Popular Music

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The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town. By Ruth Finnegan. Wesleyan University Press, 2007. 378 pp. ISBN-10: 0819568538; ISBN-13: 978-0819568533
Mary Fogarty
Popular Music / Volume 28 / Issue 02 / May 2009, pp 289 - 292 DOI: 10.1017/S0261143009001950, Published online: 18 June 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0261143009001950 How to cite this article: Mary Fogarty (2009). Popular Music, 28, pp 289-292 doi:10.1017/S0261143009001950 Request Permissions : Click here

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Ochs. Weisbard argues that Buddy Holocausts performances are in a state of limbo: too convincing in his reactionary zeal when he sings a song called We Will Retake Saigon, his personal life is simultaneously psychologically turbulent, leading to his (apparent) suicide. Weisbard contemplates the excessive nihilism which artists can fall into, and questions if such transformation is morally worthwhile. He concludes that it is somehow representative of the absurd transformative power of rock music which can be excessive and over the top while coincidentally all too real. David Thomas, frontman of the US post-punk band Pere Ubu, argues for the first authentic punk movement emerging on regional US television in the mid-1960s. Focusing on Ghoulardi (real name Ernie Anderson), the presenter of a Cleveland late-night horror show, Thomas argues that Ghoulardis spirit of subversion was essentially as transgressive as punk. He shows how such on-air tactics as repeating the phrase, What me worry? persistently for ten minutes at a time; setting off homemade explosives on air; and inserting drop-ins of audio and pictures selected seemingly at random, were unique aspects of Ghoulardis show. Moreover, Ghoulardi used his radio platform to rail against some of the inanities of popular culture and television, encouraging people across the region to question authority, and helping spawn a punk scene in Cleveland that in the late-1970s rivalled that of New York. Other essays in the volume, however, do not fare so well. Lavinia Greenlaws essay on gender identity and scene/ punk conformity is too personal and confessional, although it works as a nice vignette. Likewise, Drew Daniels piece on performing in character as Darby Crash, lead singer of old-school LA punk band The Germs, is quirky but a little slight. And Greil Marcus makes the error of getting the Holy Modal Rounders name wrong, albeit in an otherwise illuminating essay on the connection between punk and old blues. Still, the breadth and scope of this collection is worthy of recommendation the essays are thought provoking academically while transmitting a real passion for music that both serious fan and student alike will connect with. Kieran Curran University Of Edinburgh, UK

The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town. By Ruth Finnegan. Wesleyan University Press, 2007. 378 pp. ISBN-10: 0819568538; ISBN-13: 9780819568533 doi:10.1017/S0261143009001950
I was introduced to the dynamic range of scholarship undertaken by Ruth Finnegan while reading a short article Finnegan wrote for the British Academy Review entitled, Should we notice researchers outside the university? (Finnegan 2007a). Immediately I sent details of the online article to close friends and colleagues as her approach highlighted questions raised in previous conversations concerning popular cultural studies. This included theoretical concerns and methodological queries such as how to account for and use research materials produced outside academic institutions (and, as Finnegan notes, unaccounted for in the highly publicised RAE in the UK). Within a day or two I received

