An ethnographic approach to global pop music studies.
This edited collection offers evocative ways into an international selection of popular music, from the Ecuadorian indie scene to Chinese rock. In exploring the experiences of musicians, fans, industry professionals, and academics, the rich complexity of popular music is brought to life through ethnography as an immersive approach to both undertaking and communicating research.
Experimenting with ethnography through the joys and tribulations of musical production, fandom, and scholarship, the contributors critically consider what it means to be a popular music ethnographer and what it means to take an ethnographic approach to studying popular music.
In addition to the critical essays, shorter vignettes are provided by musicians, venue owners, music writers, live music photographers, and fans. Altogether, the book explores the practices, places, and identities behind the music.
Foreword – Afterword: Ethnographic waves Will Straw Introduction – Popular Music and Ethnography: An introduction to studies, from musicology to ethnomusicology and beyond Shane Blackman, Robert McPherson, Sarah Raine and Iain A. Taylor Part I: Practice Vignette 1. From the Subs Desk Frances Morgan Chapter 1. Raving Potentialities: Navigating Queer Fields in Post-Austerity Lisbon Jasemin Anika Khaleli Chapter 2. Conviviality and Collaboration: The intimacies of ethnographic practice and popular music production between Tanzania and the United Kingdom David Kerr and Hashim Rubanza Chapter 3. Developing Digital Intimacies: Examples from lockdown Ireland of a sustainable and hopeful popular music ethnography Sarah Raine and Aileen Dillane Chapter 4. Cineworlding PolyMUSICamory: Cinematic Research-Creation’s Speculative Worldings Michael B. MacDonald Chapter 5. A Two-Way Street! Reflections on Supervising Ethnographic Popular Music Ph.D. Projects Andy Bennett Vignette 2. Fight, Flight or Freeze: A Full Circle Breakthrough in Improvisation Diljeet Kaur Bhachu Part II: Place Vignette 3. Putting the Work in: Finding a Community within the DIY Music Industries Rebecca Wallace Chapter 6. Breaking in Tokyo: Socially Constructed ‘Sacred Places’ for Hip Hop Dance Jason Ng Chapter 7. Queering Carnival: Soca and Safe Spaces in Jamaica Erin MacLeod with research assistance from J-Flag Chapter 8. ‘I Need More of You’: Popular Music, Public Space and Political Mobilization Kai Ginkel Chapter 9. Notes on Studying Ecuadorian Independent Music: Endogenous Ethnography as Counter-Colonial Practice and the Politics of Affect Juan Pablo Viteri Chapter 10. Carving Out Our Own Spaces: Accessing Chinese Rock Music Scenes through a Multi-method Ethnographic Approach Mengyao Jiang Vignette 4. One Man, One Vision, Two Iconic Black Country Venues: Keepin’ Music Live Mike Hamblett Part III: Identity Vignette 5. In Conversation with Michelle Grace Hunder Chapter 11. Dynamic Reggae/Dancehall Bodies: An Ethnography into the Dance of Identity and Visibility ‘H’ Patten Chapter 12. ‘Chaperone Ethnography’ within Popular Music Studies in Algeria: Fieldwork Explorations of the MA-GNI-FICENT Show of Belles Nuits de Tigzirt Radia Kasdi Chapter 13. Rebels in Society? Ethnographic Moments of ‘Street Politics’ and Organic Intellectuals in the Historical and Contemporary UK Oi! Punk Scene Nathan Kerrigan and Aidan O’Sullivan Chapter 14. Policing Popular Music – ‘Therapy in the Trap’: An Online Eethnography of UK Drill and Grime Artists, Producers and Listeners Isobel Ingram and Shane Blackman Chapter 15. ‘But Anyway … You Know How It Is, How Things Go’: The Value of Group Interpretation in Understanding Researcher Positionality during Insider Research Eva Krisper Chapter 16. Scattered Diaries: Biographical Dialogues on the Ethnographic Imagination, Friendship and Popular Music Research Asya Draganova and Shane Blackman Vignette 6. ‘Latching Onto Music’: A Personal Journey through UK Subculture Grant Sullivan Concluding Thoughts – Ethnography as a Basis to Study Popular Music: From Obvious Statements to Original Endeavors Marie Buscatto Notes on Contributors
Dr Sarah Raine is a Science Foundation Ireland-Irish Research Council (SFI-IRC) Pathway Fellow at University College Dublin, Ireland. Shane Blackman is a Professor in Cultural Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University (UK), Research Fellow of the Danish National Centre for Social Research and a Research Associate in the Sociology Department of Goldsmiths, University of London. Dr Robert McPherson is a Senior Lecturer in Media & Communications at Canterbury ChristChurch University, UK. Dr Iain A. Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in Music, and Programme Leader of BA (Hons) Commercial Music at University of the West of Scotland, UK.
