Salsa 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://www.angelfire.com/planet/ethno-salsa/
1. Note the idea of analyzing “time,” “space,” and “place” as organizing principles for understanding social communities—and music’s role in the creation and maintenance of same. Please provide concepts of time, space, and place as they were articulated and/or created by your informants. NOTE: this does not simply mean describing the site of your fieldwork, or the time of day at which it occurred—rather, describe the conceptual or cognitive “spaces” which music, in your target sub-community, was used to create.
2. Note ways in which music plays into issues of social connection, economic and social status and IDENTITY. We spoke, over the course of the semester, about identity (like “class,” or “ethnicity,” or “gender,” for that matter) as “constructed”—that is, not an objective quantifiable phenomenon, but rather a mental/emotional/spiritual selective creation, and ways in which music played a role in such creation. Give an example from your own fieldwork of music used as a tool for the construction of identity: preferably, give an example of an informant who used music to recreate or transform his/her cultural identity.
3. How/why do informants develop/articulate/”use” history to create sense of community identity? Give an example (perhaps from your fieldwork interviews) of an informant who provided a “history” of the community, and provide an interpretation of the meaning of the particular historical factors that informant chose to emphasize—or even mythologize.
4. Note the interesting, revealing comments by insiders using “us” and “them” constructs; what does it mean when one “insider” uses such constructs about another “insider”. Does this nuance our (admittedly very simplistic) binary designation of “insider” and “outsider”? Please provide at least 2 examples of individuals (suitably anonymized) from your community whose perceptions of “insider” and “outsider” were contradictory, and interpret the significance of these contradictions.
5. Are there personal, musical, experiential, pedagogical, or other behavioral patterns that emerge from bios? Provide at least 2 examples, from your own fieldwork and informants, of behavioral patterns that seem to be relatively common among your target sub-community. Do these patterns play into the group’s shared sense of cultural identity?
6. Note the sense of a local community and the various “maps” overlaid upon that landscape. “Landscape” as we know is a cognitive construction; what do your informants have to say about such landscapes, and what do those landscapes reveal about identity and community priorities? Describe at least 3 locations in your sub-community’s “cognitive landscape” and interpret the meaning of those locations to your informants.
posted by CJS at 3:50 PM
19 Comments:
5.In our project, one of the things that we noted was that some of our most informative informants (that sounds redundant...)very closely linked dance with music. Joe, Theresa, and DJ Mario all had some experience with salsa dance and music. DJ Mario had mentioned that once he got interested in the music, he sought out dance lessons so that he could better "get the gist" of what was going on. Joe had grown up dancing, and Theresa had real "dance" experience, but dances salsa more for fun than anything else. So the community seems to not differentiate between dance and music as two seperate things, it's two aspects of salsa as one whole construct, or "creature".
6. Almost all of our informants seemed to be able to give us a brief history of salsa's inception and development, along with there version of what it was. I think that a lot of this was because they felt a sense of "ownership" of salsa and the culture. It was sort of something that belonged to them and their world. Salsa seemed to be more than "just for fun", or something to help create a community space and identity, but a sort of hobby - and most people try to learn as much as they can about their hobby.
1. The number one cognitive time that was apparent amongst this community was the idea of a time for people to get together and interact like a family. For example, many real family have busy lives and schedules, but many will make sure that they all get together and have dinner together, or maybe they all make sure and go to church together. For these people who have strong relationships with one another, salsa night is the one time that can be set aside to bring fellowship amongst friends that they have very close bonds and relationships with. This feeling of time to me was the strongest cognitive area that was demonstrated throughout our fieldwork.
2. When addressing this question I cant help but think of the example I cited during the presentation of the couple that one the dance competition. When thinking about the salsa community one first thought that comes to mind is not a white middle-aged married couple out on the dance floor. But yet these people who would not fit the stereotypical mold of what a salsa community member should be, got out on the dance floor and where transformed into great dancers that all the regulars appreciated and admired regardless of their ethnicity, background, etc. This couple has used their comfort out on the dance floor to transform their identity to fit in with a culture that is not typically associated with people like them.
5. One of the biggest behavioral and pedagogical attitudes that I witnessed through out my fieldwork comes in two parts. First of all the desire to help people learn to dance and interact within the community is something that many of the people in this community where very interested in. This great passion for helping people to become comfortable and generally a part of this community is backed up by a pedagogical style that encourages those who are ready to get up and learn to dance. No one has any problems with someone going out and making a fool of themselves trying to learn, and even the most avid dancers are willing to dance with a beginner and help them to learn and become better. In this community it is acceptable not to dance, but the dancing helps bring people closer together and these people are thrilled when you are ready to take that step.
