Amateur music-making as intersubjective discourse in folk clubs in the English Midlands. Peter James Wilby Dissertation submitted for Doctor of Philosophy Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research Birmingham City University Supervisors Professor Tim Wall Dr. Paul Long Dr. John Mercer Date of submission: 4th July 2013 Dedicated to the countless amateur musicians and singers who perform week after week at folk clubs, sessions and singarounds across the nation – and to the organisers and audiences who make it happen. ‘Pete Willow’ i Abstract The purpose of my research is to investigate music-making as discursive practice, focusing on amateur musicians in English folk clubs. This is intended to support my thesis that music-making can be usefully characterised as intersubjective practice, whereby musicians and participants acquire and reaffirm a sense of social and communal identity through involvement and interaction within the symbolic world of the music event. My objective is to contribute towards popular music scholarship by focusing on music-making at a grass-roots level and showing the value of analysing this seemingly peripheral domain in enhancing our understanding of popular music culture. By using Christopher Small’s (1998a, 1998b) concept of ‘musicking’ as a central reference point, my analysis is based on a methodological framework of symbolic interactionism, drawing on the works of Harold Garfinkel (1967) and Erving Goffman (1959, 1961b, 1963), to map out a series of object-signs as constituent elements of the intersubjective domain of the folk club. By applying this approach to case study analyses, interview responses and direct observation, this study reveals the internal relations and dynamics of signification and identification that gave shape to amateur music- making as discourse. This is complemented by recognition of external discursive frameworks – professionalism, popularism, regulation and the institutionalised English ‘folk scene’ – and their role in defining the cultural experience of sharing music in folk clubs. In this way, my thesis demonstrates the capacity of object-sign analysis to provide a more rigorous characterisation of amateur music discourse than one based solely on ethnographic description and interpretation. The outcome of this research is a detailed perspective of ‘musicking’ as an experiential and cultural activity. It shows how amateur musicians and participants become subsumed within the discursive domain of folk clubs through sharing and recognising meanings invoked in musical (and social) performance. I conclude that the benefits of ‘musicking’ as a concept have not been sufficiently realised in popular music studies and that my research opens up possibilities for new and significant insights through its focus on intersubjective engagement with music as a focus for cultural practice and identity. ii Acknowledgements I am very grateful to Birmingham City University for the financial assistance and support which made this research possible and to my colleagues at the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research and the Birmingham School of Media for their encouragement and flexibility, enabling me to stay focused even during the busiest times. In particular, my sincere thanks go to my supervisors, Professor Tim Wall, Dr Paul Long and Dr John Mercer for their invaluable help and guidance, constructive suggestions for developing my argument and their overall faith in this project and my ability to deliver it. I gratefully acknowledge the thoughtful and considered contributions and responses from all who participated in this research, in particular Norman Wheatley and the organising team at Warwick Folk Club, Karen Orgill of The Tump Folk Music Club, Coventry, and my colleagues and fellow musicians at ‘Sly Old Dogs and Friends’ in Monks Kirby. Finally my heartfelt thanks go to my dear wife, Chele Willow whose love, support and encouragement have been inspirational. I would not have completed this work without her. iii Table of Contents Introduction – Making music: an intersubjective approach p. 1 1 – Definitions and discursive conceptions 1.1 Establishing terms of reference p.10 1.2 ‘Musicking’ p.12 1.3 ‘Folk’ – exploring the contested territory p.15 1.4 Folk practices and institutions in England p.36 1.5 Amateur music-making as ‘authentic’ experience p.53 2 – Researching amateur music as social practice 2.1 Sources of regulation in music-making p.63 2.2 The theoretical framework p.68 2.3 Research activity and interpretation p.86 3 – The Case Studies: exploring the settings 3.1 Case Study #1 – Sly Old Dogs and Friends p.105 3.2 Case Study #2 – Warwick Folk Club p.112 3.3 Case Study #3 – The Tump p.120 3.4 Case study rationale – frameworks for social and symbolic interaction p.125 4 – The Analysis (part 1): Meaningful territory for intersubjectivity 4.1 Engagement with a world of ‘objects’ – some conceptual issues p.130 4.2 Object-signs of folk clubs – establishing