Books by Dr Paul Thompson
International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 2024
This paper aims to explore, and reframe, the relations between rock ‘n’ roll, leisure, ‘race’ and... more This paper aims to explore, and reframe, the relations between rock ‘n’ roll, leisure, ‘race’ and youth in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1950s, utilizing archival research to question the heritagization of the city’s popular music histories. Specifically drawing upon accounts of radio broadcasting and vinyl records, we offer an archival study of Cleveland, Ohio, a city that claims to be the “birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll” and (since 1986) is the site of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. After contextualizing the 1950s, we conceptualize the recent archival (re)turn in socio-cultural research. Through this methodological lens we overview the special collections, documents and artefacts explored in fieldwork at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Library and Archives. Then, three counter-stories are presented toward decentring and demythologizing the canonical history of rock ‘n’ roll in Cleveland. Against this canonization, we “change the record” of histories of local radio broadcasting, record stores and eyewitness accounts from Cleveland’s black teenage audiences often absent from many authorized heritage discourses of early rock ‘n’ roll. In deconstructing myths of Cleveland’s musical past, the paper frames archival research as a critical, if under-utilized resource, in leisure research.
Popular Music in Leeds: Histories, Heritage, People and Places, 2023
The first academic collection dedicated to the histories, heritage, people and places of popular ... more The first academic collection dedicated to the histories, heritage, people and places of popular music in Leeds. It presents critical social and historical case studies exploring Leeds’ music and musical spaces, central players - musicians and music industry figures, and key moments in diverse musical scenes in the city
This book provides fresh insight into the creative practice developed by Paul McCartney over his ... more This book provides fresh insight into the creative practice developed by Paul McCartney over his extended career as a songwriter, record producer and performing musician. It frames its examination of McCartney's work through the lens of the systems model of creativity developed by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and combines this with the research work of Pierre Bourdieu. This systems approach is built around the basic structures of idiosyncratic agents, like McCartney himself, and the choices he has made as a creative individual. It also locates his work within social fields and cultural domains, all crucial aspects of the creative system that McCartney continues to be immersed in. Using this tripartite system, the book includes analysis of McCartney's creative collaborations with musicians, producers, artists and filmmakers and provide a critical analysis of the Romantic myth which forms a central tenet of popular music. This engaging work will have interdisciplinary appeal to students and scholars of the psychology of creativity, popular music, sociology and cultural studies.
Paul Thompson offers an alternative take on the romanticized and mythologized process of record-m... more Paul Thompson offers an alternative take on the romanticized and mythologized process of record-making. Side A illustrates how creativity arises out of a system in action, and introduces the history, culture, traditions and institutions that contribute to the process of commercial record production. Side B demonstrates this system in action during the central tasks of songwriting, performing, engineering and producing. Using examples from John Lennon, David Bowie, Tupac Shakur, Björk, Marta Salogni, Sylvia Massy and Rick Rubin, each chapter takes the reader inside a different part of the commercial record production process and uncovers the interactive and interrelated multitude of factors involved in each creative task.
Book Chapters by Dr Paul Thompson
Proceedings of the 12th Art of Record Production Conference Mono: Stereo: Multi, 2019
A ‘Service’ Model of Creativity in Commercial Pop Music at P&E Studios in the 1990s
Abstract
Pro... more A ‘Service’ Model of Creativity in Commercial Pop Music at P&E Studios in the 1990s
Abstract
Producers in pop and dance music genres have a significantly different role to music producers in other music genres such as rock (Frith in Frith & Zagor- ski-Thomas: 2012). A prominent difference is that pop music producers are often part of a production team that involves direct collaboration and participation with songwriters, programmers, musicians, artists, record company A&R executives and managers. Pop music songwriting and production teams are therefore more frequently part of a larger creative collective (Hennion: 1990) in creating a musical product. This historical study introduces the rec- ord producer as ‘team leader’ and the creative production workflow at P&E Music Studios located within the Strongroom Studio complex in London during the 1990s. It investigates the ways in which the production team worked within the creative system of pop-music making and presents the pop music ‘Service Model’, which illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at P&E during the 1990s.
The Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Music Education, 2019
Journal Articles by Dr Paul Thompson
Journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music, 2016
This paper presents research on the power of myth (Barthes 1972) and commonly accepted beliefs, o... more This paper presents research on the power of myth (Barthes 1972) and commonly accepted beliefs, or "doxa" (Bourdieu 1977), in shaping creative practices inside recording studios. Drawing from two ethnographic case studies of rock and hip-hop artists in recording studios, this paper addresses the (re)production of myths during studio sessions. Through critical incident analyses, we challenge romanticized representations of studios as individualistic spaces and highlight how mythic representations of creativity influence musicians' technical expectations of recording processes. Additionally, we illustrate the circulation of, and moments of resistance to, myths from cultural domains outside of the studio that pervade practices within studios. In sum, we show that studios-sites involving the intense scrutiny of music-making-offer insightful contexts in which to examine how myth can shape recording processes and studio practices.
With the continued growth of formal courses in audio related subjects, it has become increasingly... more With the continued growth of formal courses in audio related subjects, it has become increasingly important to consider the place and purpose of audio education within the sphere of formal education and
the wider creative industries. Perspectives on the purpose and place of audio education were collected through a mixture of literature and document analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and email
correspondence. Given the varied perspectives on the purpose of audio education, the challenges identified, and the sheer breadth of possible career paths within the creative industries, it is concluded that audio
education cannot address all of the needs of its stake holders, beneficiaries and benefactors and that better dialogue is required between industry and higher education institutions.
exploring the experiences, perceptions and reflections of popular electronic musicians at uK high... more exploring the experiences, perceptions and reflections of popular electronic musicians at uK higher education institutions absTracT Although formal educational institutions in the UK, and particularly in Higher Education (HE), have begun to include aspects of dance music and hip-hop styles of music in their curricula, there is still a notable lack of research into the relationship between popular electronic music-making practices, such as performance, and formal education. This study explores some of the experiences, perceptions and reflections of popular electronic musicians in formal educational institutions in the UK with a specific focus on the performance of popular electronic music. Our findings show that formal education has had some impact on the development of popular electronic musicians' practice and, in some cases, acted as an introduction to popular electronic styles of music. However, the study's findings also highlight the need to develop more comprehensive musical curricula that include popular electronic styles of music as well as the more established popular musical styles such as rock.
Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 2014
The growth in popularity of Music Technology degree programmes in the United
Kingdom has been pa... more The growth in popularity of Music Technology degree programmes in the United
Kingdom has been paralleled by the apparent decline in informal apprenticeship
systems that have typically provided a gateway to employment in the recording
industry. This article takes a critical approach to the tensions that exist between
higher education and the music industries by exploring contemporary and historical
approaches of apprenticeship. Drawing on interviews with industry professionals,
current students and recent graduates who have achieved some success in the music
industries, this article explores some of the perceptions, myths and contradictions of
the apprenticeship-training model with changes in the contemporary professional
environment. Our findings suggest that training for the music industries is more
flexible and open-ended than some of the published narratives on apprenticeship
would suggest. In addition, educational frameworks over the past twenty years have
often focused on the technical aspects of studio practice at the expense of the social,
aesthetic and human skills required by the industry. These formal frameworks
often only focus on the transference of knowledge to the individual diminishing or ignoring the important processes of interaction with the participants in the field.
Using the metaphor of a professional ‘toolbox’, we argue that there is a need for
an approach that reconsiders the industry-education divide and considers the
value of the educational process in a much wider, contemporary framework. Some
twenty years since the initial development of Music Technology programmes in the
United Kingdom, and in the context of the rapidly changing nature of the music
industries, it is an appropriate time to reconsider the nature and relevance of Music
Technology programmes in higher education.
The recording studio has been somewhat neglected as a site for ethnographic fieldwork in the fiel... more The recording studio has been somewhat neglected as a site for ethnographic fieldwork in the field of ethno-musicology and, moreover, the majority of published studies tend to overlook the specific concerns faced by the researcher within these contexts. Music recording studios can be places of creativity, artistry, and collaboration, but they often also involve challenging, intimidating, and fractious relations. Given that recording studios are, first and foremost, concerned with documenting musicians’ performances, we discuss the concerns of getting studio interactions “on record” in terms of access, social relations, and methods of data collection. This article reflects on some of the issues we faced when conducting our fieldwork within British music recording facilities and makes suggestions based on strategies that we employed to address these issues.
Drawing upon current literature, qualitative and quantitative data, this paper describes the auth... more Drawing upon current literature, qualitative and quantitative data, this paper describes the authors’ experiences of curriculum development and delivery of a dedicated module in ‘Acoustics and Critical Listening'. In addition, it outlines the initial impact this module has had on the development of students’ skills and knowledge in this area and discusses some of the challenges faced through teaching acoustics and critical listening in the classroom.
