Music Rituals and Social Division: Constructing, Performing, and Legitimizing the Social Self
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Music Rituals and Social Division: Constructing, Performing, and Legitimizing the Social Self Maria Papadopoulou Cardiff School of Journalism, Media & Cultural Studies Cardiff University This thesis is submitted to Cardiff University in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2015 DECLARATION This work has not been submitted in substance for any other degree or award at this or any other university or place of learning, nor is being submitted concurrently in candidature for any degree or other award. Signed …………………………………… (candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 1 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of …………………………(insert MCh, MD, MPhil, PhD etc, as appropriate) Signed ……………………………………(candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 2 This thesis is the result of my own independent work/investigation, except where otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. The views expressed are my own. Signed ……………………………………(candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 3 I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loan, and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. Signed ……………………………………(candidate) Date ………………………… STATEMENT 4: PREVIOUSLY APPROVED BAR ON ACCESS I hereby give consent for my thesis, if accepted, to be available online in the University’s Open Access repository and for inter-library loans after expiry of a bar on access previously approved by the Academic Standards & Quality Committee. Signed ……………………………………(candidate) Date ………………………… i Acknowledgments I would like to thank all the people who helped me with my PhD research and supported me during this difficult process. First of all I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Paul Bowman who guided and motivated me these last years, always encouraging me to develop my own ideas and ways of thinking. His support, both psychological and academic, was invaluable. I am also grateful for all the people I met during my PhD and the talks we had, sharing our “roses” and “thorns”. Similarly I owe my gratitude to my research participants without whom this research would not have been possible. Finally, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my family and friends for being enthusiastic about my research and believing in me, and more particularly to Filippos, who despite the obstacles and difficulties always remained positive and supportive. ii Abstract This research explores the functions of music by analyzing the relationship between musical and social classification. More particularly it focuses on the manifestation of this relationship during the active participation of audiences in music events where the individual and the collective, the musical and the social are argued to be experientially interwoven. The main argument proposed is that music categories as well as the ritualistic structures and expressions that shape their corresponding live performances are linked with perceptions and fantasies of the social self. Considering elements such as representations, performativity and the constitution of identity within social interaction, this study questions the class-focused approaches conventionally employed to explore the subJect. Contrarily it proposes that the ‘reality’ or fantasy of the social self is not ‘a given’ but it is personally configured, and relates the construction of social identities to notions of the spectacle. The interplay between the mediatized representations that shape music categories and individuals’ agency to choose and construct their identity is argued to produce different discursive and performative expressions of ‘the ideal’. In this context, music rituals are sketched as opportunities for the celebration and legitimization of their embodied values, and idealized social identities and relationships. The empirical part of this investigation focuses on Greek music audiences. Employing semi-structured interviews it examines the way individuals with different music identifications construct their understandings of music categories and their rituals, as well as their perceived interconnections with social identities. Its findings suggest that music categories are perceived as naturally linked with different aspects of individuals’ social selves and realities that are expressed and actualized in music performances, verifying the performative and discursive intertwinement of the two modes of classification. However, the analysis of the data collected also indicates that the values expressed or experienced during such immersive processes, which combine social relationships, cultural categories, and multisensory experiences, necessitate widening the theorization of the ‘ideal’. iii CONTENTS Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 - Theory I: Talking about music .............................................................. 8 1.1 Perceptions and processes ................................................................................. 9 1.1.1. Understandings of ‘music’: a verb or a noun? ............................................... 12 1.1.2. Music in this research ............................................................................................ 18 1.1.3. Conceptions and misconceptions about genre .............................................. 20 1.1.4. Genre discourses today ......................................................................................... 24 1.2 Music myths .......................................................................................................... 29 1.2.1. An archaeology of music myths ......................................................................... 31 1.2.2. Nineteenth century transformations ............................................................... 35 1.2.3. The musical and the social ................................................................................... 45 1.2.4. The naturalization of the musical trichotomy ............................................. 51 1.3. Summary ............................................................................................................. 55 2. Theory II: Class, cultural agency and spectacular identities. ....................... 57 2.1. Cultural capital and omnivorousness ............................................................ 58 2.2. Cultural consumption, spectacle and status .............................................. 71 2.3. Music mythology and identity ........................................................................ 79 2.4. Musicking and the performance of the self ................................................ 86 2.5. Summary ............................................................................................................... 93 3. Theory III: Music rituals .......................................................................................... 94 3.1 Terminological issues with ritual: sacred or secular? ............................ 95 3.2. Characteristics, functions and effects of ritual ...................................... 101 3.3. The ritual of the live event .......................................................................... 110 3.4. Summary ............................................................................................................ 120 4. Methodology ............................................................................................................. 123 4.1. General premise and aims of methodology ............................................ 124 iv 4.2. Samples and methods .................................................................................... 135 4.2.1. Sampling concertgoers ....................................................................................... 135 4.2.2. Sampling music ‘experts’. .................................................................................. 141 4.2.3. Interviews and observation ............................................................................. 143 4.3. Methodological issues ................................................................................... 147 4.3.1. Practical issues ..................................................................................................... 148 4.3.2. Ethical issues ......................................................................................................... 150 4.3.3. Theoretical issues ............................................................................................... 152 4.4. Summary ............................................................................................................ 157 5. Interviews analysis I: Contextualizing music discourses, categorizations and evaluations ........................................................................................................ 159 5.1. Experts’ views on music categories .......................................................... 160 5.2. Experts’ views on audiences ........................................................................ 183 5.3. Experts’ views on musicking ........................................................................ 192 5.4. Summary ............................................................................................................ 204 6. Interview analysis II: concertgoers’ accounts. .............................................