Clare's Results

Person 1 – 20, male

	BEFORE	AFTER
GRIME	Energy Road Korg Triton	Childhood Wot Airmax
PUNK	Mohican Leather Motorbike	Tape White Rebellious
TECHNO	4X4 Repetitive Throwing shapes	Industrial Warehouse Driven
REGGAE	Cro Beanies Dreads	Vibey Relaxed Badass
CLASSICAL	Mathematical Intelligent Strings	Magnificent Logical Old

Person 2 – 45, female

	BEFORE	AFTER
GRIME	Boys Rebels Aggression Class war	Beat Unnerving anger
PUNK	Sub culture Tartan Rebellion Glue	Nostalgia Exciting Mosh pit Pogo dancing
TECHNO	Electronic Beats Dance Acid	Heart beat Raves Movement Excitement
REGGAE	Jamaica Soulful Rasta Dancing	Nostalgia/childhood Soulful Parties
CLASSICAL	Old fashioned Opera Upper class culture	Emotional Beautiful Filmic Dramatic/powerful

Person 3 – 15, male

	BEFORE	AFTER
GRIME	Rough Adidas Tracksuit	Face paced Aggressive Messy Entertaining
PUNK	Mohican Quirky spikey	Passionate Angering Fiery
TECHNO	Modern Electronical Computer	Catchy Bass drop clubs
REGGAE	Chilled Calm Rasta	Relaxing Chilled Slow Fun
CLASSICAL	Organs Old fashioned Piano	Strange Passionate Emotional

Person 4 – 71, female

	BEFORE	AFTER
GRIME	Youth Aggressive	Rap Vitality Youth
PUNK	Fun Anti-establishment Political Pogo dancing	Fun Dancing Youth Brilliant
TECHNO	Disco Dance Drugs	Rave Beat Swoon
REGGAE	Dance Sex Fun	Fun Friends Happiness
CLASSICAL	Beauty Emotional Tear jerking	Mindful Clever Heart breaking Stirring

Person 5 – 51, male

	BEFORE	AFTER
GRIME	Angry Rebellious Teenage	Raucous Reactionary Unsettled
PUNK	Counter culture Rebelling against the anti-mediocrity Enlightening	Raw edge Energized ‘a loud blast of fresh air’
TECHNO	Techno notice Electronic Dystopian	Drugs Atmospheric Hypnotic Energizing
REGGAE	Laid back Joint Feel good Happy	Nostalgic Easy going Hitting the heart
CLASSICAL	Civilized Uplifting Life affirming Aspirational	Transportitive Filmic Rousing Loud

My Survey Results

Unfortunately I missed the third lecture due to unforeseen circumstances, and therefore had to join a group during the week between 3 and 4.

I joined the group which have based their project around the politics of leisure, more specifically the impact of leisure and self-expression via musical sub-cultures.

Musical subcultures are outlets are various types of music in which people join, partake or embrace to enjoy themselves, feel a part of something, escape and express. Each is it's own unique niche. It holds people together through the boundaries of their love for each sub-culture. It allows people to feel an identity in unison with others of the same. A connection with others of the same taste.

We planned to experiment upon this. Amongst others, our strongest idea was to attend various events of music, each independent of each other, each within a specific sub-culture. We would then partake in some form of intervention to acknowledge what the reaction we come from this. An example being going to an event juxtaposed from the cliche of the subculture and recording the difference in peoples behaviour as we disrupt their evening and inclusiveness of a certain type of person.

Ultimately, owing to time restraints, we decided to conduct a survey following a listen to snippets of five different songs from completely different genres of notable sub-culture's. This would give us an idea of the connotations that come with the subculture's music. The research allows us to understand how multiple people recognise these sub-cultures; people of everyday life and their knowledge of sub-cultures and their connotations, as reminded by through a song.

A member of the group, Jyoti, undertook the responsibility of moulding 20 second segments of 5 different songs. They are:

1. Dizzy Rascal - Stop Dat (Grime)
2. Fugazi - Waiting Room (Punk)
3. Sensored - Kai Urig (Techno)
4. Twinkle Brothers - Unemployment (Reggae)
5. Wanna - Tannhäuser Overture (Classical)


I asked 5 people to listen to the track created and then relay three things about each song. The results are as follows.


