Ethnography and Popular Music Studies

Author(s): Sara Cohen

Source: Popular Music , May, 1993, Vol. 12, No. 2 (May, 1993), pp. 123-138
Published by: Cambridge University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/931294

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Popular Music (1993) Volume 12/2. Copyright ( 1993 Cambridge University Press

Ethnography and popular music

studies

SARA COHEN

Simon Frith (1982) once bemoaned the fact that students would
library and study popular music (mainly punk) in terms of the
theory, than conduct ethnographic research which would treat
social practice and process. Ten years later the literature on po
lacking in ethnography.
The term 'ethnography' generally refers to data derived fro
tion of behaviour in a particular society. It was a research met
oped within social anthropology to tackle the problems of
cultures, but it has become more popular across a wide variety
the range of methods and terms used to discuss research of an
has become rather broad.' Consequently, much confusion su
phy, which is why this article defines the term in a narrow
anthropological sense. Using case-studies, the potential of
approach for the study of popular music will be explored.
Whilst significant advances have been made in our under
surrounding popular music production and consumption, it wil
particular emphases within popular music studies (e.g. upon mu
media, capital and technology), and a reliance upon theoretical
from empirical data, and upon statistical, textual and journalis
be balanced by a more ethnographic approach. Ideally, that app
upon social relationships, emphasising music as social prac
should also be comparative and holistic; historical and dialo
policy-oriented. It should emphasise, among other things, the
ties of situations within which abstract concepts and models
which they often simplify or obscure. The social, cultural and h
of events, activities, relationships and discourses should also be

The anthropological use of ethnography

Within anthropology there has been much debate on ethnograp
status as a form of knowledge, and the ethnographer has been
Generally speaking, ethnography in the anthropological sens
and interpretation of a way of life (or 'culture'). It involves
focus upon the beliefs, values, rituals and general patterns of be
social relationships or networks, hence anthropologists' concern
relatedness embodied in terms such as 'kinship', 'ethnicity',
123

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124 Sara Cohen

'culture' and 'community'. When analysing ethnography, a comparativ

is also important, comparing different groups or cultures and how
classify people in different ways and organise and conceptualise r
differently. Anthropology has also tended to be 'holistic' in that social
and activities are seen to have different dimensions: cultural, politica
The co-existence of these is examined in specific contexts, but they m
situated within a broader and more historical context in order to look,
at the interrelationship of political, economic and cultural systems in
times and places.
Ideally, ethnography involves a lengthy period of intimate s
residence with a particular group of people, knowledge of the spok
and the employment of a wide range of observational techniques, inc
longed face-to-face contacts with members of the local group, direct pa
some of that group's activities, and a greater emphasis on intensiv
informants than on the use of documentary and survey data. Basic to
of research, therefore, is the development of relationships 'in the
ethnography depends upon a complex interaction between the res
those who are researched. The anthropologist aims to learn the cu
culture they are studying and come to interpret or experience it in t
that those involved in that culture do, that is, to discover the way in
social world or reality is constructed, and how particular events acqui
for them in particular situations.
Early anthropologists (for example, Mead and Malinowski) tend
themselves as objective and neutral observers, to claim experiential au
detachment, and to present their ethnographic text as if it were an inte
the natives' point of view. Later anthropologists (such as Geertz and S
like 'literary interpreters', reading experience as if it were a text embo
meanings', but leaving out of the 'final, representative text' any acco
actual research process and the relationships involved. Anthropologist
sistently emphasised that, by coming to understand 'another' cult
ethnographic research, the researcher can acquire a certain objectivity
to members of that culture who live within it and might therefore be
of some of its distinctive fundamental assumptions. But the 'objective
cal' stance of anthropologists has rightly been questioned, and the dic
them and us, self and other, objective and subjective, challenged in
more negotiated, reflexive, discursive or intersubjective model of
practice. Such a model might also be referred to as dialogical, in that t
visiting 'the field' enters a dialogue already in process, whereby relat
practices are shaped by social context, and are part of an ongoing histo
sation (see Lipsitz 1989).
The ethnographer has come to be recognised as an active participa
research process whose presence affects situations 'in the field'. Conse
ethnographic text becomes a version of reality created or concocted by
pologist in collaboration with her informants. Culture has come to be
something 'out there' to be studied, and more as something 'inven
1975) or 'manufactured, both by informants and anthropologists and,
cess, as contested' (Caplan 1992, p. 69). Relations 'in the field' have
under closer scrutiny. Whilst it is important that ethnographers
respect the existence and legitimacy of different perspectives and way

