The sound of street corner society

UK grime music as ethnography

Bibliographic Data

ID5825596
AuthorsLeslie Barron (0000-0001-8011-1365, Northumbria University, corresponding author), Lee Barron (Northumbria University)
Year2013
Volume16
Issue5
Pages531-547
Publication date2013-06-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEuropean Journal of Cultural Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1367-5494 • E-ISSN: 1460-3551
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1367549413491937
OpenAlexW2146084165
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited46

This article explores the ways in which popular music can be linked to ethnography. While there is a tradition of connecting popular music with sociology, this article posits a further resonance that is not so much theoretical as methodological. The article suggests that forms of contemporary popular music parallel key facets of ethnography, not simply in terms of sociological analysis, but with regard to popular music as an ethnographic resource, as 'data', and as the reflexive expression of Paul Willis' conception of the 'ethnographic imagination'; and the article argues that contemporary British hip-hop in the form of 'grime' is a potent exemplar. This is due to the resolutely cultural, spatial nature of grime music: a factor that marks out grime as a distinctive musical genre and a distinctive ethnographic form, as it is an experientially rooted music about urban locations, made from within those urban locations

Reflexivity · Music History and Culture · Social and Cultural Dynamics · Theater, Performance, and Music History

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access