Tween Scene

Melanie Lowe, in her article "Tween" Scene: Resistance within the Mainstream, addresses the worries that many adults have about the pop-fandom that many young teen-age/pre-teen girls follow. She argues that the girls who seem to be so impressionable have the ability to separate the message of the song, with which they may not agree, from the music itself, which they enjoy. "They often choose to hear, but not listen, to see but not read - a strategy that allows them to maintain strong, often feminist, convictions and still enjoy consuming music that does not jibe with their maturing politics." She goes on to say that much of the pop-fandom activity occurs in the privacy of a girl's own bedroom. Within this safe haven called home, which girls have learned is ruled by women, they can act out their burgeoning political deals while still comfortably safe.

I am still a little bit concerned with the generalities that Lowe draws in her conclusions. I want to know how her focus groups were chosen. Did these girls know what the groups were about? They obviously volunteered, which may have a skewing effect in the data obtained. Perhaps the girls that would volunteer is also the one with the political feminist-like ideals that Lowe saw; each having to do with a sense of duty? Even disregarding that, the statement about being able to disconnect the message from the music is a little naive. By listening to the music, one is consuming the message, and whether or not one agrees with it he is still consuming it. This may then have an effect on others, whether corporate of individual, telling them that this is what people want; this message is what people want to here. Thereby, the cycle is enforced.

Discussion Question:
Can a person completely detach the meaning from the music?

Field notes

This set of field notes is a recollection of spring semester auditions for the Higher Keys, a co-ed a cappella group of which I am a part.

AUDITIONS

A cappella hopefuls wait outside in the hall, filling out an information card:
Name
Year
Voice part
experience
Song choice
School residence
Phone number
Favorite candy
Favorite one-hit wonder

Before beginning, the group has a pep talk about what they are looking for and what auditions mean to the group as a whole. The musical director reminds everybody to smile a lot, to be welcoming and friendly, and to stay positive.

One by one, auditionees enter the room, some looking visibly nervous. One person from the group reads the info from the card. The music director then tells the auditionee that he is going to test their range. Scales are played as the auditionee sings along. A random series of pitches is then given to the person auditioning which they are supposed to match. Throughout all of this, the group is writing down comments, good and bad, in notebooks or on computers. After all of the pitch matching is through, the auditionee then sings his song, a verse and chorus, for the group. The group applauds at the end and a picture is taken of the auditionee, who then exits the room.

At one point, the group decides to play a game of who can say the most outrageous comments during the pitch matching. The only rule is that the group must keep it together and not laugh. Some comments:
Sexcellent
Great Odin’s Raven
Heavens to Betsy
Expecto Patronem

The game was quickly called off because the group agreed that it could not keep it together sufficiently.

After all of the auditions were over, the group came together and decided whom they were going to call back. There was some discussion, but not much, as there was much agreement on which singers they liked.

CALLBACKS

The room is filled with people, members of the group and those who were called back. They are all mingling, getting to know each other. Members of the group say that this time is crucial; they want to meet the person, not just the singer.

After a fair amount of time, everyone gathers in a large group. They go around introducing themselves, saying their name, year, concentration, and a “spicy fact”. Then, splitting into voice parts, everyone warms up their voices by doing some vocal exercises. The group then gets together and sings as the auditionees watch. The songs that they sing are the ones that the auditionees are going to learn and sing later on in the day.

Everyone again splits into voice parts to learn their parts for the songs. The parts are learned with an emphasis on performing ideals that the group holds such as blend, a “jazzy” feel, and particular dynamic contours. Many of the auditionees are visibly attentive, seeming to drink in every word so that they could hopefully stand out from the others.

The group again comes together. The auditionees then split into quartets each having a soprano, an alto, a tenor, and a bass. They then sing the song for the group who judges them on their blend, their ability to hold their own, their listening to the others they are singing with, their performance, and their tone.