2. One of the most noticeable defining things in the salsa community was the place you chose to go to for salsa night. While some people went to both Jake's and Melt, Melt was seen as a classier, more sophisticated place to be. As Danielle noted in some of her field notes early in the semester, Melt is situated in a different part of town than Jake's and is right across from a BMW dealership. It was sort of tacitly understood that people at Melt were there for a classier, less commercialized, or more pure, form of salsa music and dance. Jake's, on the other hand, was focused more on people getting out to dance and socialize, meet new people, and just have a good time. The difference in the ambience of the locations and the energy of the crowd helped make the differences apparent.
Danielle’s Salsa Comments
2. An example of an informant who used music to recreate his cultural identity was George. He had grown up listening and dancing salsa in his native Puerto Rico, and salsa is his primary link to the Latino community here in Lubbock. While salsa provides opportunity for social connections, it also recreates a sense of “home” and “the familiar” for him, both in terms of dancing and music, and even atmosphere to a certain extent. The salsa night is with what he is accustomed and also the environment that feels most comfortable to him during the week.
5. One pattern which emerged from the informant bios found in the fieldwork is that many of the informants have been doing salsa all their life. Most of the informants began dancing and listening to salsa as a child, often learned from friends or family members (as opposed to having taken official lessons). This reveals that music and dancing are viewed as integral components of socialization; salsa is something that involves everyone (whether young or old), and is viewed as important in the culture since it is passed on so consistently and widely.
6. The sub-community’s “cognitive landscapes” seem very much aligned with the actual physical venue or location because the crowds at each venue had unique expectations and conceptions of what salsa should be (which was thus reflected in the salsa night event itself.) One “cognitive landscape” was at Melt; they seemed to be collectively seeking to create a very open, welcoming community. They also were seeking an emphasis on the dancing itself and also upon sophistication, “traditional music,” and maintaining relationships. Another “cognitive landscape” was found at Jakes, where the crowd expected more hip, mainstream music. Alcohol sale and consumption was pushed more than the act of dancing; the emphasis being on trendiness and numbers rather than being “traditional.” South Beach contained a third “cognitive landscape” that was even more extreme than Jakes. South Beach attendees expected the environment to be even more mainstream and larger than Jakes.
1. Music is transformative in worship. The use of music at the start of the worship service is important to notice and almost universal in all church traditions in America. The text and music marks a conceptual shift in regards to the physical space. The sanctuary becomes a sanctuary when a gathering of believers assemble and focus their attention on God through singing.
3. Our Chinese church informant spoke to some degree that the traditions and music of their church is all borrowed since the Chinese do not have a Christian tradition. But the fact that these believers started their own church suggests an idea of being displaced even from the church traditions they came to borrow. Perhaps there was a desire to infuse a strong sense of Chinese culture among the Western Christian traditions heavily borrowed.
6. I would surmise that three important landscapes are church, home, and Texas Tech. Many of the congregation members are made of international students and their families. The local churches provide a network of fellow community members distinctly Chinese or Korean to provide support for living in Lubbock. Homelife, though not directly addressed in this research, is revealed in the periphery. Homes serve as alternate meeting places for community functions away from the church building.
1) Imagine: You are a Mexican-American in Lubbock, Texas and have a strong sense of cultural pride. One night, you're casually eating dinner with your friends or family and a mariachi band strikes up a tune in the back corner of the restaraunt. You know this one, since you have heard mariachi music from an early age...or maybe you just enjoy it. Suddenly, the restaraunt ceases to be just a restaraunt. You become aware of the other patrons...you maybe even recognize a few from the last time you ate there. A table just across the room from you is being played to. The children from that table leave their chairs and begin flailing themselves in a dancelike-way (as children do) out of excitement. Your spouse grabs your hand and pulls you out into the middle of the floor and makes you dance! At first, you're a little hesitant. This IS public, afterall...but the music keeps playing and you keep dancing, sometimes you sing along when you know the words. More and more people join you in the middle of the floor. What has just happened? The music transformed the restaraunt into a cultural space...the space which was sometimes created during our fieldwork observations.
3) When we asked our guitarron player about the history of their group, he strongly emphasized the part where he told us that he split from his first group because of musical disagreement. This leads me to believe that, while we didn't see a lot of evidence of this in the following rehearsal, his interpretation of Mariachi was in a different direction than the ensemble he left. This would mean that the music has potentially thousands of different individual meanings, and that *smaller* "sub-communities" within the larger mariachi community are formed based on how people identify themselves with this music. Our guitarron player obviously left his previous "community" because he disagreed with how they interpreted that cultural aspect of it.
