Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 4-2019 At The Crossroads of Race, Class and Culture: Identifying the Unintended Consequences of Technology on the Agency of Blues Musicians Michael D. Berghoef Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Race and Ethnicity Commons Recommended Citation Berghoef, Michael D., "At The Crossroads of Race, Class and Culture: Identifying the Unintended Consequences of Technology on the Agency of Blues Musicians" (2019). Dissertations. 3424. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/3424 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. AT THE CROSSROADS OF RACE, CLASS AND CULTURE: IDENTIFYING THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE AGENCY OF BLUES MUSICIANS by Michael D. Berghoef A dissertation submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Sociology Western Michigan University April 2019 Doctoral Committee: David Hartmann, Ph.D. Chair Douglas Davidson, Ph.D. Susan Morris, Ph.D. © 2019 Michael D. Berghoef The Blues are the roots, the rest are the fruits. Willie Dixon Somebody has been cashing checks, and they've been bouncing back on us. And these people, the poor class of Negroes and the poor class of white people, they're getting tired of it. Howlin’ Wolf Now that I'm getting’ old enough to get some money, I'd like to have some money. I don't get much made, I need to conquer a big chunk of money. Not quit playin’ but quit playin’ so hard. Muddy Waters The Blues? It's the mother of American music. That's what it is - the source. BB King ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to give special thanks to my dissertation committee, for the wisdom, insight and guidance they provided, and for their patience in this unique and challenging journey. I could not have asked for better mentors for this project. I feel very fortunate to have had the dream team committee consisting of Dr David Hartmann, Dr Douglas Davidson and Dr Susan Morris. To my seven interview participants, I will be forever in your debt. It was a great honor to spend time with you Elder Statesmen of the Blues, and I was humbled by your generosity with your time and insights and trust. I truly treasure the time I was able to spend with each of you and am thankful for your patience with all of my questions. Thanks also for putting up with the awkwardness of the academic research protocols and tolerating the forms, formality, and finally, the aliases that you didn’t ask for. Your hospitality and openness made this one of the best experiences of my life. Special thanks to Barbara Newman, Blues Foundation President and CEO, and her team in Memphis for listening to my situation, coming to my aid, and generously connecting me with the Blues Hall of Famers who made the final stages of this project possible. And special thanks to Drew Verbis for his help in helping me actually locate and connect with my research participants during my road trips and also for his incredibly informative and entertaining Blues America Public Radio series and podcast. Thanks to Jimmy Stagger for years of entertainment and encouragement and now helping to connect me with some of the blues elders as well. ii Tom Liszewski has been part of this project since the early inception of this idea, almost 30 years now, and I am thankful for your friendship and steady support through all of the ups and downs of my research process, and for setting me on the path to Memphis at just the right time. Thanks to my editor Dr Katherine Harris for getting my manuscripts back on the right path. Thanks to my student assistant Stephany Weller for finding and fixing my erroneous references. And a special thanks to my library colleague Stacy Anderson who, as usual, was there at the beginning and at the end of my project. Thanks to my two amazing children, Naomi and Jake, who put up with my seemingly endless projects and to my incredible wife Helen for all her sacrifices and patience with my research over the years. Time to celebrate. Thanks to the vast pantheon of known and unknown blues artists, many lost to history, having contributed so much to our culture and yet somehow, not getting proper recognition, just compensation, sometimes not even headstones for their final resting place, living and dying impoverished while creating incredible wealth for other blues rockers And finally I’d like to dedicate this project to my late brother-in-law Dr Paul Nonnekes, the consummate sociologist, for his role in helping me initiate this effort, for his past encouragement, and for his enduring inspiration to those who knew him. Michael D. Berghoef iii AT THE CROSSROADS OF RACE, CLASS AND CULTURE: IDENTIFYING THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF TECHNOLOGY ON THE AGENCY OF BLUES MUSICIANS Michael D Berghoef, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2019 This dissertation explores the impact the rapid evolution and implementation of technology has had on blues musicians and the music they created and shared with their audiences over the past sixty years. The past 150 years have seen the conversion of nearly all musical participation as live, unmediated and with close proximity of performer to audience, to an experience that is increasingly recorded, digitally mediated and often listened to in isolation from others. While a great deal of live music is still performed around the world on a daily basis, the impact of the largescale cultural shift move to what might be seen as its polar opposite, the phenomenon of the ubiquitous solo “consumer” listening to recorded music through headphones, surprisingly remains largely unexamined. What potential social consequences occur with this shift from communal to private listening? What other interactive and more participatory possibilities might technology make available? This raises questions of the purpose of live performance, its social impact, and by extension the purpose of art. If live music continues to be increasingly replaced by recorded music, how many musicians are really needed? What will the future demand for live music generally? And will there be a resultant shift from performing artist to musical technicians? While much of the history is known, though at risk of being forgotten with further distance in time, the role of technology has not been fully examined in blues music from the standpoint of the blues musician. This study attempts to give voice to the remaining living blues artists who lived through this time of great transition and hear from them directly about their experiences with the introduction of technology into the world of blues music and the effects on them, their artistry, and their social relationships. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...........................................................................................................ii CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................1 Background of the Problem .......................................................................................3 Statement of the Problem ...........................................................................................5 Purpose of the Study ..................................................................................................8 Research Question .....................................................................................................8 Significance of the Study ...........................................................................................9 Assumptions and Limitations ....................................................................................9 Conclusion .................................................................................................................10 II. LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................11 Ethcaste ......................................................................................................................11 The Blues ...................................................................................................................12 The Digital Divide and Digital Inequality .................................................................13 Unintended Consequences .........................................................................................15 Commoditization and Alienation ...............................................................................16 Conceptualizing Technology .....................................................................................17 Theoretical Framework ..............................................................................................19 Marx .....................................................................................................................19 Bourdieu ...............................................................................................................20 iv Table of Contents—Continued CHAPTER Simmel .................................................................................................................22 Geertz ...................................................................................................................28