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 125

which are historically and culturally specific, they should at the same time adopt a
critical perspective, recognising the power relations embedded within the research
situation, and those forms of belief or perspectives that limit or restrict human
freedom.
'Western' anthropologists have only relatively recently begun to conduct
research 'at home' within their own societies and cultures. They are still commonly
typified as seeking out an exotic 'other', and within and outside British and Ameri-
can anthropology there has been much debate about the applicability of anthropo-
logical methods to the study of Western industrial society. Many have raised the
issue of objectivity together with new problems regarding relations in the field and
linked issues of ethics, accountability, politics and so on. Lawrence Grossberg
(1989), for example, argues that the appropriation of ethnography in the anthropo-
logical sense into the field of cultural studies must involve a rearticulation of the
ethnographic project and practice. He suggests that anthropology's focus upon the
'other', its boundaries between us and them, bear little relation to the situation of
ethnography within the contemporary advanced industrial world of mass media,
where the relationship between the strange and the familiar is increasingly difficult
to define, and it is increasingly difficult to locate and identify consistent, isolable
communities or bodies of texts and practices which can be taken as constitutive of
the culture or the community.
But anthropology cannot be characterised as the study of isolable communi-
ties (how many such communities exist?). Anthropologists have a long established
tradition of studying social networks or interest groups in their interaction with
other social collectivities within urban settings. Furthermore, many anthropo-
logists deliberately adopt a position of naivete and distance when writing eth-
nographies in order to make the familiar seem strange; and for some time now
anthropologists have emphasised the relational character of the Other, that is 'the
Other, not as a self-enclosed or independent object of study, but, rather, as an
object that can be defined only in its relation to the researcher' (Grenier and
Gilbault 1990, p. 393).3 Hence strangeness, familiarity, otherness are shifting cate-
gories. A situation or friend can be both strange and familiar concurrently or at
different times and in different contexts, and one can alter perspective, engaging
with and distancing oneself from relationships and activities around one. A musi-
cal performance in an African village would certainly be very different from a rock
gig in Liverpool, yet there will also be similarities, and both require knowledge of
the specific social context in order to understand them. Likewise, contrasts and
comparisons could be made between a rock gig and a classical concert in Liverpool,
and in all situations people tend to act in surprising or contradictory, as well as
predictable ways.
Ethnography in the anthropological sense has its limitations. It is small-scale
and face-to-face, and this raises the problem of typicality - whether the small part
studied can represent the whole - and the problem of incorporating detailed
description which may seem banal or tedious. It also depends upon building up
good relations with people and gaining access to their lives, and it can conse-
quently require considerable investment of time and emotion. For many, it may be
easier not to bother, but whilst an anthropological approach cannot simply be
transferred or added on to that of other disciplines, cultural and popular music
studies could learn much from current theories and debates within anthropology,
and vice versa.

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126 Sara Cohen

Popular music studies

Much important, innovative and exciting work has been, and is bei
in relation to popular music. The following few paragraphs sele
aspects of just some of the work on rock and pop, not to criticise, bu
potential for an alternative or complementary ethnographic perspec
mon, for example, for journalistic or statistical sources to be used
rock music, though they are notoriously unreliable and embody in
straints and manipulations (for instance, of magazines, record
radio stations; see Middleton 1990, p. 5). Frith (1982) has pointed out
upon such sources can lead to an acceptance of the ideology of rock
That ideology has influenced the choice of focus within p
studies, leading, for example, to a concentration upon the small mi
fessional performers and 'stars', rather than the vast majority of a
makers. Middleton (1990, pp. 5-6), furthermore, refers to the priv
category of youth within popular music studies, and the negle
groups who may use different musics and in different ways. It sh
that it is still overwhelmingly male youth (particularly of the work
has been privileged, and that the focus on youth has often been ac
concern with fast-changing commodities and trends which dow
ments of continuity that might also be present. Middleton (ibid.) poi
focus upon commodities and their exchange has led to a neglect of t
commodities in cultural practice or 'way of life', and of non-commod
cal practice.
Much research on rock has been more influenced by linguistic, semiotic and
musicological traditions than by the social sciences, and has relied upon textual
sources and analysis. Tagg and Negus (1992) have noted that musicologists study-
ing popular music still tend to ignore social context. Hence lyrical and musical texts
may be deconstructed and their 'meaning' asserted, but the important question
'meaning for whom?' is often neglected.4 Rock music is also frequently analysed in
terms of the music industry and its networks of production, distribution and
marketing, and in terms of technology, mass communication and global culture
and capital. The latter are commonly depicted as acting upon individuals like
'forces' or 'flows', and as comprising various 'levels' (global and local, for example,
or micro and macro) which seem to take on an existence of their own.
There has, for example, been a focus upon global processes of homogenisa-
tion or diversification and the fears or resistances they provoke, the conditions of
fragmentation, placelessness and timelessness they give rise to (McLuhan 1967;
Myerowitz 1985; Berland 1988; Wallis and Malm 1984). Theories of musical 'theft'
describe new cultural and aesthetic attitudes, and new technologies, which have
supposedly resulted in the plundering of different cultures or eras and the bringing
together of rhythms, sounds and images from a multitude of diverse sources
'which often bear no apparent "natural" historical or geographical relation to each
other' (Hebdige 1988). 'Musical and cultural styles ripped out of other contexts,
stripped of their initial referents, circulate in such a manner that they represent
nothing other than their own transitory presence', wrote Chambers (1985); this, he
asserts, signifies the end of the logic of origins and the romantic 'moment of
authenticity' (1985, p. 199).

