THESIS AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF LOCAL MUSIC CULTURE IN NORTHERN COLORADO Submitted by Joseph Andrew Schicke Department of English In partial fulfillments of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Summer 2011 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Sue Doe Carrie Lamanna James Banning ABSTRACT AN AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF LOCAL MUSIC CULTURE IN NORTHERN COLORADO The following thesis investigates common ideologies as manifested in the rhetoric of local musicians, musician employers and musician advocates. I use an autoethnographic method in which I use the interview data of local music culture participants along with my own accounts of my experience as a local musician in order to come closer to locating and describing the experience of local music culture. Through constant comparative analysis of interview data, I located six problematic themes related to the rhetorics of the music community, musician recognition, musician identity, music as a leisure activity, musicians as workers, and musicians as part of a wider industry. I put forth the argument that these areas are of great importance in an understanding of the ways that rhetoric and ideology disempower local musicians. In addition, I argue for a more complex awareness of music ideology by introducing affect theory. Finally, I suggest how community literacy may be used in order to advance the ideas brought forth in this thesis. ii Acknowledgements I would like to acknowledge and express my deep gratitude to the following individuals: Dr. Sue Doe for helping me find a place in the discourse community for my own lived experience and that of my fellow musicians. Dr. Doe’s enthusiasm was matched by her skilled guidance and commitment to excellence in pedagogy. My mother, Jean Kennedy Schicke, for her unending strength, encouragement, and wisdom. This thesis would not exist without her. My father, Joseph Schicke, for serving as an example of a dedicated and compassionate leader. My sister, Dr. Michelle Athanasiou, for her confidence and technical help. My sisters Dr. Ericka Schicke and Sheila Trout, for their love and support. The other two members of my committee, Dr. Carrie Lamanna and Dr. James Banning, for their time and energy they have willingly contributed to this thesis. The late Dr. Richard Peterson, whose work with the social side of music significantly influenced this thesis in its early stages. My uncle, the late Joseph Gerwitz, an outstanding husband and father, who, when I was around twelve years old, told me to “play high up on the neck--that’s where the money’s at.” All of the musicians and friends I have had the opportunity to make music with over the years, without which I would not be the musician and person I am today. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: My Musical Experience and Inquiry ……..…………………………………………1 Where Composition Studies and Music Have Met in the Past …………………………….3 Literature Review………………………………………………………………..…………………7 Cognitive Theory ………………………………………………………..…………………7 Expressivism .. …………………………………………………………………………….8 Social Theory ……………………………………………………………………….….12 James Berlin’s Social Focus …………………………………………………….……….13 The Expressivism/Social-Epistemic Continuum ………………………………….…..….15 The Sociology of Music ………………………………………………………………..…17 The Rhetoric of Music.…………………………………………………………………..21 The Geography of Music …………………………………………………………..……..23 Popular Music Studies.. …………………………………………………………….…...24 Communication Studies/Identity ……………………………………………………..…..25 Studies Concerning the Specific Experience of Performing Musicians …………………26 Methodology……..………………………………………………….…………………..……….29 Setting and Purpose ……………..………………………………………………..……..29 Informant Selection and Participant Description ……………………………….………32 Data Collection ………..…………………………………………….……………..……35 Data Analysis ………..……………………………………………….……….…..……..38 iv More on Autoethnography ……..………………………………….……….……...…….41 Delimitations of Research Methods …………………………………..………….……..42 Limitations of Research Methods ……………………….……………..……………….43 Significance of the Study …………………………………………………..……………..43 Results……………………………….……………………………………………………………43 Placement on the Continuum ………………………………………….….………..…….43 Rhetorical Contradictions and Ambiguity………………………………….……………….… 44 Problematic Theme #1: Community …………………………………………….…..…...47 Problematic Theme #2: Recognition ……………………………………..……………...50 Problematic Theme #3: Identity ……………………..…………………………………57 Problematic Theme #4: Music as Leisure ……………………………………………....75 Problematic Theme #5: Musicians as Workers ……………………………………..…...80 Problematic Theme #6: Musicians as Part of an Industry …………………….………..93 Discussion………..………………………………………………………………………….…..109 Filling in the Cracks of the Continuum ………..………………………………..