Then it was on to analyzing the data . . . 

Analysis involves identifying patterns and links that highlight key ideas and relationships between ideas and pieces of information. 

For example, I might have noted how this review of a "songster," a small book that contained the lyrics to songs performed by Jenny Lind (so that people could sing along in parlor gatherings), emphasizes Lind's popularity and her role as a commodity. I found similar patterns in many texts. 
 

I also looked closely at the visual elements in sheet music covers, the way Lind is almost always shown dressed in white, or how the "Greeting to America" sheet music cover surrounds her with classical images, which were often used to suggest high-minded ideals about American civic virtue.
Drawing from my reading of secondary histories, I noted several issues that were important to the American middle class during this period, and I explored the various arguments that were being offered about those issues. 

For example, I looked at the history of female performers and of how audiences responded to popular performances. I discovered that there was more debate about audience behavior than there was about the behavior of female performers, which led me to look again at the texts and my own opening question. 


Notes from my 
Lind project journal
I also considered the theoretical explanations for popularity offered by John Fiske and Janice Radway, who argue that popular texts become popular because they echo patterns of thinking and self-identification among audiences but also allow enough interpretive "wiggle room" that people can find their own meanings and uses for the texts.