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 127

Reynolds celebrates what he terms 'schizoid music', which represents the loss
of a sense of past and future, spurns narrative and takes us 'nowhere ... no place'
(1990, pp. 138-9). Hip hop, for example, is described as a 'perpetual now', 'shal-
low, an array of surfaces', representing 'an end of history and an end of geo-
graphy'. Meanwhile, Grossberg (1984, p. 231) suggests that rock'n'roll represents
'modes of survival within the post-modern world'. It reflects the aesthetic of post-
modern practice with its 'emphasis on discontinuity, fragmentation and rupture; a
denial of depth and a subsequent emphasis on the materiality of surfaces'. To
anthropologists concerned with classification and difference involving the con-
struction of identity and meaning, this focus upon a blurring of levels and cate-
gories, of places, spaces, times and identities, might seem rather naive. Such
assertions, based upon little information about the ways in which people actually use
and value this music, have been challenged by more ethnographic work based upon
individuals and social groups, and upon their practices, meanings and discourse at
a 'micro' level (see Lipsitz 1989; Porcello 1991; Cohen forthcoming a and b).
Within popular music studies, and even more within cultural studies generally,
there has been a recent shift in perspective from the study of the global to that
of the local, and from work on production to consideration of consumption,
subjectivity and identity in the context of everyday life (Morley 1986; Csikszentmi-
halyi and Rochberg-Halton 1981; De Certeau 1980). Yet although some of this
research has been referred to as 'ethnography', it is usually not ethnography in the
anthropological sense. Many studies rely upon preformulated questionnaires,
surveys, autobiographies or unstructured interviews which study people outside
their usual social, spatial and temporal context. Their discourse is consequently
disconnected from their day-to-day activities, relationships and experiences (and
obviously, what people say they do often differs from what they actually do, or
from what they think they do).5
Frith (1982) pointed out ten years ago that 'very little has been written about
how commercial decisions are reached. We still don't know much about how musi-
cians make their musical choices, how they define their social role, how they
handle its contradictions' (Frith 1982, p. 9). Our knowledge of such issues may
have increased slightly, but it is still the case that assumptions are made about
popular music practices and processes supported by little empirical evidence.

Popular music ethnography

An ethnographic approach to the study of popular music, used alongside other
methods (textual decoding, statistical analysis etc.), would emphasise that popular
music is something created, used and interpreted by different individuals and
groups. It is human activity involving social relationships, identities and collective
practices. Ruth Finnegan's The Hidden Musicians (1989), for example, is about the
hitherto ignored amateur or 'grassroots' musicians in Milton Keynes, and it des-
cribes the extent, variety and richness of their music-making.6
The focus upon people and their musical practices and processes rather than
upon structures, texts or products, illuminates the ways in which music is used
and the important role that it plays in everyday life and in society generally. It
contrasts with orthodox sociological accounts of media effects, 'passive' leisure
class characteristics, and so on. Finnegan considers the types of people involved

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128 Sara Cohen

with music in Milton Keynes and finds a great mixture; this questio
about musical practice based upon class, academic ability, even a
She shows how difficult it is empirically to draw straight lines between so
and musical activity. The usual social indicators of musical tastes (class, age
good indicators of membership of musical worlds ... Music, in short, is no
marker of existing social differences (Finnegan's work implicitly
Bourdieu's cruder mapping of the cultural terrain), perhaps because
symbolic practice which is open to contradictory validations. (Frith 1991

Finnegan uses the term musical 'worlds', taken from Becker's Art W
describe the different musical styles she discusses. The term emph
that each style outlasts the coming and going of the individuals w
it; and it embodies 'the differing and complex cultures of idea
incorporated in each style, the shared social conventions, 'value
ings and practices, modes of conventions and distribution' of thos
the 'social organisation of their collective activities' (Finnegan 1
world is treated as 'valid in itself, presented at least in part from th
participants', an approach 'necessary for understanding the conven
differing worlds in their own terms', and seeing each 'as of equal au
others' (ibid.).
Finnegan briefly describes the characteristics of each style, as
questions of all musics (from classical to punk) and all musician
choirs to heavy metal bands)' (Frith 1991, p. 200). She then discuss
comparisons between styles in relation to musical learning, creativ
ance, and institutional and organisational support. Consequently
lenges 'the usual distinctions of high and low culture' (ibid.), depic
for example, not as a particularly youthful or glamorous commercia
one particular musical world sharing similar organisation, adm
musical conventions and constraints with other worlds (classical, f
Finnegan's comparative approach thus highlights the fact that
enclosed worlds but overlapping ones, with shifting boundar
beyond local boundaries in terms of institutions, organisations, id
tions, festivals and publications. This, in addition to the fact that
time activity for most people, involving varying degrees of individu
leads Finnegan to explore alternative terms which might be more
'worlds' in describing local music-making. She rejects terms such a
'interest group' and 'network' in favour of musical 'pathways', wh
as a series of known and regular routes that people choose to keep
and extend through their activity, hard work and commitment. Som
narrow and individual, others are wider, well-trodden and mor
overlap and intersect, and people leave and return to them. They a
the many pathways in people's lives. Hence the metaphor of the p
more emphasis upon the flow and flux of behaviour, the practices a
music-making.
People choose music as a pathway, suggests Finnegan, becaus
context for activities and relationships, and a means for the expres
and collective identity and value; and because it allows for the mean
ing of their actions in time and space. An example of this is the w
create time by marking intervals in social life which are framed b
dings, Christmas, etc.). Finnegan thus shifts attention away from t

