Critical Review Set 1 / # 4 (5)

Andes sets out to elaborate on the process of commitment, or the bridge that has, “linked the macro level of social structure and culture to the individual,” as it pertains to youth cultures (Andes, 213). First she establishes that commitment has several dimensions in that it can vary across time and between individuals. To examine this notion, she chooses to focus specifically on “Punk” subculture as her case study. To do this, Andes carries out an ethnographic detailing of  “Punk” with various affiliates, of the culture who while not wholly emblematic, are in some ways demonstrative certain characteristics of it. By interviewing a host of people at different points in their punk careers, Andes is able to derive a generalized trajectory of the punk career, it’s different stages, and each stages different version of subcultural commitment.

While detailing her research methodologies, Andes mentions that she did not interview pre-adolescent punks. This maneuver she takes as self-evidently ethical. I must say, that this limitation seems overly timid. It seems that many ethnographers tow this line of extreme sensitivity to their subjects. Is it possible that in this delicate approach the scholarship is diminished?

Critical Review # 4(3) - Set 1

In her chapter of Music Scenes, “ ‘Tween Scene’: Resistance Within the Mainstream”, Melanie Lowe posits architects a thesis around the meaning, more accurately the social construction of meaning, involved with Tween Pop music and scene. She looked at here exclusively as it is listened to by young teen girls and organizes an ethnographic research opportunity to study the way these girls view the music themselves in relation to its content and image. Lowe details her methodology quite thoroughly and is careful to establish the influence of her role as an observer, and conversational participant in a self-reflexive way.

            Low offers a well-constructed analysis of the feminist elements of these girls’ approach to the music. Through analyzing the way these girls talked about the sexualized lyrics, and gaining insight into their values, Lowe realizes that Tween Pop plays a unique role. Lowe writes that girls can “, explore their own budding sexuality while protected from actually “meaning it” by the guise of derision”. (94) This role is that it allows these girls to operates with a sort of pre-emptive ironic reflexivity. Lowe provides examples of a feminist consciousness genuinely felt by these girls and shows how they rectify this allegiance with the hyper-sexualized discourse they feel the need to participate in as exemplified by the prevalent use of  “slut” and related epithets. Indeed Lowe’s success in the article comes through the way, she is able to sense tease out these conflicting lines of thought in the discussions she had.

            As food for thought, I would like to ask the class whether there exists an equivalent space for boys. Is there a place wherein young males are able to engage in self-defensive ironic behavior while simultaneously exploring what they mock? Furthermore, is there a culture for youth at this age that does not encourage young children to divide into their own genders?

           

Fieldnotes - Set 1

Fieldnotes on Lifeaquatic.blogspot

I’m assuming blog takes it’s name directly from the Wes Anderson film, The Life Aquatic feat. Steve Zissou

- is this an aesthetic borrowing? Elements in both saturation/nostalgic color editing, evocative of half-existing places, appeals to a similar subcultural sensibility

- what does the underwater aesthetic of the title have to do with the music?

Major themes/Questions:

1.the way in which aesthetic is converted into music/defines the music (reflexivity between aesthetic and music)?

2. How does this blog conceive of itself and its role in relation to a larger blogosphere/online community?

3. Is a blog as virtual and placeless as it might seem?

Formal Aspects

- What vocabulary is used in the blog descriptions?

- Words/themes/aesthetics that come up often in description?

- What level of technical description is necessary for the blog?

- Common technical words: 808s,

- What is the way in which the site seeks to incorporate other music sites/communities (bandcamp, soundcloud, etc…)

- What level blog is life aquatic?:

- What size is the readership?

- Which blogs follow life aquatic? Which blogs does life aquatic follow? (*How does the blog incorporate it’s twitter presence?)

- How close to the bedroom are the producers?

- Are the AU producers more small-scale than the foreigners?

- What is relationship between Life aquatic’s fledging label and it’s music? (Is the self-conception of life aquatic something beyond a simple tumblr-blog)

- Interesting point: do the labels anchor the the blog down to a certain place (the labels tend to be geographically centered e.g. mine is mine records)

- Is the tumblr-style & host an issue of convenience or aesthetic?

- How does this aesthetic take hold?

