Ethnography and popular music studies

Popular Music ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Popular Music Studies

Simon Frith (1982) once bemoaned the fact that students would rather sit in the library and study popular music (mainly punk) in terms of the appropriate cultural theory, than conduct ethnographic research which would treat popular music as social practice and process. Ten years later the literature on popular music is still lacking in ethnography.

scholarly journals Theory and Fieldwork

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Shepherd ◽  
Beverley Diamond
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Current Work ◽  
Alternative Theory ◽  
Prominent Feature ◽  
Social Contingencies ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
Disciplinary History ◽  
The Social ◽  
Academic Study

Abstracts John Shepherd This intervention suggests that the recent and welcome emergence of fieldwork as a prominent feature of much current work in popular music studies has deflected attention from an undertaking that characterized the early days of popular music studies: that of developing from within the various protocols of cultural theory concepts to explain the meanings, significances, and affects that music as a socially and culturally constituted form of human expression holds for people. In tracing a shift from theoretical to ethnographic concerns in work carried out in popular music studies by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, social anthropologists, and sociologists, it is suggested that a renewed emphasis on theory in musicological work in popular music studies may be of consequence for the academic study of music as a whole. Beverley Diamond In response to the editor's question concerning theory and fieldwork, this colloquy argues that the two are inseparable. Further, the importance of fieldwork in providing "alternative theory" which challenges the consistencies of academic thinking is emphasized. For this reason, the article eschews disciplinary history as a means of tracing important theoretical currents in music scholarship and, instead, presents arguments which confront the hegemonies of any history, any discourse of intellectual continuity, positing incidents which expose the social contingencies of theory.

Getting into the groove?

Popular Music ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-402
Author(s):  
Jill Halstead
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
And Performance ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Music And Gender

Sexing the Groove: Popular Music and Gender.Edited by Sheila Whiteley. London and New York: Routeledge, 1997, 353 pp.Sex, sexuality and articulations of gender are well-established components in the production and performance of popular music. Hence, Sexing the Groove, edited by Sheila Whiteley, is a very welcome addition to this vital and growing area of popular music studies and cultural theory more generally. The collection reflects the reality that studies of gender and sexuality in popular music are born of a hybrid lineage; accordingly the book approaches its subject from a range of disciplines such as sociology, cultural theory, media studies, sychology and musicology, and as such is a vibrant mix. Despite its relative diversity, the book's structure and progression is fluent and focused.

Dancing in Brave Spaces

2019 ◽  
pp. 223-238
Author(s):  
Micah E. Salkind
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
Folk Music ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Social Dance ◽  
Dance Studies ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Extant Literature ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Popular Music Studies

The seventh and final chapter of Do You Remember House? uses auto-ethnographic research to bring together the theoretical interventions developed in the previous six chapters. Building on work in dance studies and popular music studies, this chapter employs the notion of dancing in brave spaces, rather than what have often been referred to in the extant literature on queer social dance as safe spaces. It suggests that Chicago house culture inculcates a way of living bravely with socio-sonic difference, in part by fostering experiences of inter-subjective intimacy and vulnerability. The theoretical insights articulated in this chapter are grounded in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the spring of 2014 at Chances Dances and Queen! as well as during Boogie McClarin’s house dance classes at The Old Town School of Folk Music.

Pop and the Nation-State: towards a theorisation

Popular Music ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Cloonan
Keyword(s):  
Popular Music ◽  
State Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
The One

Recent years have seen two noticeable trends in Popular Music Studies. These have been on the one hand a series of works which have tried to document the ‘local’ music scene and, on the other, accounts of processes of globalisation. While not uninterested in the intermediate Nation-State level, both trends have tended to regard it as an area of increasingly less importance. To state the matter more boldly, both trends have underplayed the continually important role of the Nation-State.

scholarly journals Gender messages in contemporary popular Malay songs

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Collin Jerome
Keyword(s):  
Gender Roles ◽  
Romantic Relationships ◽  
Popular Music ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Text Analysis ◽  
Women's Roles ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Popular Songs ◽  
Popular Music Studies ◽  
Content Analyses

Gender has been an important area of research in the field of popular music studies. Numerous scholars have found that contemporary popular music functions as a locus of diverse constructions and expressions of gender. While most studies focus on content analyses of popular music, there is still a need for more research on audience’s perception of popular music’s messages. This study examined adult Malay listeners’ perceptions of gender messages in contemporary Malay songs. A total of 16 contemporary Malay songs were analysed using Fairclough’s (1992) method of text analysis. The content of the songs that conveyed messages about gender were the basis for analysis. The results showed that the messages revolve mainly around socially constructed gender roles and expectations in romantic relationships. Gender stereotypes are also used in the songs to reinforce men’s and women’s roles in romantic relationships. The results also showed that, while listeners acknowledge the songs’ messages about gender, their own perceptions of gender and what it means to be a gendered being in today’s world are neither represented nor discussed fully in the songs analysed. It is hoped the findings from this, particularly the mismatch between projected and perceived notions of gender, contribute to the field of popular Malay music studies in particular, and popular music studies in general where gender messages in popular songs and their influence on listeners’ perceptions of their own gender is concerned.

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