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 129

view of music as a linear progression marked by changes in musical style, to a more

cyclical view of time based around life cycle and calendar rituals. In doing so she
challenges the familiar but facile assumption that industrial societies are rational,
clock-dominated, and less ritualised than non-industrial societies. A comparative
approach (whether comparing musical genres, concepts, cultures, or people in
relation to the structure of their society) can thus address differences and similari-
ties in the use and interpretation of music (by different individuals, groups, institu-
tions, media, etc.) within a particular society, as well as the ways in which it is
conceptualised by different societies (for example, musicianship as something pas-
sed on within certain lineages, as something that can be taught, as something that
only men do, etc.).
In a study of rock bands in Liverpool (1991a) I too focused upon 'grassroots'
music-making and music as social practice and process. I spent a year living in
Liverpool getting to know musicians and their social networks, and participating
in, and observing, their social activities. The final text reflected an attempt to
interpret and introduce a certain way of life, that of a particular type of rock band,
to a readership that would be largely unfamiliar with such a culture (a readership
that included academics at Oxford University where I was based and whose inter-
est, support and approval I was reliant upon). The text concentrated upon two
specific bands. It looked at particular hurdles they confronted in their struggle for
success (such as the ideological opposition between creativity and commerce); and
at the ways in which various tensions within the bands were dealt with (for
instance, through the exclusion of women from the bands' activities).
During more recent research on popular music I have tried to build upon that
study, and address some of its weaknesses and absences, by adopting a more
historical, comparative and reflexive perspective, and exploring more 'gendered'
and 'proactive' research methods. That research continues to study musicians in
the context of specific social networks. Following Finnegan, a broad variety of
music genres is incorporated, but more emphasis is placed upon their historical
dimension, and upon the role of music within households, kinship groups and
wider social collectivities defined according to factors such as religion, ethnicity
and class. Much of the research involves face-to-face interviews, oral history and
archival research, but it is ethnographic in that interviews and materials are contex-
tualised in time and space through observation of relationships and participation in
related activities.

One of the main themes of the research is the construction of the concept of
locality through music on the part of different individuals, institutions and social
collectivities. The resulting representations of local music practices and sounds are
compared and contrasted and related to the social, political and economic agendas
of those promoting them. The term 'locality' (which, like 'identity', is rather vague
and all-encompassing) is used to refer to a sense of community or affinity that is
linked to notions of place and to the social construction of spatial boundaries.
The project is perhaps best illustrated through work in progress on Jews in
Liverpool. There have been several waves of Jewish immigration to Liverpool,
most notably, perhaps, the influx of Jews from Eastern Europe during the latter
part of the nineteenth century. The rapid economic, social and geographical
mobility of these immigrants after arrival in Liverpool led to shifts: from being
Russian or Polish Jews to being Anglo Jews; from notions of a Jewish 'quarter' to
notions of a Jewish 'district'; from the split between established and immigrant

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130 Sara Cohen

Jews to notions of a single Jewish 'community'. Today, conceptuali

'community' tend to be strong, particularly in view of the populat
economic homogeneity, and its rapidly dwindling numbers.7 Th
has come about partly because of the emphasis upon assimilati
mobility which is characteristic of British Jews generally. It thus
concern with being both English and Jewish, the latter drawin
networks of communication well outside of particular districts and c
The shift in the situation, experiences and attitudes of Jews in
be examined in the context of the modern entertainment industries in Britain, the
beginnings of which coincided with immigration from Eastern Europe and attrac-
ted many enterprising immigrants. The access and opportunities offered by
popular or 'low' culture helped many Jews to advance economically, but the con-
cern with social advancement transformed the class position of many Jews, and
notions of 'community' and Jewishness became more commonly defined through
so-called 'high' culture. Biographical details on several Jewish people from
Liverpool involved in entertainment illustrate this tension between accessibility
and respectability.
The ethnographic research I am conducting on Liverpool Jews today
examines their social relationships, activities and networks in relation to this
historical context, and focuses upon their concepts of locality. Individuals inter-
viewed have differing degrees of loyalty to, or affinity with, Liverpool; differing
conceptualisations of the city; and differing ways of characterising its music,
although this is usually done in opposition to the music of other cities such as
London and Manchester. These differences reflect contrasts in age, gender and
education, and in the type of musical activities the individuals are involved with.
At the same time, however, their conflicting experiences clearly have wider
resonance in the context of Jews and Jewishness.
Kevin and Simon, for example, are both involved with rock music, the former
as a manager, the latter as a producer, performer and songwriter. They come from
similar backgrounds, and they are unusual in that these days few Jews living in
Liverpool aim for a career in popular music. Both resisted the pressure to join their
father's business in order to fulfil this aim, yet both were influenced by family and
local Jewish role models in their chosen careers. In addition, both perceive
Liverpool and its music as creative vis-a-vis other places (especially London). For
Kevin that creativity is about an entrepreneurial adventurousness that dis-
tinguishes him and his social network in Liverpool from his friends in London who
are training to be accountants and are concerned with settling down and with
stability. For Simon, that creativity is about a rather more general and defiant
assertion of difference, whether that means difference from London and Manches-
ter, or from commercial trends. Hence the two men differ in that Simon opposes
creativity with commerce, whilst Kevin links the two.
Kevin seems the least committed to the city and its fortunes, and he is the
most educated and travelled of the two, whilst Simon has a wife and child which
might make him feel more rooted. In addition, whilst Kevin sees himself as part of
a Jewish 'community', and is open about his Jewishness, Simon sees himself as
outside that community. He is regarded by Kevin as a mysterious, rather intriguing
person who has rejected his Jewishness and 'removed' himself. Simon's depiction
of the Liverpool attitude, particularly with regard to music, as a rejection of the