- Observation: sometimes Beeler seems to impose photos on work that already has different artwork on the band/artist’s bandcamp

- What is the history of this aesthetic?

- Is the blog meant to give legitimacy/attention to the local beat community (how wide is the net of this community (Sydney? New South Wales? Australia? Oceania?)

- Cities in Australia:

Melbourne (Andras Fox, flashforest), Sydney, Adelaide (Slamagotchi), Sydney burbs, Perth (Maxxy Bills, The Blank, Taku), New Zealand (Ben Jamin), Canberra (One Talk)

- Observation: beatmakers outside of Australia usually don’t have their location mentioned in posts (exceptions to places of wider beat note, established electronic music presences/histories/lores etc… (e.g. Berlin, Brooklyn, UK)

- Point: lifeaquatic plays an interesting role in asserting the musical space of Australia (+ NZ, Tasmania) into a larger context

On the music?

- What musical motifs are most present?

o Ideas: wash synths, chopped female vocals, field recordings, vinyl haze/fuzz , fading, off-kilter beats, euphoric repitition, slight flaws/glitches

- What disparate musical elements are combined in the blog?

- What tropes are being refererred to?

- Is there an attempt to explicitly mimic/riff on/emulate/improve certain artists?

- Panda bear, J Dilla, post-dubstep,

- Anti-Downtempo? A more personalized, affecting downtempo (off-kilter beats as opposed to precision breakbeats)

- What is the process of curation for the blog and how does this relate to the maintenance of the blog aesthetic/cohesion? (Discuss with Jarred)

- What more established bands are referenced in other descriptions?

- Mount Kimbie, Washed Out

- To what degree does the blog attempt to give the music submissions genres?

- Is this a necessary organization tool?

- Are artists making their music with the blog aesthetic in mind or does lifeaquatic seek them out (questions of directionality, reflexivity)?

- What is the age/demographic/location of these music makers?

- Several instances of younger beatmakers (16 years old)

- What is the process by which one finds out about the blog and submits their music (via soundcloud, megafire, dropbox, email, etc…)?

-Some look to have been sought out or heard about then posted (this distinction is not made explicit by Jarred on the blog)

- What is the role of the blog in music distribution?

-Note: every single post has free downloadle MP3 (hosted on site)

Most posts have links to either downloadable bandcamp albums (majority cost the price of an email), or otherwise megafire mixtapes, soundcloud sets, etc…

- What is the role of remixing on these blogs? How much emphasis is placed on the intra-artist referencing?

o Does remixing the other artists have an impact on creating cohesion in the scene or is this nonsense?

Guerre // See The Birds (Albatross Remix) ( June 10, 2011)

Slamagotchi + Panorama + Galapagoose // Sleeping Pill

-announces a Galapagoose show (info on facebook)

Research Methodology Brainstorm:

1. Direct contact of life aquatic people

a. Jared Beeler

Contact: email or facebook

2. Thorough website analysis

A. d notion: thorough extensive categorization of “Friends”

-goal: create blog-spatial profile of Life Aquatic Blog

B.. notion: investigate comments

- see who is posting (other musicians, frequent readers, both, etc…), what they are commenting about (which tracks are praised, what is the tone of the dialogue, technical jargon, vocabulary used to indicate approval/censure?)

C. notion: collect all post description & analyze

- run through word aggregator to pick out recurring ideas

D. notion: Photographic analysis of photos

- collect information and categorize different elements of aesthetics in each photo

· type of filter: warm, saturated, (Eggleston?), “hipstamatic” canon

- meant to evoke nostalgia?

· content of photo:

- barren landscapes, semi-notable landscapes, bedrooms, women (unsexualized & sexualized), Architecture (uninspiring tableaux), lagoons, smoking (kept to a minimal), obscured & obliqued shots, land-water points (beaches, docks, coves, ponds), underwater shots, making out, ostensibly nothing, people gazing, Francis Bacon style facial warping, fetishized relics & household items (mooseheads, tool walls), balloons, low-key party residue, people-less road trip shots, airplane shots (views from the wing), chandeliers, snow, skies, thighs, palm trees,