5) I am not exactly sure about the personal "start times" for mariachi for all of the individuals in Mi Tierra, but based on what I know of them and other mariachis not in the group, many of them start learning, playing, and listening to mariachi when they are very young. This was either through learning it in middle school, learning it from a family member, teaching themselves through lots of listening, or learning it from another player in a private lesson type way. To think about this, I usually connect it with what I know about Irish music (since I'm at least a little more familiar with that)...because while some mariachis learn their music from a printed page, others learn it by ear. For example...you can either learn Irish music from a CD, from a printed page (which seems to not be generally recommended), or from another person. For both Irish Trad. and Mariachi, learning the music from somebody else makes it an extremely social experience. Because of the ways which Mariachi is carried through the generations ensures that the people who are learning the music learn it while also learning the intent of who they learn it from. In turn, it helps to preserve the sense of cultural identity in a way that is semi-consistant across different age groups, which makes the music more accessible to everyone in that community.
1. I think the ideas of time, space, and place are evident in the VOL community. They have created a space of worwhip where none such space existed for them. The choir wanted to incorporate other ethnicities, religions, and members of churches into one conglomerate and that is exactly what they did. They needed a space to sing the word of God and to rehearse and use the gospel to worship and they did just that. Time is non-existant. They use any time they have to praise the word of God and to praise Him as well.
2. I think that is exactly what C used. He used gospel music to create his identity as a song leader. He uses gospel music to see himself as a whole person. I asked him in the interview if gospel music was a lifestyle, and he said he didn't know any other way. It was definitely a lifestyle because if you did not live the music you preached, they you lied to yourself. He told me that you had to live life like you live your music.
3. C used the history of gospel music to paint a picture for me of the way gospel music is today. He told me about how gospel stemmed from spiritual music and how it has changed over the years. He emphasized the rold of the song leader and of the actual text itself and the comradery of the members of the group. He would talk baout choirs and how they were "tight" and could sing well together. He talked about different people that helped pave the way for gospel music. He was very informative. I guess calling him an informant is sufficient.
3. This is very close to what I spoke about in previous discussion questions. (please see my comments on the Mariachi presentation) I completely agree with my teammate Jeremy talks about how the Chinese are almost perceived as outsiders within their own religious culture.
1. There are many reasons why churches choose to put music into their services at certain times. For example, some churches choose to not have the choir/organist make any music during communion so that their congregation can focus without any distractions. In regard to psychical space Jeremy is correct when saying that, “The sanctuary becomes a sanctuary when a gathering of believers assemble and focus their attention on God through singing. “
6. Describe at least 3 locations in your sub-community’s “cognitive landscape” and interpret the meaning of those locations to your informants.
Overton- this is the community and part of Lubbock that many of the LCC members are part of. This part of Lubbock, Texas had 4-5 apartment complexes located within blocks of their church that are dominated by people of Asian descent.
Texas Tech- most of the “young” people that attend LCC are exchange students from Texas Tech. They are put into the American culture and want to become Christian. By having this church relatively close to campus and the apartments within the area, it allows these students to attend their services without needing any sort of transportation.
International lunch- this takes place across the street from the Texas Tech campus. This again is within close proximately to students, the church, and many neighborhoods that have cheap housing (which many of the students choose to live in to save money).
3) Our informants emphasized two major thigs in our discussions. Number one: that this was from Mexico, they did it to keep the mariachi tradition alive in the Americas and to remind them of their heritag. And Number two: that this is purely a mexican art and was in no way influenced by the french. This was interesting since we found some websites that sited dome French influences.
6. Our informants used landscape quite literally. Many of the styles of mariachi are named after the region they come from. Jalisco is a perfect example. They used these to show the musical styings of that area. The audience members frequently recognized the songs from their home territory.
1) I did notice at the fair performance that there was a space created between hispanics and other ethnicities. The majority of the hispanics in attendance sat up front near the band, while the back rows were more caucasian. Like they were on the outside looking in. The band did a nice job of trying to get rid of this space by speaking english and singin popular american songs.
3. the history thing popped up over & over in our interviews...Rodolfo discussing how each town/village/city, or even regions within each of those might have a take on a dance that cited their history, their value system, etc...
4. the insider/outsider thing also popped up a few times, Daniel describing himself as part of the community, but separate from it as well, Zenaida describing to us how things were & how they are now, with the fracture of groups and those who broke away being outsiders to her now, even though they were all once a whole.