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 131

mainstream, doing things in one's own unique way, might thus have some connec-
tion with his own personal experiences growing up in Liverpool's Jewish district.
So whilst Kevin presents his involvement with music in a way that seems to
complement the social and economic background and concerns of his family and
'community', Simon presents his experiences as being outside them, although he is
nevertheless clearly linked to them in various ways (for example, in his romanti-
cisation of Jewish heritage and tradition expressed through his account of his
grandfather, and in the way in which he relates what he sees as characteristics of
Liverpool's Jewish community - its 'self consciousness' and 'cliqueyness' or isola-
tion for example - to his own personality). At the same time, both identify them-
selves and their attitudes with Liverpool as a city.
Representations of locality through music by individuals like Kevin and
Simon contrast with each other, and further ethnographic study should highlight
ways in which each of them might portray locality differently according to different
situations involving different sets of people and relationships. Their represen-
tations also differ from those promoted by institutions. As far as numerous
organisations in Liverpool are concerned, popular music is currently high on the
agenda, yet spokespersons for the Jewish 'community' do not seem particularly
concerned to represent their community in ways which connect it to popular music
(largely for reasons discussed earlier, to do with class and notions of respect-
ability). It would be illuminating to go a stage further and compare and contrast
different social or 'ethnic' collectivities in Liverpool and their representative institu-
tions. They are likely to construct the concept of locality through music in different
ways, for different reasons, using different sources and channels of access and
influence.

Elsewhere (Cohen forthcoming a) I have written about the way in which the
so-called Liverpool Sound is being described and discussed by various people
living in the city. The discussions highlight the discourses of place and authenticity
surrounding the notion of an identifiable Liverpool Sound. These discourses
involve a series of oppositions, whereby Liverpool and its music are contrasted
with London and Manchester, and distinctions are made with regard to music
across the Merseyside region which revolve around issues such as class, religion
and ethnicity. The music of Liverpool's North End is contrasted with that of its
South End, for example; and music from Black and catholic districts is dis-
tinguished from that of white or protestant ones.
Hence through music (including its related sounds, role models, anthems,
stereotypes and so on) households, kinship groups and wider sets of relationships
act as transmitters of collective representations of nation, city, district, community
and family, and of collective conceptualisations of place, home and belonging.
Concepts of territoriality, boundaries and relatedness are constructed through
interactions between people. The focus should thus be upon individuals and their
social relationships and networks, networks that intersect with different 'groups'
or 'subcultures' (which, like Finnegan's 'worlds', are obviously not bounded enti-
ties), and revolve around collective identities and assertions of difference.
This focus highlights the ways in which such concepts shift and conflict, even
amongst a relatively homogenous group, being influenced by factors such as genre
and generation," as well as by ethnicity, class and the relations of power involved.
Jewish individuals in Liverpool are influenced by different social networks, includ-

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132 Sara Cohen

ing those of kinship which may be bound up with a history of geo

social mobility, and with a tension between assimilation and d
(Englishness and Jewishness). Accordingly, their concepts of locali
transformations in class position, reflecting and addressing relatio
local, regional, national and international contexts.
Identity should thus be conceived 'not as a boundary to be main
a nexus of relations and transactions actively engaging a subject' (C
72). Considered ethnographically, identity is relational and conjunc
of distinctiveness and authenticity is constructed vis-a-vis others.
only as 'a political, cultural invention, a local tactic' (ibid., p. 12
'Liverpool Sound', for example, is constructed in terms of a series
(technological/acoustic, synthesised/raw, contrived/authentic) in w
is principally opposed to Manchester. Hence meaning does not
musical texts, but depends upon the interaction between individua
Identity (like locality or tradition) is therefore not a fixed essen
bled and possessed, or something influenced by abstract forces
Rather, identity is always in the process of being achieved, negoti
symbolised, of becoming, and is itself a source of social change (see
Clifford 1988, p. 289). The emphasis in cultural and popular music
macro 'level', and upon concepts such as 'globalisation', 'the West', o
'society', which appear to exist as objective forces of a technologica
political nature that somehow act upon individuals and groups, is e
that it depends upon a taken-for-granted Western sense of self an
Strathern 1992; Clifford 1986, p. 272). Grenier and Gilbault, parap
Barbero (1988), wrote:
The world political economy is not a force imposed from 'above' upon
individuals and groups. Rather, it is a complex set of institutions, social
economic practices that are socially and historically mediated, and that a
multiple differentiated actualisations by individuals and groups within t
environment. (Grenier and Gilbault 1990, p. 389)