· connection between mood of photo & music

· notably absent: bold ironic statements, aggressive/upsetting subjects/tones

3. The Ethnographic Element

a. Questions: How to gain an insider perspective into this online community

i. Is it necessary to access as a musicmaker

ii. Participate by commenting, reposting, etc… through multiple means (site, fbook, twitter, bandcamp)

iii. Interviews (moreso discussions) with Jared Beeler, immediate circle of blog friends, contributors

iv. Music listening (further hashed out in # 4)

4. Listening to the music

a. What approach should I take to listening to the music (listen to whole catalogue?)

b. Establish a definitive list of musical motifs and repetitive instruments

Critical Review Set 1 # 3

Cohen, Sara: "Rock Music and the Production of Gender"

This essay is intended to take a look at the gendered elements of a so-called "local scene", particularly the indie rock scene present in Liverpool in the 1990's. The thesis of her article is that the scene is dominated both in terms of participation and in terms of discourse by males. Her argument here hinges on a serious of examples (although these of are dubious account) in which she claims to see male hegemony excluding females on several fronts. Further along, she offers a slight counterinsight when she problematizes the monolithic conception of masculinity within the space of this specific music scene. She writes that, "Liverpool's rock scene involves the performance of rather traditional gender roles and ideology, with dominating the scene and excluding women from their activities, yet it also involves the performance of alternative or contradictory masculinities." (34). The essay concludes with a brief note on the contradictory conceptions of what a scene means, taking this question on from a theoretical perspective and an ethnographic perspective.

Question:
Cohen's assertion that women are actively, or even passively, "excluded" from the Liverpool rock scene is hardly justified by her argumentation in this article. First with regards to the presence of women in the tastemaking quarters of the record shop, Cohen establishes that the banter is designed to exclude the presence of women for an assemblage of reasons. Nonetheless she provides no plausible example of any intent of this sort. Later in reference to female attendance at shows and venues in blighted neighborhoods, she writes that, "these are areas where many, particularly women, might feel uncomfortable venturing into at night". (Cohen 20) This comment is guilty of either speculation (what are the statistics of assault?), selective reasoning (are these areas not dangerous to men also?), or even perhaps a note of maternalist rhetoric (women, with their generalized temperament, ought not enter such debased urban areas). Both of these instances lapse into the rhetoric and trucculent tone of a victimhood narrative unsubstantiated by compelling reasoning. I am curious as to whether the class agrees with this criticism and if they do, what effect does this have on the overall impact of the essay?

Critical Review, Set 1 # 2

Bannister, Matthew " 'Loaded':Indie Guitar Rock, Canonisms, White Masculinites"

This essay centers around a critical engagement with the uninvestigated assumptions in the popular understanding of 1980's and 1980's "indie guitar rock". Bannister begins by stating the prevailing notion of the music's autonomous space in which transcending of forces that commodify or codify music. The article is a systematic breakdown of this narrative through the development of several concepts including the use of "canonism", the reliance on a reference body of work, the issues arising from the paradoxical imperative to establish "purity" in an environment of ostensibly unrestrained creativity. Furthermore, this notion of "purity" is combined with the often contradictory stance of the indie sphere to certain opposing discourses. Bannister expresses this marvelously when he writes that there is a, "dual (paradoxical) insistence on populism ('music of the people') and anti-populism (an Adorno-esque disdain for mass popular taste". (Bannister 86) He furthers his argument, in undeniably the argumentatively weakest portion of his essay, by suggesting that indie rock represents a certain approach to identity politics. He writes unconvincingly and without evidence that this version of "rock history {has} marginalised especially the contributions of African-American music" and that their is somehow a connection between perceived "nerdiness" and the feminine.

A question I am inclined to ask in this article regards the directionality of music creation. Bannister discusses of the tremendous influence of the record-store owners,who by providing an aura of expertise and actively cultivating disciples shaped the music in itself by structuring the palette from which a generation of "indie guitar rockers" drew from. Complementary to this, is his dismissal as lore, or self-serving reified thinking, of the "discourses of spontaneity and originality" so central to the myth of the generative musician, whose creativity is at the center of the musical enterprise. Is this devaluing, or at least decentralizing of the role of the musician, a fair statement? Is it not conceivable that there is a strong reflexive dialectic between these parties?