6. Like Josh says above, landscape is important, the dresses, the dances, the meanings behind those things are all based off of what people were seeing, feeling, smelling, etc in the areas where these art forms developed.
2. A is one of the banjo players/guitar players/vocalists in the bluegrass group I observed at SPC. He is originally from the Northeast, specifically from a community where there is virtually no bluegrass community or any trace of the bluegrass culture that some of the older members of the ensemble have experienced first hand. A was able to use the music and SPC as a ground to interact with and learn social rules from older more experienced people in the ensemble (ie participating in picking sessions he was invited to by R, learning bluegrass history from P1, living in a small rural community at SPC). He has changed his identity to that of a bluegrass musician by participating not only in SPC’s bluegrass program, but by interacting with both the older musicians in the program and the community surrounding SPC.
5. We had two main personal background patterns immerge in the SPC group. Our informants were either born playing the music (specifically they had lived around SPC for the larger part of their lives and were older and now wanted to either learn to play or learn to play better), or they were born to a drastically different community (Scotland, Northeast US) and loved the music so they took a chance and moved to SPC. All of the informants come to SPC because of a love of the music (not necessarily the degree). The idea of hospitality is key in this subcommunity (as witnessed several times through various invitations to play), and the idea that the two halves of the community share a common identity through music and a desire to play the music with others.
6. There are three main “landscapes” that we discovered in our fieldwork at SPC. The first is the classroom. This is a structured, guided ensemble setting run by a professor. This landscape is the easiest to find, but doesn’t give an accurate picture of how our informants view their musical world. The second is the professional gig. The classroom and the professional gig act as poles in the SPC informant’s world. R remarks he’s not a professional, so he doesn’t gig. Instead he occupies the classroom landscape. The part of their musical world that connects them is “picking.” Technically picking is a verb, but the action creates a landscape in and of itself. This landscape is what R calls “real bluegrass.” It is comprised of people playing music simply to share that music with their community. This is what links the professional gig and the classroom.
2. RTB, Texas Tech graduate who took a job with Enron. After the scandal he decided to look more into the music he got into while in college. RTB had picked up a guitar and learned a few songs and written a few of his own. To further his education he went to SPC for the bluegrass/country program. Now he is no longer a business man but a country musician trying to make his way into the business. For further details see our team web site to find the link for RTB’s personal site.
5. From a behavioral stand point I noticed that there is an openness and willingness to share from those involved in both the country and bluegrass. RTB was very helpful and very inviting, eager to answer questions. The people at the Meadow Musical were much the same, inviting us back to not only listen, play as well. Ultimately I feel they were doing what they could to create more interest in what they do and why they do it. Pedagogically I saw an eagerness to learn and share knowledge at the Meadow Musical. RTB explained that the education he received at SPC greatly helped him and increased his interest in the music he was making.
6. A bar, Meadow Musical, and SPC are the three locations. The cognitive landscape of the bar from the performers perspective is a place for performance and a chance to increase their notoriety. From the perspective of the patrons, it is a place of entertainment, fun, and alcohol. At the Meadow Musical a much different landscape is created, one stressing community “oneness”, entertainment, and providing a safe environment in which to have some fun. SPC creates a landscape of learning, and career advancement. RTB expressed how much he learned and the “new world” it opened up to him musically.
1. From my fieldwork with Mariachi music, I got a feeling that this music tried more to branch out, outside of its created “space,” like Josh mentioned. It just seemed like they were always trying to broaden their space to incorporate more people and places. This is evident in the wide variety of performance contexts.
2. I like Danielle’s word choice in answering this question. She said that music creates as sense of familiarity to who they are and where they come from. This is very apparent in the Mariachi community. It was fascinating to hear our informants talk about how the music brings back memories, or creates connection from one person to another.
1.In the BF group, situations of learning and performing created space and place for the members and the audience. It not only formed an atmosphere of supporters but also a place were the practice could be shared with others, and the 'identity' (see below) could be passed on.
2. In the BF research we came across one who did not come from the culture in which BF was practiced. When he started researching it, it described getting to know where his roots were from and also gaining a new respect for the identity he did not know he had. On the other side, we spoke to a dance leader who talked of passing on the tradition of BF to her students and the audience as a way of promotion and teaching of the cultural identity.
3. We encountered two types of history. That of the original BF in Mexico, and that of BF in Lubbock Texas. The first was important because it was what the groups were trying to preserve in the 'authenticty' of their dances. Other was important for us to analyze and try to see trends and patterns with in the community, and how they effect the BF community. This first history creates a bond between the identity of everyone in the target community while the other shows a seperation or difference of identity between groups with in the sub community.
