"Lead guitar" presentation
All:
Please read and respond (via "Comments") to at least 3 of the following observations/queries arising from this presentation. Both team members and other class members should comment, and should particularly focus on ways in which insights from this presentation reflect, nuance, or contradict insights from your own fieldwork. Make sure your comments address this latter point.
Website at http://leadguitar.group.googlepages.com/
Please read and respond (via "Comments") to at least 3 of the following observations/queries arising from this presentation. Both team members and other class members should comment, and should particularly focus on ways in which insights from this presentation reflect, nuance, or contradict insights from your own fieldwork. Make sure your comments address this latter point.
Website at http://leadguitar.group.googlepages.com/
- Very effective use of website layout. What are all the ways in which data format and linkage help to set up, reveal, or clarify relationships?
- Great commentary about physical location/neighborhood/environment. How do such "material culture" factors reflect or reveal your target communities' "social landscapes." Remember, "landscape" is a cultural/identity idea, not a physical entity.
- How do musical style characteristics, like song texts, and their selection, help to reveal not only musical aesthetics but also social, cultural, or identity beliefs? What tools do you need to link the two? How do they apply in each of our examined situations?
- Notice the team's good commentary about enhanced insight as result of this seminar: even in a situation which may be somewhat familiar (e.g., in which you or a team member may be a quasi-insider), it is possible to use ethnographic approaches to gain new, fresh, or different insights on that familiar situation. In other words, just as it is possible to use ethnomusicological approaches to "find a way in" to an alien situation, it is also possible to use the same approaches to make a familiar situation more alien, thus enhancing your ability to observe previously-unnoticed factors.
- I was glad that team members spoke of the human relationships that you both discovered and developed. These relationships between informants and fieldworkers, like the relationships between sub-community members, are real (even if often ignored by conventional scholarship) and they should be valued and respected.
- Great phrase “transit of property” – can you relate this "passing of the torch" to concepts of lineage, as discussed in class?
- How do patterns of genres studied or valued reveal the sociology and/or demographics, of both musicians and of audiences?
posted by CJS at 11:14 AM
3 Comments:
1. I agree with Amber in the use of pictures for the informants. It helps give a sense of knowledge of the informant with a picture. It is not as linear and dry if just a description was used. I think it is good to use photos of such things and events because it does help the reader see what the reader had to go through.
3. I think the use of music texts does help reveal social, cultural, and identity beliefs. People will associate themselves with different songs, and that is why everyone has a different pallate of music that they listen to. Some people enjoy soft rock, while others as just as content with death metal. The song choice also makes a big difference in how the choir or band wants to be perceived from the audience perspective.
6. I do like the term "transit of property" because I think it does deal with a sort of lineage. I think this is true in the VOL project because the song leader instills lineage to the singers all the time. He wants to make sure that they know what he as a member has been through and has to remind them of why they do this. I also agree with Holly in the South American singers that go from village to village raising money.
2. This type of music lends itself to the local bar. People like to be close to home when they're older. They know better than to "drink and drive." This could have been learned the hard way or through common sense. This is one way how these bars can be so different in the makeup of the clientele.
5. When a bar caters to an older crowd, people are usually more than happy to chat. The bar is a social event that doesn't involve close friends, but also strangers. People who are older that go to bars on off nights are there not just to drink or "pick up chicks," but to socialize.
3. Many lyrics in this situation would deal with other secular musics (love lost or gained). But, there is the issue with drug use (legal or illegal) and the positive and negative consequences. Hard times (law problems, debts, love lost) is another factor. The blues is called the blues for a reason. This social interaction is a "church" for people whether they are currently on good or bad times. Everybody experiences the majority of these things in life and has to deal with them. This creates the aformentioned social interactions that take place.
4. Even if there is a quasi-insider, there are ways to approach something new. I think it was Stefan who earlier in the semester said that you just don’t say things about yourself and you keep it about them. If you are use to a situation or atmosphere, you can force yourself to look at it a new way. Check out the people working,
6. I can relate to the “passing of the torch” concept. As we mentioned, Zeniada is training one of her 14 year-old boys to be a leader. Zeniada was taught from the person before her. This will keep her group’s traditions and teaching styles intact. Because the art of Ballet Folklorico is all oral and there is hardly anything written down, there is a lot of “passing the torch” going on.
7. This makes me think of last Saturday when I was at Crickets. There was an older man who looked like Santa, playing songs from the 70’s. I personally enjoyed cause I grew up with that, however I heard many people talking about how they wanted some up to date stuff played. Saturday night at Crickets was covered with people 21-25ish. So is this a case of the audience using them as back ground music, the performers not knowing their audience, or that the audience didn’t know good music? Heh. I was wondering if this band would be more appropriate for a different night or a different venue.
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