1 A Popular Culture Research Methodology: Sound System Outernational by Brian D’Aquino (L’Orientale, Napoli) Julian Henriques (Goldsmiths, University of London) Leo Vidigal (UFMG, Brazil) Résumé : Ce papier explore une méthodologie inno- Abstract: Tis paper explores an innovative prac- vante de recherche par la pratique qui rassemble pra- tice-as-research methodology that brings popular ticiens et aficionados d’une culture populaire avec culture practitioners and aficionados together with des chercheurs académiques, dans l’espace partagé de academic researchers in the shared space of sym- symposiums sur la culture sound system du reggae. posia on reggae sound system culture. As organiz- En tant qu’organisateurs, nous décrivons ce qui a ers, we describe what made the symposia different rendu ces symposiums différents des conférences from the normal academic conference in terms of académiques habituelles, en termes de participants, the range of participants, discussion topics, work- de sujets de discussion, d’ateliers, de démonstration, shops, demonstrations, exhibitions, film showings d’expositions, de projections de films et de sessions and the sound system sessions from Roots Injection sound system par Roots Injection et Young Warrior. and Young Warrior. In a self-reflexive fashion some D’une manière autoréflexive, nous considérons que of the outcomes of the events were considered to be les résultats de ces évènements incluent des échanges the intergenerational conversations, the support for intergénérationnels, le soutien aux sound system women-led sound systems and the recognition and menés par des femmes, et la reconnaissance et l’en- encouragement that the practitioners of the popu- couragement que les praticiens de cette culture popu- lar culture said they felt they were receiving from laire disent avoir ressenti de la part de l’institution the academic institution of the university. Tis can Volume académique qu’est l’université. Cela peut être identi- be identified via voice recordings and social media fié, à travers des enregistrements vocaux ainsi que des comments as a mutual strengthening of the research commentaires sur les réseaux sociaux, comme une culture and the sound system popular culture itself. ! n° 13-2 renforcement mutuel de la culture de recherche et de Keywords: community – research methodology – la culture populaire du sound system elle-même. participation – practice-as-research – popular cul- ture – reggae – sound system Mots-clefs : communauté – méthodologie de recherche – participation – recherche par la pratique – culture populaire – reggae – sound system 2 Brian D’Aquino, Julian Henriques & Leo Vidigal Reggae-as-research theory-practice PhD programme where theses include a very productive circulation of between system culture originating in “thinking/reading” and “making.” Sound Jamaica is now a global pop- ular music movement. Tis paper outlines an As against most practice-as-research, Outerna- example of a practice-as-research methodology tional was concerned with sound system as a with reggae researchers and practitioners par- collective rather than individual creative prac- ticipating. Sound System Outernational 1 and 2 tice, as part of a popular rather than high art or took place at Goldsmiths, University of London, avant-garde cultural tradition. Also some of the in January and July 2016. First to declare our value of the symposia lay in the fact that main- interests, the authors were the organizers of these stream media have traditionally not recognized events, having founded an on-going research sound system culture as having any significant group called Sound System Outernational, “ded- value. Until very recently the UK urban music icated to recognizing, stimulating and support- of Grime was exactly in this position of being ing sound system culture worldwide… [it] creates entirely excluded from mainstream media, as one spaces for dance and discussion.”1 Tis makes participant, Joy White addressed in her presenta- the article a self-reflexive piece, where the events tion Calling the Past into the Present: Sound Sys- themselves are considered as an example of prac- tems and a Decade of Grime at the second event tice-as-research. (White, 2016). Even if it may occasionally sur- face on a mainstream level, such as with Channel Practice-as-research is itself a departure and One’s surprise victory at the Red Bull Culture development from conventional university Clash in 2010, reggae sound system culture is research models such as participant observa- not a fully commercial music culture (in the tion and ethnomethodology. Tese methodol- way that Grime is rapidly becoming with Grime ogies, despite the researcher being immersed artist Skepta winning the UK music industry’s in the field, maintain the clear divide