1 I think one of the main things that seperated our group in Lubbock, Texas from let's say, the groups in Mexico, is the idea of "space" being created for all to listen because here in Lubbock the idea was in a way to remind of one's culture, but don't put it past them to bridge the gaps between cultures and make it more entertaining for all people so that it is possible to play any venue, or any function. I think it is very important for mariachi groups to do this in the States because it gives them the oppurtunity to still stay true to who they are with classics, but bridge gaps with American tunes for all to enjoy.
2. I think some of the best field notes we receieved were about identity. We asked them to comment on what mariachi meant to them, and every single mexican that was in the group talked about how it was a way to remember their culture here. They were singing the songs of the homeland and tried to sing them as close as possible for the people in the States to keep that since of home in them.
3. I found it very interesting to hear our group and particularly one informant talk about the history of mariachi and denying the idea that the French were involved in some way. I believe there were a few possibilities as to why he so strongly believed in this idea which today through my research show that there is no REAL answer, but one reason is this might be what he was taught, or rather learned from a bunch of other mariachis at a conference, or it might be what he believes and what he teaches as part of his mariachi experience.
2/3. I think that playing mariachi music is construction of their identity. Actually, each member of Mi Tierra speaks English very well. They almost speak English as native. They have several American repertoires. When I saw their performance, they played American tune, but I did not see any hardship because of language. However, I noticed that totally different mood, color, and feeling of music was played by mariachi band even same American tune. I think that was an obvious transformation of music style. 5. Yes, I noticed that they had some of behavioral patterns. When before they started playing music, bass player most of time said some Spanish word. At the rehearsal, I saw many times that bassist, team leader point out musical thing to other member. He also tried to demonstrate several things. I think that was very pedagogical.
5.A common thread we found was that most of the girls who danced BF, one or both parents danced it when they were young. With in the Aztec group from Taos (who played at the Day of the Dead), a mom and daughter both danced together throughout the night. This is about the cultural identity. The parents want their child to continue the cultural they have grown with.
3.BF dancing is largely based on the history of the region its from. For example, at the Day of the Dead festival, Debbie’s group did a long dance about a man who came home from the Mexican Independence war. It told a great story about love and jealousy. The fact they the BF community is strict with authenticity, shows how ‘real’ they want to keep the stories of their history.
6. 1 KDAV. The place is every radio, and yet not really. This place is greatly diminished in importance in the overall landscape because, as we know, AM radio has, for SEVERAL generations, been used as a carrier of primamily talk radio, leaving the higher-quality stereo FM bands for music stations. I can’t, for instance, pick it up at all on my stereo dial (non digital), and it comes through quite poorly in my car (digital tuner). The place where it really gains prominence is in the enculturating tool of the internet radio subscription. This is where cognitive space is at it’s finest, for a price. Yes, for a modest fee, you too, can become a part of the Lubbock “early” rock community. This sounds unimpressive when you are sitting in Lubbock, but try this: if you are a Dallasite, go to www.wrr101.com and listen to the radio. If you are like me and listened to it quite a bit, then you will get a very nostalgic feeling. Try the same thing with Minnesota public radio. There, I get a feeling like I am actually a part of that place! When they talk about specific physical places, or advertise stores that we don’t have here, I get a sense of belonging to this sort of hip culture that I, in reality, know next to nothing about. This technology becomes a mediator of space in a way that makes the technology relatively concealed.
2. I can think of anything more central to the half-century arc of our tale than identity. What is Lubbock? Is it the dirt and buildings? Is it Texas Tech? Is it the academic population? Is it the “townies?”. The answer is, of course, yes to all of the above. So who could possibly boil this place down? No one who has done what our class has could possibly do so, but the outside world who knows little of this town has done exactly this and have attached to a single man to it: Buddy Holly. I love that term, selective creation. The thing I draw the most from is the implication that there are multiple choices. The citizens of Lubbock are quite aware of the many diverse cultural signifiers of the town and particularly, and the population with the financial means to culturally stimulate the town and the will to do so still choose to advertise it to the world, to a large degree as the hometown of Buddy Holly, as if that is the only good thing to come out of there. No one talks about how Topeka is the hometown of just one individual! It is well-known nationally and incidentally, has less than half of the population of Lubbock. The population of the city for whom Holly’s musical legacy (in the sence of a fairly direct stylistic lineage) is a priority for only one of a number of minorities and for this city to culturally grow, it must embrace a larger, more inclusive identity.
sorry, 1st sentence should read, "I canNOT think..."
Post a Comment
<< Home