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responses from peers who were impressed and in some cases relieved by Finnegans concern for knowledge production outside Universities and the unquestionable value of independent researchers and music fans. Already familiar with some of her previous work, I began to read the re-issue of her classic text, The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town (Finnegan 2007b). Since then, I have read many other articles and books by this exceptional thinker: Finnegans writing style is a perfect blend of the accessible and profound, making this text also useful for undergraduates. An immediate predecessor to Sara Cohens local ethnography, Rock Culture in Liverpool (1991), and Antoine Hennions writings about amateur musicians (Hennion 1996, 1999, 2007), Ruth Finnegans book provides an in-depth analysis of the professional and amateur music-making practices in Milton Keynes. At the time of the books initial publication (1989), Finnegan challenged academic viewpoints that emphasised canonical figures, musical texts/scores, and theories about music by instead describing musical practices (and pathways) across a wide range of musical genres and styles. And she did this in a town that she knew intimately, where she played a variety of different social and musical roles that contributed to her far-reaching insights. Finnegan lists a few of her various roles as a participant, none-too-competent choral singer, lapsed cello player, recorder dabbler, mother of musically inclined children, and enthusiastic but musicologically unsophisticated audience member (p. xviii). Finnegans comparative approach, honed from an anthropological background, proves compelling as she examines various local musical worlds including: classical music, brass bands, folk music, musical theatre, jazz, country and western, and rock and pop. After she has described each of the scenes marking out some distinguishing features in music production, groupings and practices (she suggests that an anthropologist may cringe at how part-time her study of each area was yet her study provides more description and careful observation than many full-time studies), she begins to outline contrasts and comparisons between the various scenes. Some of the major arenas she considers in this section include: learning music, performances and their conditions, composition, and creativity. Although comparison is the essence of this approach, she avoids constructing ideological distinctions of value produced outside of each scene. Rather, each musical world needs to be judged initially by its own aesthetic and social criteria and this quality of insight (and the actual fulfilment of this understanding played out in the descriptive writing) proves to be one of her most carefully crafted contributions to the field of music study. Howard Beckers Art Worlds (Becker 1982) sets the stage for many of Finnegans key arguments. The concept of worlds, borrowed from Becker,points us to the sustained and systematic notion of what otherwise might look haphazard and individual. Equally important, it gets us away from the idea that there is just one way in which music can be enacted (p. 180). She continues by addressing one of the major arguments of the book: to demonstrate the plurality of equally authentic local musics. Finnegan begins to reveal how the various local worlds overlap in practice. For example, the ways that participants move between various musical worlds to make music:
Brass band players often played for operatic performances, in classical or jazz concerts, or even though less often in rock bands. Some musicians began from learning in the classical

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mode, then switched to rock, jazz or folk, while a few became interested in classical or operatic music after earlier involvement with rock. A few regularly played in a variety of musical styles and became involved in social activities and groupings that went with these without necessarily finding this stressful or feeling the pull between two worlds that has become a clich in other contexts. Some worlds were more open to overlapping membership than others: classical, operatic and brass flowed easily into each other, unlike, say, rock and classical (though there were a few surprises). In some areas of music, interactions in style or membership provided for new musical development, as with folk-rock, jazz styles within classical models, or the meeting of jazz and rock. (p. 181)

One of the books few limitations, noted in an earlier review (Frith 1996), and in Finnegans own preface to the new edition, is the absence of accounts which describe the music-making practices of distinct ethnic or religious minority groups. Most of the research for the book took place in the early 1980s (19801984). Considering the emergence and popularity of hip-hop culture during these years in numerous other UK cities and towns, I wonder if Milton Keynes was different or if this genre and its cultural forms and practices (such as b-boying, or writing) are simply not accounted for in this study. However, due to the already enormous range of musical worlds covered (the book has a magnum opus feel to it), this criticism is perhaps lessened by the fact that Ruth Finnegan does consider the place of dance in music scenes more effectively than many contemporary popular music ethnographers. Another area of the book that remains underdeveloped is a consideration of cultural policy or economic factors influencing changes in Milton Keynes. However, Finnegan does provide accounts of the micro-politics and financing of music in sections about the organisation and work of local music. These chapters account for many of the social dynamics involved in the organisation and administration of musical groups, as well as the resources, rewards and support for various endeavours including the role of music shops. Finnegan acknowledges how many local amateur music groups play for free and put a great deal of their own money into their practices, often raising money for charities along the way. The Hidden Musicians proves its ongoing relevance and timeliness for current debates in music studies: even emerging studies that consider new developments in music technology can benefit from Finnegans account of music practices before the rise of the World Wide Web, providing a historical comparison in studies about music-making activities such as promotion and production. Hidden Musicians is a must-read for anyone involved in the field of music studies (or outside academia for those interested in a charged and wide-ranging account of various musical practices within one locale). Every University library should stock multiple copies. Mary Fogarty University of Edinburgh, UK

References
Becker, H. 1982. Art Worlds (Berkeley, University of California Press) Cohen, S. 1991. Rock Culture in Liverpool: Popular Music in the Making (Oxford, Clarendon) Finnegan, R. 2007a. Should we notice researchers outside the university?, British Academy Review, 10, pp. 5861 2007b. The Hidden Musicians: Music-Making in an English Town (Middletown, Wesleyan University Press)

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Frith, S. 1996. Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music (Cambridge and London, Harvard University Press) Hennion, A. 1996. Profession amateur. Petite sociologie portative, Symphonia, 2 Janvier, pp. 47 1999. Les amateurs de musique. Sociologie d une pratique et d un gout, Sociologie de l Art, 12, Les Arts et le Public, pp. 939 2007. Those things that hold us together: taste and sociology, Cultural Sociology, 1/1, pp. 97114

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