Banding Together: How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music

257 Pages·2012·1.843 MB·English

by  Jennifer C. Lena

Banding Together

Banding Together
How Communities Create Genres in Popular Music
Jennifer C. Lena
PrinCeton University Press
Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2012 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street,
Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW
press.princeton.edu
All Rights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lena, Jennifer C.
Banding together : how communities create genres in popular music / Jennifer C. Lena.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-691-15076-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Popular music—Social aspects.
2. Popular music genres. I. Title.
ML3918.P67L46 2012
781.64—dc23
2011018691
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
This book has been composed in Minion and Myriad
Printed on acid- free paper. ∞
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Dedicated to my parents, Hugh and Susan Lena
In loving memory of Richard “Pete” Peterson

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Chapter 1: Music Genres 1
What Is a Theory of Sociocultural Classification? 4
What Are Genre Forms and How Are They Identified? 8
Organizations and Money 10
Genre Ideals and Style 15
What Genres Are Not 20
Outline of the Book 22
Chapter 2: Three Musics, Four Genres: Rap, Bluegrass, and Bebop Jazz 27
Avant- garde Genres 28
Scene- based Genres 33
Industry- based Genres 41
Traditionalist Genres 46
After the Tradition 52
Conclusion 55
Chapter 3: Music Trajectories 65
Two Genre Trajectories 69
Scene- based Origins 74
IST Trajectories 76
On Genre Trajectories 84
Inhibiting Factors on Musical Trajectories 86
Absorption into Other Musics, Other Streams 86
Niche Music 91
The Racist Organization of Musical Production 98
Conclusion 109
vii
viii Contents
Chapter 4: The Government- purposed Genre 117
Attributes of Government- purposed Genres 119
China 120
Chile 128
Nigeria 132
Serbia 136
Conclusion 139
Chapter 5: On Classification Systems 145
Classification in Music 146
Toward a Model of Classification Systems 156
On Science, Markets, and Memory 160
The Future of Music 164
In Closing 168
notes 171
references 205
index 233
Acknowledgments
As with many of you, music figures importantly in my memories. My par-
ents played music all the time: folk rock and classical at home, Top 40
and classic rock in the car, doo- wop and soul at parties, and Paul Simon’s
Graceland while we washed dishes on Block Island. Willie Lee introduced
me to the Doors, and I soon realized that each of my friends had thrill-
ingly different music to share. I remember Jamie Hirsch playing Jane’s
Addiction, the Smiths, and the Violent Femmes in the basement of the
performing arts building at Wheeler School, and Tyler Francis had an
early copy of Phish’s demo tape. I won a cassette tape of the Beastie Boys’
first album at David Bedrick’s bar mitzvah, just as rap joined the play-
lists at WPRO FM. During a semester I spent abroad in Ireland, the guys
in the H Block introduced me to Portishead and Thievery Corporation,
while Will Sandalls lovingly, patiently taught me about jazz and recording
studio technology. Jon Dworkin’s eclectic tastes— rap, funk, and jazz stan-
dards, and classical South Indian music— along with his deep, abiding re-
spect for my opinions, catapulted me into my professional work on music.
In graduate school, at Columbia University in the 1990s, my research
interests in music flowered under the mentorship of faculty who dabbled,
to greater or lesser degrees, in the study of culture. Priscilla Ferguson and
Jeff Olick helped to unlock the secrets of Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of cul-
tural taste and distinction, and Lynn Chancer led a phenomenal indepen-
dent study course on the sociology of culture. My fellow students, both in
my cohort and years ahead and behind, inspired me to work harder than I
ever imagined possible, and to dedicate myself to ideas that matter. I took
every opportunity to spend time with Harrison C. White during gradu-
ate school. A giant intellect, Harrison offered honesty and insight that
have been critical to my development as a scholar. But in the end, it was
a new faculty member, Peter S. Bearman, who took me under his wing.
ix