This study explores the music practices and learning strategies of nine popular electronic musici... more This study explores the music practices and learning strategies of nine popular electronic musicians (DJs, turntablists, hip hop and dance music producers) through the consideration of current literature in empirical music studies, trends in music education and the theme of musical enculturation as a key component of a popular electronic musician’s development. Following the investigation into the learning practices employed by the musicians, as they gather the necessary skills and knowledge to compose, arrange, produce and perform dance and hip hop genres of electronic music, the article goes on to consider whether the learning practices and values expressed by the musicians could be realistically adapted or included within formal music education.
Conference Presentations by Dr Paul Thompson
In his introduction to The Art of Record Production: An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Fi... more In his introduction to The Art of Record Production: An Introductory Reader for a New Academic Field (Frith & Zagorski-Thomas, 2012), Simon Frith proposed that producers in pop and dance music genres have a significantly different role to music producers in other music genres such as rock. A prominent difference is that pop music producers are often part of a production team that involves direct collaboration and participation with songwriters, programmers, musicians, artists, management and record company representatives. Pop music songwriting and production teams are therefore more frequently part of a larger creative collective (Hennion, 1990) in creating a musical product.
The following study explores the creative production workflow system at Pete Waterman Ltd. (PWL) Studios during the 1980s and investigates the way in which the production team worked within a creative system of pop-music making. Drawing upon a series of interviews and data gathered during an extended ethnographic and auto ethnographic study, this paper presents the pop music ‘service’ model, which underlines collectivist rather than individualist thinking and illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at PWL during the 1980s.
Identified as both a temple (Cogan and Clark, 2003) and laboratory (Hennion, 1989), the recording... more Identified as both a temple (Cogan and Clark, 2003) and laboratory (Hennion, 1989), the recording studio was historically the place where the very best musicians, producers, and engineers came to produce music recordings. The apprenticeship model of learning and training allowed student engineers to learn from the masters of their craft and often created famous lineages of music producers and engineers; the family tree of George Martin, Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott at EMI’s Abbey Road is perhaps the most well known. However, recent studies have shown that the recording studio sector has suffered a significant decline within the broader musical economies (Leyshon, 2009), which has resulted in the fragmentation of the knowledge capitol that was traditionally found in larger recording facilities.
So, what remains when the masters are gone? The legacy of their work is the music that they have helped to create and these exist in the form of vinyl records, CDs or digital downloads, but they only tell part of the story. The true primary sources that help to reveal some of the creative and technical approaches to music making are the multitrack recordings from the recording sessions. These primary sources, the multitrack audiotapes and the archives that hold them are an emergent resource for both scholars and students in the field of popular music. This paper introduces the way in which three institutions, Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada and Leeds Beckett University in Leeds, UK are using multitrack materials in the classroom as part of their music production programmes. Importantly it illustrates ways in which popular music education can tap into this well of historical knowledge and, how moving the master into the classroom, makes access to their knowledge and ways of working more accessible.
To each decision inside the recording studio, producers bring their personal experience, expertis... more To each decision inside the recording studio, producers bring their personal experience, expertise and skills. They fold in information about the immediate context, sometimes receiving input from collaborators and adapting to changing information, influences and expectations; and they also apply their knowledge of the expectations of the field, domain and social context in which they work. Every new decision in a session requires the producer to engage in a re-weighing or re-prioritizing of factors, a re-evaluating of risk and an adjustment of means for validation. Each decision requires a producer to consider how to approach decision making as well as deciding.
This paper investigates how the cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-cultural processes governing the kinds of decisions that are taken during a recording session can be studied. We have drawn upon our respective disciplines of sociology and cognitive psychology in order to consider how producers respond and adapt to events, changes, the behaviors of others as a session progresses and how the producer’s approach to decision making are reflected in these patterns. We have drawn upon current literature, interviews, articles and data gathered during an extended ethnographic study inside the recording studio. Video and audio recordings, fieldnotes and responses from a number of semi-structured interviews with the project’s record producer have been used to explore decision-making in the recording studio.
