BCMCR New Directions in Media and Cultural Research Popular Music Ethnographies

This interdisciplinary book takes the reader on global journeys from the UK to China, from Ecuador to Jamaica, through a melange of music genres. In doing so, it raises key questions as the contributors reflect upon doing and communicating ethnographic research on popular music. 14 b&w illus. This edited collection provides compelling insights into a variety of intriguing popular music scenes, 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 undertaking and communicating research. ‘Music is not only good to think with but also the way social lives are made through music. This beautiful book is truly international in scope and at the same time is situated sensitively in social texture of particular places at particular times. It shows the complex ways that the digital sphere remade music in the isolation of lockdown while offering portraits of why collective experiences on the dancefloor are so powerful. A stunning, scholarly and wide ranging book whose ultimate message is that – in the end – music saves us.’ Les Back, Professor of Sociology, University of Glasgow, UK ‘This impressive collection brings together researchers engaged in ethnographic research, to reflect on the practice of ethnography and its contribution to popular music studies. Through a variety of rich and fascinating case studies, it illustrates the challenges of ethnographic research but also its rewards and what it can reveal about the complexities of music experience. The contributing authors bring a welcome emphasis on the emotions, intimacies and rapport that music ethnography can offer.’ Sara Cohen, James and Constance Alsop Chair in Music, University of Liverpool, UK Dr Sarah Raine is an SFI-IRC Pathway Fellow at University College Dublin, Ireland. Dr Shane Blackman is a professor in cultural studies at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. Dr Robert McPherson is a senior lecturer in media and communications at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. Dr Iain A. Taylor is a senior lecturer in music at University of the West of Scotland, UK. This edited collection offers evocative ways into a range of fascinating worlds 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 undertaking and communicating research. Experimenting with ethnography through the joys and tribulations of musical production, fandom and scholarship, these collated studies critically consider what it means to be a popular music ethnographer and to take an ethnographic approach to studying popular music. Alongside these chapters, musicians, venue owners, music writers, live music photographers and fans add their voices and experience in the form of shorter vignettes, ordering the content into three overlapping themes: practices, places and identities.