An ethnographic focus upon individuals and social relationships cou

processes through which concepts are socially and historically c
thus the cultural specificity of beliefs, values, systems of classific
cepts of personhood and sociality. This could add an important per
analysis of cultural experience and knowledge, and the ways in wh
are produced and acquired; and it could help in the understandi
ferences between persons and of one's own cultural constructs.9

Analysis and description

Ethnographic research can bring the researcher in 'the field' into co
reality in a way that no reading of secondary sources or 'armchair t
ever accomplish. Most importantly, therefore, ethnography takes
direct encounter, a shift from strictly theoretical formulations to
concrete and material. Consequently, it is often used to counter
formalism or focusing on a purely theoretical level. However, whi
formalism at one extreme, at the other there is pure description o
experience for its own sake, which should also be avoided. Et
meaningless in the absence of theory, but theoretical models

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 133

imposed on field situations and data; rather, they provide an orientation to the
research which can be developed by the researcher over the course of analysing
data. This allows one to begin to develop theory in a way that provides much more
evidence of the plausibility of different lines of analysis than is available to the
armchair theorist or survey researcher. It has been labelled the 'bottom up'
approach, in that one moves from the particular to the general (although theory
does not somehow arise naturally from the data, but is informed by it).
At the same time, the general is studied within the particular. Concepts such
as community, city, world, diaspora and tradition, for example, are not given but
are continually negotiated, defined and redefined in the transactions between
individuals. The levels of micro and macro, local and global, are dynamically
interrelated and inseparable. Detailed interviews with informants and observation
of their musical activities and relations is of fundamental importance because, as
Geertz has pointed out (1975, p. 17), 'it is through the flow of behaviour ... that
cultural forms find articulation'.
Marcus has discussed further the ways in which ethnography can be 'directed
to answering macrosociological questions about the causes of events or the con-
stitution of major systems and processes, usually represented more formally and
abstractly in other conceptual languages' (Marcus 1986, p. 167). Grenier and
Gilbault (1990, p. 393), on the other hand, have suggested that if popular music
studies, with its emphasis upon the 'macro', began to concentrate more upon the
'micro':

researchers may well arrive at new insights on how certain dimensions of a musical
phenomenon can actually contribute to its very construction on the international level, and
how its meanings and practices differ in each context. In this sense, then, the local and
international meanings and practices related to a musical phenomenon would be seen as
feeding one another.

The interrelation of theory and description (in itself a theoretical tool) can thus
allow for complexity and provide interpretative power. Furthermore, to insist upon
the separation of theory from empirical data might be to reproduce that of anthro
pologist and informant, or to neglect the fact that all theory is historically and
culturally situated and ideologically influenced. Researchers who directly and
intensely experience another culture can be made aware of their own biases, world
views, values, aesthetics, categories and theories, and have them challenged,
which can increase self-understanding. In this sense ethnographic research may be
far more instructive than pre-formulated questionnaires or interview schedules, or
macro-economic 'objective' theories imposed upon a culture and based upon little
knowledge of the categories and views of the people concerned.

The presentation and use of ethnography

The increased emphasis (mentioned above) upon reflexivity and the subjective and
dialogical nature of the ethnographic process, particularly by postmodern anthro-
pologists,10 has shifted the focus to the examination of how experience 'in the field'
gets transformed into text."11 Ethnography, in this sense, is not the practice of
reflecting, representing or revealing culture, but of translating and writing it.
Alongside this, following developments in cultural studies and literary criticism, is
the emphasis upon readership: the effect that it has upon writing, and the way in
which texts are read and interpreted differently by different people at different

