Mainstream or marginal? A study of the musical practices of three African immigrant performers in Norway Tormod Wallem Anundsen Dissertation for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor (Ph.D.) Faculty of Humanities Department of Musicology University of Oslo 2014 © Tormod Wallem Anundsen, 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission. Printed in Norway: 07 Media AS, Oslo, 2014 CONTENTS Contents ...................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ............................................................................... ix Chapter 1: Constructing the field ..................................................... 1 Purpose and implications ........................................................................... 1 Perspectives .................................................................................................... 2 Three combinations of ‘world’ and ‘music’ ........................................... 2 Searching for the ‘diverse’ .................................................................................... 3 Discourses of difference or sameness ............................................................. 8 From observation to research design ............................................................. 9 Theoretical sampling of research participants ................................ 10 Research participants selected ....................................................................... 11 Recurring ‘thematic strands’ .................................................................. 14 The world of ‘world music’ ............................................................................... 15 Africa on stage ........................................................................................................ 16 Norway: Contexts, society, policies, discourses ....................................... 17 The researcher as insider or outsider ................................................. 19 Chapter overview ........................................................................................ 21 Chapter 2: Approaching the music of the Other ....................... 27 “Is this world music to you?” Entering a field of critical discourse ........................................................................................................................... 28 The ‘Other’ in musical production ........................................................ 29 World music: distance and marginalization .............................................. 31 Postcolonial perspectives in world music discourse ............................. 33 Hybridity and the global imagination .......................................................... 34 Points of departure .................................................................................... 35 Turning to subjects and actions ...................................................................... 36 i From genre to methodology ............................................................................. 37 Theoretical framing ................................................................................... 38 Essentializing ‘origin’ .......................................................................................... 39 The Other/Same dichotomy in postcolonial discourse ........................ 43 Critique of postcolonial theory ....................................................................... 48 Decontextualization and recontextualization – of sounds and people ....................................................................................................................................... 49 Research Questions .................................................................................... 54 Chapter 3: Adapting grounded theory ......................................... 57 Methodology, epistemology, ontology ................................................. 57 The selection of grounded theory .................................................................. 59 What is grounded theory? ....................................................................... 60 Grounded theory terminology ......................................................................... 61 Methodological procedures of grounded theory ..................................... 61 Critique of grounded theory: subjectivity and construction ....... 64 The ‘neutral’ observer ......................................................................................... 65 Gadamer on subjectivity and prejudice ....................................................... 67 Conclusions on grounded theory: Researcher subjectivity and grounded theory ideals ...................................................................................... 68 Delimitations ........................................................................................................... 70 Ontology: talk and text .............................................................................. 71 Phenomenology: Observing actions ............................................................. 72 Performance: music as action .......................................................................... 72 Ethnomusicology, popular musicology and the culture term ..... 75 Popular musicology .............................................................................................. 75 Musical analysis as a mapping of horizons ................................................ 76 Ethnomusicology ................................................................................................... 79 Practice ...................................................................................................................... 85 Performance and discourse .............................................................................. 86 ii Conclusions: combining grounded and extant theories and methods ......................................................................................................... 90 Further methodological considerations ............................................. 92 Notes on translation ............................................................................................ 92 Confidentiality ........................................................................................................ 94 Chapter 4: ‘A minority thing’ ........................................................... 97 Introduction: “Going with the mainstream” ...................................... 97 Nasibu ........................................................................................................................ 98 Context and view ................................................................................................ 100 Concert description .................................................................................. 101 Concert introduction ........................................................................................ 101 Music ........................................................................................................................ 102 Representing African music .......................................................................... 103 Audience interaction ........................................................................................ 105 Storytelling ........................................................................................................... 106 ‘A family thing’ ..................................................................................................... 106 Rounding up ......................................................................................................... 108 Recognizing difference ........................................................................... 109 Multiculturalist discourse .............................................................................. 111 Interview and developing Questions .................................................. 112 The market versus public support ............................................................. 112 Themes for further analysis .......................................................................... 115 Model of ideas ...................................................................................................... 116 Paradoxes .............................................................................................................. 118 Access to funding ............................................................................................... 119 The concept of Bantaba .......................................................................... 120 Year of storytelling ............................................................................................ 121 Improving the reports ...................................................................................... 121 Critique and need for adjustments ............................................................. 122 Concert setting .................................................................................................... 123 iii The conceptual producer ................................................................................ 124 The role of the storyteller ............................................................................... 125 Phenomenological view .................................................................................