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Books by Dr Paul Thompson
Book Chapters by Dr Paul Thompson
Abstract
Producers in pop and dance music genres have a significantly different role to music producers in other music genres such as rock (Frith in Frith & Zagor- ski-Thomas: 2012). A prominent difference is that pop music producers are often part of a production team that involves direct collaboration and participation with songwriters, programmers, musicians, artists, record company A&R executives and managers. Pop music songwriting and production teams are therefore more frequently part of a larger creative collective (Hennion: 1990) in creating a musical product. This historical study introduces the rec- ord producer as ‘team leader’ and the creative production workflow at P&E Music Studios located within the Strongroom Studio complex in London during the 1990s. It investigates the ways in which the production team worked within the creative system of pop-music making and presents the pop music ‘Service Model’, which illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at P&E during the 1990s.
Journal Articles by Dr Paul Thompson
the wider creative industries. Perspectives on the purpose and place of audio education were collected through a mixture of literature and document analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and email
correspondence. Given the varied perspectives on the purpose of audio education, the challenges identified, and the sheer breadth of possible career paths within the creative industries, it is concluded that audio
education cannot address all of the needs of its stake holders, beneficiaries and benefactors and that better dialogue is required between industry and higher education institutions.
Kingdom has been paralleled by the apparent decline in informal apprenticeship
systems that have typically provided a gateway to employment in the recording
industry. This article takes a critical approach to the tensions that exist between
higher education and the music industries by exploring contemporary and historical
approaches of apprenticeship. Drawing on interviews with industry professionals,
current students and recent graduates who have achieved some success in the music
industries, this article explores some of the perceptions, myths and contradictions of
the apprenticeship-training model with changes in the contemporary professional
environment. Our findings suggest that training for the music industries is more
flexible and open-ended than some of the published narratives on apprenticeship
would suggest. In addition, educational frameworks over the past twenty years have
often focused on the technical aspects of studio practice at the expense of the social,
aesthetic and human skills required by the industry. These formal frameworks
often only focus on the transference of knowledge to the individual diminishing or ignoring the important processes of interaction with the participants in the field.
Using the metaphor of a professional ‘toolbox’, we argue that there is a need for
an approach that reconsiders the industry-education divide and considers the
value of the educational process in a much wider, contemporary framework. Some
twenty years since the initial development of Music Technology programmes in the
United Kingdom, and in the context of the rapidly changing nature of the music
industries, it is an appropriate time to reconsider the nature and relevance of Music
Technology programmes in higher education.
Conference Presentations by Dr Paul Thompson
The following study explores the creative production workflow system at Pete Waterman Ltd. (PWL) Studios during the 1980s and investigates the way in which the production team worked within a creative system of pop-music making. Drawing upon a series of interviews and data gathered during an extended ethnographic and auto ethnographic study, this paper presents the pop music ‘service’ model, which underlines collectivist rather than individualist thinking and illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at PWL during the 1980s.
So, what remains when the masters are gone? The legacy of their work is the music that they have helped to create and these exist in the form of vinyl records, CDs or digital downloads, but they only tell part of the story. The true primary sources that help to reveal some of the creative and technical approaches to music making are the multitrack recordings from the recording sessions. These primary sources, the multitrack audiotapes and the archives that hold them are an emergent resource for both scholars and students in the field of popular music. This paper introduces the way in which three institutions, Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada and Leeds Beckett University in Leeds, UK are using multitrack materials in the classroom as part of their music production programmes. Importantly it illustrates ways in which popular music education can tap into this well of historical knowledge and, how moving the master into the classroom, makes access to their knowledge and ways of working more accessible.
This paper investigates how the cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-cultural processes governing the kinds of decisions that are taken during a recording session can be studied. We have drawn upon our respective disciplines of sociology and cognitive psychology in order to consider how producers respond and adapt to events, changes, the behaviors of others as a session progresses and how the producer’s approach to decision making are reflected in these patterns. We have drawn upon current literature, interviews, articles and data gathered during an extended ethnographic study inside the recording studio. Video and audio recordings, fieldnotes and responses from a number of semi-structured interviews with the project’s record producer have been used to explore decision-making in the recording studio.