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134 Sara Cohen

times. Consequently, the authorship of texts has come under scrutiny

logists have been concerned with ways of representing the author
informants: whether to describe them 'as authors, collaborators, assistants, col-
leagues' (Ellen 1984); and how to experiment with ethnographic writing in ways
that could evoke the fragmented, multiple-voiced nature of ethnography.
During research on popular music in Liverpool I have always had to negotiate
different ways of presenting myself in 'the field'. Factors such as age, gender, class
and ethnicity clearly have implications regarding the situations I experience,
involving relations of similarity, but also of difference; equality, but also inequality.
Obviously such relations influence the way in which the research is finally textu-
alised. After writing up the research on rock bands, I returned to Liverpool to
present the text to the musicians involved, and to ask them whether they wanted
to make alterations to it; add their own postscript; or allow me to represent their
responses in a postscript. They chose the last option. Since then I have come to
appreciate the importance of incorporating alternative perspectives and greater
self-reflexivity during the research process and throughout the written version of it.
Issues of ethics, accountability and relevance should also be addressed in
relation to the uses and implications of the research and research materials. A
survey of the music industries on Merseyside, undertaken on behalf of Liverpool
City Council, for example (see Cohen 1991b), heightened my awareness of the
need to consider the policy implications of research, looking not only at what it
could contribute to policy-making processes, but at the ways in which it could
potentially be misused by those in positions of power and authority. Policy makers
tend to demand quick responses to particular problems; short term solutions rather
than deeper understanding; concrete conclusions and recommendations rather
than detailed description or theorising. Ethnography may not seem ideally suited
to the task but it could contribute much to policy making. By focusing upon
individuals, for example, looking at their activities and relationships, and at the
ways in which they construct meaning and identity within particular structural
constraints, the impact of policy can be properly examined. This should highlight
the interaction between people's lived experience and the assumptions of policy
makers, and it might emphasise ignorance or short-sightedness on the part of the
latter. Ethnography could also be used to undertake case studies from which to
draw general proposals; to study the policy makers themselves and the
bureaucratic institutions with which they might be involved; and to contribute new
perspectives, information and conclusions (through a more thorough process of
public consultation, gathering information on individuals and social groups and
the relationships between them), which surveys, market research and other forms
of statistical analysis might miss.
A growing awareness of the importance of adapting the presentation and use
of research on popular music to a range of different needs and abilities led us (at
the Institute of Popular Music, Liverpool University) to appoint a Research Co-
ordinator to our current project on popular music in Liverpool who has a back-
ground in community relations. Her main role is to encourage us to use the
information and materials we are gathering in innovative ways in order to reach a
wider audience than most academic research does. We are planning to target
general and specific groups (for instance, school pupils, tourists, elderly or blind
people), using a variety of different media (exhibitions, radio programmes, tapes,
booklets, workshops, reunion and reminiscence events, etc.).

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 135

Conclusion

The study of popular music has flourished rapidly within a relatively shor
of time. Its further development and impact, however, would be cons
enhanced if it incorporated an ethnographic approach that focused on indi
and their social relationships.
Individuals produce and consume music within specific social con
(households, neighbourhoods, etc.); at specific times or historical moments
specific networks of social relationships (involving kin, peers, colleagu
relationships that have different dimensions (social, political, economic). Pe
experiences of music, the uses they have for it, and the meanings they con
around, or through it, are bound up with these specificities, and with the in
nections between them. This emphasises the importance of adopting a
perspective in the study of music and its role in people's lives, cultu
societies. Practices and discourses need to be examined across a range of int
ing contexts and networks (whether they involve music or not) in order to
sense of the meaning derived from music within one particular setting.
A textual approach can contribute much to such a study, but the impo
of social context must be emphasised to make it clear that the meanings de
from a text relate to readings by specific persons, at specific times, within
places. Whilst a life history approach could add to this, revealing the impo
ways in which textual interpretations might relate to people's pasts, that dia
perspective needs to be related to a synchronic view highlighting the r
different activities and relationships that people are involved with at the tim
study, which influence the ways in which musical pasts are constructed wit
present.
An ethnographic approach to the study of popular music, involving direct
observation of people, their social networks, interactions and discourses, and par-
ticipation in their day-to-day activities, rituals, rehearsals and performances,
would encourage researchers to experience different relationships, views, values
and aesthetics, or to view familiar contexts from an alternative perspective. This
exercise could increase self-awareness and challenge preconceived notions or
'ungrounded' assumptions. Finnegan's work, for example, questions assumptions
about musical practice based upon age and class, and dualities such as high/low
culture. Research on kinship, tradition, ethnicity and the politics of locality in
relation to rock music in Liverpool complements, and sometimes questions, the
common view of that music (and of popular culture in general) as being charac-
terised by rapid change, peer groups and the production and consumption of
commodities. It also contrasts with the view of popular music as embodying a
condition of placelessness and timelessness (what does it actually mean to say that
a particular style or piece of music represents 'a perpetual now', 'an end of history
and an end of geography', an 'emphasis on the materiality of surfaces'?).
Hence ethnography would increase our knowledge of the details of popular
music processes and practices. Only with such knowledge can we be justified in
making more general statements about popular music (e.g. regarding globalisation
and its effects, the nature of popular music as mass culture, processes of consump-
tion and production, etc.). More importantly, perhaps, such an approach would
remind us that general statements tend to mask the complex interrelateness of
contexts, events, activities and relationships involved with popular music. Finne-

