Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Writing local music history

 

            
             Academics often say that it is only while you are doing a piece of research that you find the kind of research that you would ideally like to do. In my case, I did research in New Orleans for over a decade before deciding that what I was doing was, in fact, research. .
             Wavelength.
             From 1980 until 1992, I was editor and co-publisher of Wavelength, a music magazine in New Orleans. 'Dedicated to New Orleans music', Wavelength specialised in extended interviews with members of the New Orleans musical community, along with historical anecdote, in-depth coverage of the city's many music festivals and cultural activities, as well as listings of musical events in the city. Its readership included subscribers across the United States and in several foreign countries.
             Information scarce - In the young discipline of popular music studies, material on musicmaking in local communities is scarce. As Sara Cohen has said, 'What is particularly lacking in the literature is ethnographic data and microsociological detail.' That's particularly true of New Orleans, where even though there's massive amounts of books that mention the city and its music, they"re not scholarly or useful by any means. .
             So outside academia useful - My work in New Orleans pointed out the possibility for a broader definition of research that could include the contribution of people other than professional academics, especially the often overlooked resource of the specialist press. .
             Researchers are often limited, by funding or pressures to submit a thesis, to a short period of research. Since my work was not done through a traditional academic route, and not constrained by the usual institutional structure associated with research projects, I had the opportunity to observe, intimately and at leisure, one of music's most influential communities through time. .
             I was also in a position to examine at first hand the interplay between the international music industry and a local music scene, as well as to observe the global network of music fans, journalists, and musical legends who were attracted to the city by its cultural practices.


Essays Related to Writing local music history