between prestigious 2016 Mercury prize), but conforms the researcher and the researched. Tis is some- more to the idea of a subculture, often operat- thing the symposia—unlike the conventional ing in the margins in an informal economy and academic conference—sought to challenge. retaining its Caribbean identity. So the popular Practice-as-research recognizes that knowledge culture of sound system culture indicates grass- is not exclusively epistemic, that is, defined in roots, lumpen proletarian or subaltern, as dis- the traditional arts and humanities manner as tinct from the mass popular culture of Beyoncé ! n° 13-2 a text. It also recognizes that creative and other or Major Lazer. Te third respect in which the practices of the researchers themselves—includ- creative practices considered here differ from tra- ing organizing symposia—can and do generate ditional ones is in the role of technology. Sound Volume knowledge. Indeed Goldsmiths runs a successful system culture is almost entirely phonographic, Figure 1: First Sound System Outernational poster, 16th January 2016. 4 Brian D’Aquino, Julian Henriques & Leo Vidigal this is to say, the music played by the Selector is Practice and knowledge systems not a “live” artist performance, but a recorded Te term “outernational” rather than interna- one, re-presented, as it were, by the technologies tional was adopted for the name of these events of the sound system set of equipment. as an indication of our respect for the Rastafarian Arising from the most deprived areas of 1950s has made such an essential contribution to sound Kingston, Jamaica, later displaced along the system culture and whose nomenclature eschews routes of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, this internationalism (Chevannes, 1994). “Outerna- wisdom or “sonic intelligence” is a collective, tionalism” might also be considered as one of the transnational, multi-layered body of knowledge. few a progressive aspects to globalization. To give Ranging from the affective qualities of sound to an example, the Italian band Roots Defenders trav- the techniques for its re-production, this prac- elled from their home base of Napoli to perform tice-based wisdom mainly relies on a radical at Hootananny venue in Brixton, south London. approach to audio technology. Working with Tere they performed with veteran Jamaican (cur- one foot in the recording studio and the other in rently Brixton-based) reggae singer Earl 16. Ten the dancehall session, as recently accounted by D’Aquino’s cut a 12 inch released on his Baba- boom Hifi label, which was recorded between Ray Hitchins (2014), Jamaican engineers have Naples and London and the record pressed in always made clean sweep of the manuals. Push- France. As was confirmed by Ras Muffet, opera- ing technology far beyond its intended limits, tor of the Roots Injection sound system and label they eventually invented a sound the rest of the based in Bristol, this is typical of the kind of “out- world strives for, with the sonic extravaganza of ernationalism” by which the scene operates.2 dub to be considered one of the most perfected achievements, as argued by Michael Veal in his Te field of popular culture offers countless exam- classic work (Veal, 2007). It is always difficult ples of different paradigms at work in the produc- to find ways to convey the affects of the sound tion and transmission of knowledge. As an example system experience and its visceral impact. One the idea of an embodied knowledge, proposed Brazilian in her comments from the floor of the by phenomenologist Merleau-Ponty (1964) and first Outernational put this very well. She said later expanded by the feminist critique, resonates that as a student she couldn’t afford to travel throughout a long tradition of scholarly research on dance and choreography, from Afro-American back to Brazil—so going to sound system ses- dancer-theorists Katherine Dunham (1947/1983) ! n° 13-2 sions was the only way she could experience her- to Barbara Browning (1995) and Ann Cooper self as an embodied person, in the way she was Albright (1997). But we could also claim the call at home. into question of the primacy of the rational mind Volume to be already at work in the artistic practice of self- 5 A Popular Culture Research Methodology... taught musicians, from Louis Armstrong to Jimi was his new film shown at the event, as described Hendrix. Te idea of ways of knowing and the sonic below. In terms of a research and practical knowl- logos challenge the conventional epistemic monop- edge base in reggae sound systems, Henriques has oly of the nature of knowledge itself, as explored documentary and fiction films, numerous journal elsewhere (Henriques, 2011: 242-274). Tis line publications (e.g. Henriques, 2014) and a mono- of thought also