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136 Sara Cohen

gan, for example, shows how hard it is to make generalisations about

relation to social difference. Similarly, a comparison of the construction
concept of locality through music by different individuals, institutions
collectivities in Liverpool highlights its shifting and conflicting nature.
In relation to each other, the identities, values and concepts of K
Simon seem incongruous, cross-cut by issues of age and education. In rel
the so-called Jewish 'community' (and its representative institutions), Ke
Simon may seem misfits through their involvement with rock music. In r
other social collectivities in Liverpool, the city's Jewish population may
be 'close-knit' and socially and economically homogenous. In relation t
other cities, Liverpool Jews may be depicted as more 'creative'. Yet
historically, and in relation to the observable networks of relationships w
they are involved and which intersect with the above social and geog
divisions, the values, discourses, and activities of Kevin and Simon can b
contextualised.
There is some evidence that an ethnographic approach to the study of
popular music might be slowly developing. Recently, more attention has been pa
to the study of local popular music practices,12 and a few ethnographies of pop an
rock have been, or are being, conducted in Scandinavia,13 France,14 Germany,15 an
America,16 as well as in Britain.17 What should be particularly encouraged
perhaps, is the dialogue between ethnomusicology and popular music studies
Ethnomusicologists have typically shown concern with non-western music
styles, and with their decline or revival (music in the context of social change),
focusing upon small or isolated communities, or upon music in relation to urban
migration. More recently, a few ethnomusicologists have turned to the study of
more 'popular' (as opposed to 'traditional') or 'commercial' music, and their work
should be seen as an important contribution to popular music studies.1s The
developments will hopefully ensure that the study of music as social practic
becomes firmly embedded in the future of the discipline.

Endnotes

studies' (1990, p. 390). They stress the benefits

1 E.g. fieldwork, participant observation, case-
for popular music studies of following
study, micro-sociology, interpretive pro-
anthropology by addressing the Other and the
cedure, symbolic interactionism, unstructured
interview, life or oral history, networkprocesses of its representation.
analysis. 4 This despite the recent emphasis in media
2 E.g. as 'archivist', 'translator', 'midwife', studies on the different possible readings of a
'writer of fiction', 'trickster', 'bricoleur', text.

'inquisitor', 'intellectual tourist', 'plagiarist', 5 Erni (1989) and Silverstone (1990) make similar
'ironist' (Geertz 1975; Clifford 1986). Some so- points in their critiques of audience studies
within cultural studies.
called 'postmodern' anthropologists have
broadened the definition of ethnography, con- 6 As Frith points out (1991, p. 200), the 'hidden'
flating it with life history (e.g. Shostak 1983), in Finnegan's title is meant ironically.
or seeing it as an explicit and radical form of 7 The population has declined from 11,000 in
cultural critique (e.g. Clifford 1988). 1914, to between 4,000 and 5,000.
3 Grenier and Gilbault's examination of current 8 Particular musical periods and genres
debates within anthropology focuses upon the obviously give rise to their own specific ideolo-
key issue of the Other. It 'points out how some gies, in which place plays a part. Thus rock,
of the dimensions of the issue of the Other unlike pop, may be discussed and authenti-
emphasised in the anthropological debate cated within certain contexts in terms of par-
have been overlooked in popular music ticular places and roots. This opposition could

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 Ethnography and popular music studies 137

also have parallels with the 'world' versus Caplan 1992; Strathern 1987; and Hartsock
'global' music duality. 1990).
9 Within anthropology this focus has 11 E.g. the influential collection of essays (Writing
highlighted the Western bias of many anthro-Culture) edited by Clifford and Marcus (1986)
pologists, and questioned their translation ofwhich focus on deconstruction and interpreta-
the meanings of other cultures into Westerntion of ethnographic texts.
terms and categories. 12 This is apparent in proposals for papers to the
10 The various, and often valid, criticisms to sixth and seventh IASPM international
which postmodernism has been subjected conferences.
could also be pointed out. That for example,13 it E.g. work in progress by H. Jarviluoma on the
is: not as innovative as is often claimed (see Finnish folk music movement, and by J.
Caplan 1992, pp. 70-1); often ethnocentric (see Fornas on rock music and youth culture in
Clifford 1988, p. 264; Chen 1989, p. 47); ideal- Sweden.
14 A. Hennion's ethnographies of recording
istic and utopian (see Ang 1989, p. 28); a-politi-
cal, especially in its focus upon text and studios and music conservatories (e.g. 1981).
meaning, subjectivity and consumption,15 Peter Wicke's project on youth culture in
rather than upon the relations of productionBerlin conducted with his students.
and power surrounding the text and how 16 There is, of course, the influential work of
these might be challenged and changed (seeBecker (1963), and Keil (1966). More recent
Caplan 1992; Grossberg 1989; Ulin 1991, p. 77;research on rock bands has been conducted by
Erni 1989; and Ang 1989, p. 35). It has also Bennett (1980); Gay (1991); and Kruse (1993).
been pointed out that feminism anticipated 17 E.g. White (1983); Finnegan (1989); Cohen
many of the issues now preoccupying post- (1991).
modernism, but has incorporated the import-18 E.g. Waterman (1990); Baily (1981); Stokes
ant dimension of power and political action (1992); Nettl (1972); Merriam (1964); and Feld
lacking in much postmodernist writing (see (1982).

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