After all quartets had sung, each auditionee had to sing a solo with the group accompanying them. They had a few choices that they could prepare ahead of time.
With the last solo, the audionees were thanked for their hard work and their time and sent home so that the group could deliberate

Riot Grrrl

Punk music and its accompanying culture, because of it's focus on rebelliousness and machismo, can seem like forbidden territory for women. As Kristen Schilt says in her article "Riot Grrrl Is...": The Contestation over Meaning in a Music Scene, "As hardcore increasingly became an arena for male punks to assert their masculinity through aggressive behavior, female punks found themselves pushed out of active participation in the scene and moved into behind-the-scenes roles such as show organizers or band groupies." She goes on to detail how Riot Grrrl, a female-oriented punk fanzine, was established as a response to such masculine developments, making sure that people were aware that feminism and punk weren't mutually exclusive. Whole communities of female punk rockers developed around the idea of feminist punk. However, unlike the goth community which possesses a universal sense of identity, the "Riot Grrrl" scene was, by design, made up of different communities that chose for themselves what they should hold ideal, making it more accessible and pertinent. One problem within the community, nonetheless, was race: it was being ignored. Problems arose again later on within the community as the media tried to create a uniform "Riot Grrrl" stereotype, which eventually led to the dissolution of the scene. The Riot Grrrl spirit lives on in the women that found new outlets with the confidence gained through their experiences.

I see many similarities between the punk scene detailed in Schilt's article and the hip hop/rap scene today. Mainstream Hip hop today, in my opinion, is very degrading to women and reliant upon misplaced ideas of masculinity: getting money, getting women. I am not saying that ALL rap and hip hop is masogynistic; I am saying that much of the prominant, mainstream material can be. One need to just look at music videos which depict women as objects, merely entertainment for the male artist. From this a community of "video girls" has formed of girls who go and audition for a chance to appear in one of the afore mentioned music videos.

Discussion:
In music scenes dominated by machismo, is there pressure for female artists to become more masculine, more aggressive?

Initial Topic Post: Collegiate A Cappella at Brown

It all began in 1949 when the first a cappella group at Brown, the Jabberwocks (all-male), was first established. Since that time, the number has ballooned to 16, the most students involved in a cappella per capita of any American University. Because there are so many different groups, there has been a branching out, creating niches. There are jazz, pop, rock, performance, themed, classical, and many others which can be all-male, all-female, or co-ed . The complex interactions both between and within the groups are a critical part of many students' Brown experience. For my ethnography project, I plan to work with Sami Horneff and Chantel Whittle in trying to observe, study, and compare the unique circumstances present in the Brown a cappella scene, from the muscal aspects like arranging and performance to the social aspects like group dynamic. We plan to focus on three different a cappella groups (one all-male, one all-female, and one co-ed).

Some questions we hope to explore are:
-Who joins an a cappella group? As a cappella is a huge commitment, why would these students choose to devote such a large amount of time to a cappella music? Are they doing it to further a musical career? To make social connections in the a cappella community? Purely for fun?
-At what sorts of venues do different groups perform? How do the groups get these gigs?
-What kinds of interactions are there between groups? Is there an inherent competition to be the best group on campus? Does the a cappella community operate as one whole or as many separate groups?
-Who are the fans of a cappella? Do a cappella groups have “groupies” as a band might?
-How do a cappella groups choose which songs to sing? Do they arrange their own music? How do they pick solos and voice parts?
-What is the audition process like? How do they choose who gets into the group?
- What is the repertoire? Which types of songs get the best reception from crowds?
- Are there broader differences in a cappella groups based on gender? What do all-male groups think all-female groups are like (and vice versa)? How do boys and girls interact within a co-ed group?

To research these questions, we plan to observe rehearsal and performance, survey the fan base of the various groups, and conduct questionnaires of the members of the groups themselves. Because all of us are already involved in the scene, objectivity will [hopefully] be preserved by studying groups in which we are not involved (namely the Bear Necessities, Higher Keys, and Ursa Minors). By using a a broader perspective and a comparative approach to looking at the unique culture of a cappella at Brown, we hope to learn more about our own involvement.