categories p.135 4.3 People, hierarchies and role relationships p.140 4.4 Physical object-signs p.162 4.5 Event formats p.180 4.6 Repertoires, styles and practices p.191 4.7 Economic relationships p.198 4.8 Object-sign analysis: some conclusions p.204 5 – The Analysis (part 2): Music performance, power and discourse 5.1 Folk as liminoid practice in a subversive space p.206 5.2 The domain of popular culture (specialist to mainstream) p.211 iv 5.3 The music industry (amateur to professional) p.216 5.4 Regulation and administrative control (unofficial to official) p.221 5.5 The folk scene as institution (folk to non-folk) p.226 5.6 Music performance, power and discourse – an interim conclusion p.230 Conclusion – Putting the intersubjective folk into folk clubs. p.231 Bibliography p.240 Appendices A Club organiser interview thematic framework and structure p.254 B Facebook Survey 1 p.258 C Facebook Survey 2 p.259 D Facebook Survey 3 p.261 E Poster promoting Sly Old Dogs and Friends p.262 F Facebook event post for Sly Old Dogs and Friends p.263 G The Tump Folk Club room arrangement for guest and singers’ nights p.264 H Warwick Folk Club room arrangement for featured guest nights p.265 I Sly Old Dogs and Friends: typical room layout p.266 J Warwick Folk Club Display Board and Banner p.267 v Table of Figures Fig. 1 Music performance, power and discourse - intersecting lines of polarity p.209 Figs 2a and 2b Specialist to mainstream polarity (discourse of popular culture) pp.214-5 Figs 3a and 3b Amateur to professional polarity (professional discourse of the music industry) pp.218-9 Figs 4a and 4b Unofficial to official polarity (regulatory and administrative discourse) pp.221-2 Figs 5a and 5b Folk’ to ‘non-folk’ polarity (institutional discourse) p.228 vi Introduction – Making music: an intersubjective approach. This thesis makes a case for the examination of music-making as an intersubjective social practice on the basis that such a study is capable of offering new insights into the role of music and, specifically, practices of musicians within popular culture. My research in particular focuses on the performance and sharing of music by musicians participating in English folk clubs and considers their activities as forms of socialisation, identity affirmation and role-play. The purpose of this investigation is to consider music and the practice of music-making as a basis for specific modes of interaction which both reflect and reinforce a set of meanings and understandings shared by participants of their identities and environment within that social situation. In addressing questions of identity and intersubjectivity, my dissertation explores and applies a methodological framework in which the practices of musicians are regarded as ‘performance’ in a broader social and interactive sense. As one might expect of research into folk clubs, this project acknowledges the vast body of work which focuses on music as folklore, viewed in historical and cultural terms as a traditional form of expression, captured from recordings of rural (and urban) performance and transcripts, and preserved and reinvigorated in a celebration of national and cultural identity. In addition, my study draws on ethnomusicology’s interest in music as cultural expression and an indicator of cultural identity, accessed and identified through anthropological and ethnographic research. However, by applying an intersubjective perspective, this dissertation sets out an alternative approach to existing scholarly concerns of popular music as a cultural product, shaped and restructured by the conditions of post-industrial capitalism. Central to my thesis is a concentration on music-making as practice rather than music as structural convention and text. In this respect, my dissertation examines and applies Christopher Small’s concept of ‘musicking’ (Small 1987, 1998a) by considering music as a basis for social and cultural activity. It is the act of performance that is of interest here, alongside the fact that its amateur performers are sharing music in a non-commercial and self-sustaining environment, offering a space for cultural and artistic expression which 1 appears to be meaningful within its own terms of reference. One could argue that amateur musicians, sharing songs and tunes in a folk club, are in a position to construct their own social domain of shared understandings as a haven from the dominant ideology of popular culture and ‘professionalised’ production. Certainly, a view of music-making as a form of symbolic interactionism does point to such a domain as one structured by a set of meanings which constitute a sense of purpose and identity shared by participants. However, critical analysis of the social practices and interactions of musicians in such an environment reveals that this domain is not immune to the presence and influence of a range of discourses which intersect at each moment of performance and provide substance to music-making as a specific mode of experience.