Abstract
Producers in pop and dance music genres have a significantly different role to music producers in other music genres such as rock (Frith in Frith & Zagor- ski-Thomas: 2012). A prominent difference is that pop music producers are often part of a production team that involves direct collaboration and participation with songwriters, programmers, musicians, artists, record company A&R executives and managers. Pop music songwriting and production teams are therefore more frequently part of a larger creative collective (Hennion: 1990) in creating a musical product. This historical study introduces the rec- ord producer as ‘team leader’ and the creative production workflow at P&E Music Studios located within the Strongroom Studio complex in London during the 1990s. It investigates the ways in which the production team worked within the creative system of pop-music making and presents the pop music ‘Service Model’, which illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at P&E during the 1990s.
the wider creative industries. Perspectives on the purpose and place of audio education were collected through a mixture of literature and document analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and email
correspondence. Given the varied perspectives on the purpose of audio education, the challenges identified, and the sheer breadth of possible career paths within the creative industries, it is concluded that audio
education cannot address all of the needs of its stake holders, beneficiaries and benefactors and that better dialogue is required between industry and higher education institutions.
Kingdom has been paralleled by the apparent decline in informal apprenticeship
systems that have typically provided a gateway to employment in the recording
industry. This article takes a critical approach to the tensions that exist between
higher education and the music industries by exploring contemporary and historical
approaches of apprenticeship. Drawing on interviews with industry professionals,
current students and recent graduates who have achieved some success in the music
industries, this article explores some of the perceptions, myths and contradictions of
the apprenticeship-training model with changes in the contemporary professional
environment. Our findings suggest that training for the music industries is more
flexible and open-ended than some of the published narratives on apprenticeship
would suggest. In addition, educational frameworks over the past twenty years have
often focused on the technical aspects of studio practice at the expense of the social,
aesthetic and human skills required by the industry. These formal frameworks
often only focus on the transference of knowledge to the individual diminishing or ignoring the important processes of interaction with the participants in the field.
Using the metaphor of a professional ‘toolbox’, we argue that there is a need for
an approach that reconsiders the industry-education divide and considers the
value of the educational process in a much wider, contemporary framework. Some
twenty years since the initial development of Music Technology programmes in the
United Kingdom, and in the context of the rapidly changing nature of the music
industries, it is an appropriate time to reconsider the nature and relevance of Music
Technology programmes in higher education.
The following study explores the creative production workflow system at Pete Waterman Ltd. (PWL) Studios during the 1980s and investigates the way in which the production team worked within a creative system of pop-music making. Drawing upon a series of interviews and data gathered during an extended ethnographic and auto ethnographic study, this paper presents the pop music ‘service’ model, which underlines collectivist rather than individualist thinking and illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at PWL during the 1980s.
So, what remains when the masters are gone? The legacy of their work is the music that they have helped to create and these exist in the form of vinyl records, CDs or digital downloads, but they only tell part of the story. The true primary sources that help to reveal some of the creative and technical approaches to music making are the multitrack recordings from the recording sessions. These primary sources, the multitrack audiotapes and the archives that hold them are an emergent resource for both scholars and students in the field of popular music. This paper introduces the way in which three institutions, Drexel University in Philadelphia, USA the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada and Leeds Beckett University in Leeds, UK are using multitrack materials in the classroom as part of their music production programmes. Importantly it illustrates ways in which popular music education can tap into this well of historical knowledge and, how moving the master into the classroom, makes access to their knowledge and ways of working more accessible.
This paper investigates how the cognitive, meta-cognitive and socio-cultural processes governing the kinds of decisions that are taken during a recording session can be studied. We have drawn upon our respective disciplines of sociology and cognitive psychology in order to consider how producers respond and adapt to events, changes, the behaviors of others as a session progresses and how the producer’s approach to decision making are reflected in these patterns. We have drawn upon current literature, interviews, articles and data gathered during an extended ethnographic study inside the recording studio. Video and audio recordings, fieldnotes and responses from a number of semi-structured interviews with the project’s record producer have been used to explore decision-making in the recording studio.
Intuition in this context is a useful term in helping to explain how more experienced individuals can appear to make an imperceptible leap from preparation to illumination almost instantaneously. It also helps to explain how practitioners in record production often describe the song writing itself or the track mixing itself. Using video and audio data gathered during a number of commercial mixing sessions, this paper explores intuition as it applies to the creative process of mixing a record. Critical moments during each of the sessions have been selected and amplified in order to highlight the creative decisions of the mix engineer. The study also considers intuition in relation to the knowledge and experience of the mixing engineer and further highlights preparation as a necessary element in the intuitive creative process.
