Initial Ideas

Hi Guys,

I agree with Emile that we should focus on how people behave rather than actually on music itself. However, I think that just investigating venues might be hard as most venues cater for a variety of different types of events. I reckon it makes more sense to focus on the differences in peoples behaviour between these kind of events than between venues, although venues does work as well and we could always do some combination of both.

The two things I think we should first establish to make sure that this project doesn't become messy and unfocused are a precise political aim and an easy way of putting this into practice.

My idea for our political aim is to uncover the hidden rules and norms that govern seemingly “every day” behaviour in artistic spaces supposedly designed for free expression like gigs etc.  I agree with Emile though that there isn’t necessarily any reason to limit this to musical subcultures. I’m sure we can all think of some other types of artistic spaces where social expectations limit or constrain behaviour in ways not immediately obvious. For example, in an art gallery can you truly observe art as you would if you were alone, or do social pressures effect the way you behave in this space? It’s interesting that in a space designed for viewing art, you yourself are probably quite aware of other people viewing you. For instance, you might feel embarrassed to stare too long at a nude painting or feel that you must dress or speak in a certain way compared to how you would in other places.

I think this aim gives us a lot to write about when it comes to essays and allows people to follow their own interests whilst not being too unfocussed. There’s a lot of room to write about the different histories of various types of spaces/subcultures and how and why the norms and rules we uncover have come into existence, like what we were talking about in class with the origins of grime and reggae. I also think this would be quite easy to put into practice. It shouldn’t be hard to go to different events or spaces and test the limits of what is acceptable behaviour (without being complete dicks obviously). 

I saw the other day that the group "inner u", that put on that party that Jyoti posted in the group chat the other week, posted a literal set of rules for the clubbing the other day. Its also quite obvious that a lot of the rules have come about as a reaction to things like women feeling threatened when clubbing: http://fliphtml5.com/homepage/qbpd

Welcome to any suggestions