meanings of encouragement. The study identified in which stages of the life path of successful artists the meaningful encouragement experiences are located and what kind of meanings successful artists give to the encouragement they receive. The necessity of the research is increased by the fact that scientific research on artists performing popular music is very scarce, and my research corrects this deficiency in part. In the study, five successful artists performing popular music were interviewed. The interviews were conducted as open narrative interviews. The research was carried out and analyzed according to the narrative approach. Based on the stories of the artists, I placed the meaningful encouragement experiences in childhood and youth, the beginning of a career, critical moments and places of choice, as well as publicity, success and increased experience. I categorized the meanings of encouragement into opportunities, motivation and enthusiasm, self-belief and contradictions regarding encouragement. The encouragement stories of the artists were mostly in line with each other. Their lives have been very similar in terms of, for example, a musically encouraging growth environment, opportunities received and a career with an ascending start. They have received a lot of encouragement from many different sources throughout their life and it has supported them even through difficult moments. In the artists’ stories, the diversity and importance of encouragement came up both in childhood and youth as well as in the midst of success, the encouragement for example strengthening self-belief and providing opportunities. The participants found it meaningful that encouragement never ceased in any stage of life. The results of this study mostly support the results of previous studies and indicate that encouragement received in the early years of life has a significant role in future achievements.