Drawing upon current literature, interviews, case studies and data gathered from an extended ethnographic study in the recording studio, this paper explores the interrelated aspects of agency and structure as they apply to the record production process and illustrates their influence on the decision-making process with a group of musicians, an engineer and record producer as they collaborate inside the recording studio.
There is general agreement in the literature however that creativity may be best thought of as the bringing into being of ‘an idea or product that is original, valued and implemented’ (Wolff, 2000: 81) and there is growing evidence that creativity occurs through the convergence of multiple elements; an agent, a knowledge system (the domain) and a social organisation that holds the domain knowledge (the field), through a dynamic system of interaction (Csikszentmihalyi: 1988, 1997, 1999 & 2004). Rather than focussing on these individual elements Csikszentmihalyi promotes a perspective of creativity that integrates all three elements within a collaborative system that can be observed by examining moments within it.
music production (McIntyre, 2010), the systems model of creativity suggests this by itself is not sufficient for creativity to occur. This paper examines the systems model of creativity within studio recording and record production education, where the field is addressed as a necessary component.
Evidence is presented to show that the process of record production, as exemplified by this performer, can be seen as a more considered judicious set of procedures that stem from a dynamic system of interactions of personnel in the recording studio (artists and engineers) involving the social dynamics and power relationships that function on a larger scale than that of the single individual. This view moves well beyond conceptualising aspects of the creative process in the recording studio as inexplicable.
McCartney’s experiences of music listening, collaborative performance and composition and how they all contributed to his outstanding works in the studio, his musical direction and in particular his little recognised role as a record producer are considered through the application of the systems model of creativity (Csikszentmihalyi 1988, 1997 & 1999). Evidence gathered from current literature, case studies, interviews, biographies and autobiographies are used to illustrate how McCartney’s collaborative and creative endeavours in the recording studio can be seen to stand in opposition to the inspirationalist, Romantic view of creativity.
In formal educational institutions, and specifically Higher Education in the UK, the practical study of dance music and Hip-hop genres has been unequivocally avoided in favour of more traditional Western Art music. Although a significant move forward in the recognition of popular music, with the introduction of Anglo-American guitar-based rock in institutions in the UK during the 1980s and 1990s, the conventions of Western Art music pedagogy are still used (Campbell, 1991). Music Technology too, has surfaced as a discrete discipline at all levels of education in the UK (Boehm, 2007) and in particular the HE sector. Music Technology courses tend to encompass music-making in its broadest sense attracting musicians from rock-based as well as an electronic or technological backgrounds. However, Music Technology and Music Production courses often fail to incorporate popular electronic music categories, such as dance and Hip-hop, into their taxonomy and avoid practical pedagogy of deejaying, turntablism, dance and Hip-hop production.
The absence of popular electronic music pedagogy in formal institutions, coupled with the popular electronic musician’s inability to ‘play’ an instrument in its traditional sense, has resulted in the disregard for the musical skills and knowledge required to compose, arrange and perform dance and Hip-hop styles of music. Gaining a greater understanding of the musical skills and knowledge of popular electronic musicians’ practice not only substantiates DJs, turntablists, dance and Hip-hop producers as musicians in their own right but creates a platform in which formal educational institutions can engage, rather than alienate, these musicians.
Participants in the study were from all over the United Kingdom and aged 18 to 40 and information was gathered through ethnographic research from questionnaires, structured and semi-structured interviews that took place between October 2009 and May 2010. The interviews were qualitative in design and the responses from the participants were recorded and transcribed and scrutinised both quantitatively and qualitatively.
Examined in the study are both formal educational experiences and informal learning practices of the participants and the conditions required for informal music learning are observed, through the related process of musical enculturation. It is also considered whether learning practices and values, as expressed by the musicians during the study, could be realistically adapted or included within formal music education.
Refereneces
Boehm, C. (2007) ‘The discipline that never was’. Journal for Music, Technology and Education, Vol 1, 2007. ISSN: 17527066
Campbell, P (1991b) Lessons from the World: A cross-cultural Guide to Music Teaching and Learning. Schirmer Books. New York
Cohen, S. (1991) Rock Culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making. Clarendon
Finnegan, R (1989)The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1989
Green, L. (2002) how popular musicians learn. Ashgate. London.
Katz, M. (2004)Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2004.
Schloss, J., G. (2004) Making Beats: The Art of Sample-based Hip-hop. Wesleyan University Press.
Thornton, S. (1995) Club Cultures: Music, Media and Subcultural Capital. Polity Press. London.