………111 The Cultural Structuring of Affect …………….……………………………………..…113 Music, Affect, and the Body ……………………………………………….…………115 Post-Human Music………………………………………………….…….…………..…..….. 119 Affect and Ideology………………..……………………………….……………………… .....120 How This Study Informs Rhetoric and Composition …………………………….……124 Applying Community Literacy to Local Music ………………………………………...131 Musician Organizations as Potential Sites for Community Literacy …………………..134 Potential Directions for Critical Musical Discourse …………………………………138 What We Can Learn from Punk’s DIY Ideology ………………………………………. ….141 Implications of Using the Autoethnographic Method …………………………………143 Works Cited……………………………………………………………………….….….……149 v Appendix 1: Consent Form…………………………………………………….……...………156 Appendix 2: Musician Interview Questions…………………………….…….……….………160 Appendix 3: Musician Employer Interview Questions……………………………….……….162 Appendix 4: Musician Advocate Interview Questions……………………….……………..…164 Appendix 5: Music Fan Survey Questions……………………………………………….……166 vi Introduction: My Musical Experience and Inquiry My path into the world of professional music making was similar to the one many American kids found in the mid-1980’s. This path started with bugging my parents to buy me a guitar, taking music lessons at the local music store, and long hours spent alone trying to figure out how my favorite musicians were making the sounds I admired. Forming bands with friends and musical acquaintances contributed to my musical development. It was a gratifying combination of work and fun, taking place within the comforting confines of suburbia and a supportive family structure. It also led to an adventurous and productive career in professional music later in life, which I still enjoy. Of course, as many professional musicians know, making a living from music can be difficult. This has led me to hold several side jobs at restaurants and corporate coffee shops and, most recently to pursue a graduate degree in English, with intentions of becoming an English teacher. My musical path is very much like that of many of my musical peers. It is that rare, problematic experience of finding exactly what one wants to do with their time on the planet, but discovering that such an experience does not enable one to keep an active cell phone, much less food to eat. The ability to earn a living wage is quite possibly the central concern of musicians, and I believe it has something to do with the way the musician has been discursively constructed in society. There is something noble and virtuous about committing one’s life to the pursuit of shaping sound into aesthetic forms which others can then interpret, yet with that respected position comes a kind of social isolation or marginalization. Cultural economist Jacques Attali wrote about the musician, saying, “If he is an outcast, he sees society in a political light. If accepted, he is its historian, the 1 reflection of its deepest values. He speaks of society and he speaks against it” (12). This ambivalent position surely is one element of the struggle that professional musicians go through when trying to maintain a professional identity. The seemingly contradictory values of creativity versus business, leisure versus work, and freedom versus conformity, for example, are constantly at play in a musician’s world. People who work and operate in more conventional circles often say that they are jealous of me because I get to do what I love, yet I doubt they are jealous of my economic situation, which is not unbearable, but certainly could be better. The ironic thing is that it is not just the public discourse which has contributed to this image of the musician, but also the discourse of the musicians themselves. I have always been interested in why musicians do what we do, and I have attempted to discover possible reasons through discussions with fellow musicians. Many of the ambiguities of a musician’s life may in fact seem like irrefutable facts, but I suggest that questioning those “facts” allows musicians to get closer to understanding how we have been discursively constructed in society. While this type of inquiry into music is a labor of love for me, it has the possibility to be more than that, so that is why I have written this thesis on the way musicians rhetorically position themselves in society. I identify with musicians on a level unlike any other group. I have that insider knowledge that most professional musicians have, which is the understanding that music is hard work. Of course, it’s not always hard, but that’s also a complicating factor. As a professional musician, you cannot see exactly what’s coming around the corner. It might be an under- attended performance, an over-served fan, inter-band conflict, or a month of no musical employment. But when