Person 1 (21):
- Song 1: London, black youth, aggression
- Song 2: Soft-metal, encompassing, meaning
- Song 3: Underground, shady, anxious
- Song 4: Cannabis, peaceful rebellion, emancipation
- Song 5: Power, suspense, intensity


Person 2 (21):
- Song 1: Gravel, smash, Crack-cocaine
- Song 2: Stroll, punch, unite
- Song 3: Bouncy, pump, sweat
- Song 4: Stoned, relaxed, cooking up an insane breakfast
- Song 5: Walking around a library, pointy moustache, rapid eyebrow movement


Person 3 (19):
- Song 1: Rudeboy, black, dirty bass
- Song 2: post-hardcore, punk, reckless
- Song 3: MDMA, rave, early morning at a festival
- Song 4: Stoned, floating, slow sex
- Song 5: Ballet, dramatic, intensity

Person 4 (20):
- Song 1: Dirty, Low-down, fat bass
- Song 2: straight rhythm, unity, punching
- Song 3: falling/rising, deep, spinning vision
- Song 4: Jangly, heart-lifting, body-popping
- Song 5: Tensions, release/realisation, standing tall (proud)


Person 5 (21):
- Song 1: Aggression, Underground, Grime
- Song 2: Depression, Uprising, Protest
- Song 3: Trance, Supernatural, Manufactured
- Song 4: Peace, Affection, Reminiscent
- Song 5: Nostalgia, Excitement, Adventure

Account of the past week

A very delayed hello from me...

After attending the meeting last Thursday, we discussed the need for effective research skills being pivotal. How to approach a project is shaped around the ability to communicate with people both on an intellectual (for the information) and on a personal level (a rapport can help people to elucidate their truer self greater).

My contributions to the music quiz that our group devised, and Jyoti pieced together, were the songs from the grime (Dizzee Rascal's Stop Dat) and classical (Wagner's Tannhauser) categories. I chose these specifically, with Dizzee Rascal's song being a track many of the university audience would have grown up with. Using a more niche grime track or alternatively a newer mainstream grime track I believed would have swayed people in other directions (an interesting follow up experiment could occur from this). Stop Dat was at the very start of mainstream grime and will evoke memories from people (I hope...) of the music they heard whilst growing up. Having a reflective element to the experiment will hopefully bring varied and interesting results.

Wagner's Tannhauser I also chose specifically, in direct contrast with Dizzee Rascal. Wagner was a notable anti-Semite and posthumous mascot of the Nazi party. Yet his music is not so readily associated with violence as grime is. Despite the fact that Wagner's used music as a form of propaganda. I wanted to see whether grime (which is associated with the working-class and those who are discriminated in society) and classical music (associated with the middle to upper class, in the UK anyway) have significant difference in the emotional reaction.

I will be doing the experiment on Monday during the day- I apologise for my lateness, I was exploring (with Josh, who has not yet accepted his invitation to the blog...) Stokes Croft in Bristol. In terms of studying sub-cultures this worked fantastically as Stokes Croft and St Pauls were the areas in which former slaves (after the Transatlantic Slave Trade) were housed (Bristol being the first place in the UK to abolish slavery). The area has a cult status due to its influence of Caribbean, African alongside British and European culture. Sound systems are used frequently outside, and the area is famous due to the 2011 protests against the Tesco. It is a community based area with clear influences of black culture which attracts all sorts of subcultures to the same area. Whether that be for grime, drum and bass, reggae or blues. I think throughout this experiment we must always look for the crossovers in sub-cultures and how all combine to create human culture. Culture is a Venn diagram, not a tickbox list.

ÉGA 29/01/17

Minutes- 26/01/17

(Lucy, Emile, Jyoti, Joe, Clare, Harry, Georgia)

Look at the politics of leisure and going out- Music a big part of people’s leisure time.

Different music nights have different codes and conventions- Techo nights look at dj and dance, other nights you dance in big crowds.

Try to look and highlight the Individuality of different subcultures and the conventions they each have.

Identity politics and self-expression

Difference of going out and listening to music is the connection between people, and the performance of being out

Conventions of the behaviour in the subculture and the sense of community it gives you

Why do we conform to a subculture?

Did music fill the gap left by religion? Use of music in religion. Many similarities between religion and music- Avenue could be explored with more time.

How to specify what we are trying to find out to make an idea?

If possible we would like to go out to different nights from different subcultures and see the difference between them. Also like to stage an act of musical defiance in Goldsmiths.

Go to last choice of different subcultures and see what you observe.

Swap conventions of each genre and sub culture and see the affects it has.

What makes you start listening to different types of music?

Is it wanting to become part of the subculture itself or do you just enjoy the music?

What is the link between subcultures and different types of drugs? See more of some at certain nights. What comes first, taking the drug then going out or other way around?

Can create different vibes depending on drugs taken.

How music interacts with structures of their everyday lives.

Is music something intrinsic to yourself and who you are or something you wear as a front.

Idea for data collection and experiment- Do a musical quiz- play song’s and ask for people’s immediate reaction.

Ask people what thoughts they have for different subcultures – then play the music and see the difference between their thoughts.

Ask people prior to the quiz what subculture they belong to

Use the genres of Grime, techno, reggae, classical and punk.

Jyoti to make a mix of the songs.

All need to ask 5 people each before Monday.

Is buying into different subcultures just another consumerist tac- all buying into the idea of wanting to be in a subculture? All just capitalism and consumerism at its finest.

Ask people what thoughts they have for different subcultures – then play the music and see the difference between their thoughts.

Meet next Monday in the Canteen from 2pm, come with data collected.