Commentary on Peer-Interview (2000)

Popular Culture Module

Prior to carrying out this interview I wrote a selection of questions aimed at encouraging my subject to speak freely on his personal tastes and attitudes on popular music, as well as giving me vital information on his background to allow some deeper analysis of his responses. The interview was recorded to tape through a microphone, but due to an excess of background noise it was submitted for assessment as a full transcription.

Before interviewing my subject, Matthew, I had some certain preconceptions of his tastes and prior expectations as to the way I thought he would respond to my questions. These were derived from predominately unfounded judgements I had personally made based upon his usual style of dress, and from casual conversations that had previously taken place between he and I in a night-club environment.

My subject often dresses in combat trousers, skater-style fleece jumpers and trainers, and T-shirts emblazoned with band logos, for example Fear Factory and Pitchshifter, all of which tend to convey a metal-orientated image (it is, however, interesting to note that neither of these bands were mentioned within the interview). Matthew's hairstyle could be described as eccentric, with dark brown and off-blonde dyes having been used to create a tiger-like pattern in his short shaven hair. I had the impression that my subject had a suppressed desire to shock his peer group through outrageous means. Another clue to the interviewee's possible musical preferences was the metal bar piercing his left eyebrow. All these fashion and stylistic traits led me to the notion that my subject would be a heavy metal fan. After our discussion I felt that I had established that Matthew's actual tastes were a good deal more diverse than those preconceived. Whilst I had been correct in assuming his leaning towards heavier musics, I had failed to adequately consider his interests in other genres of popular music. My subject was brought up in a highly musical environment with the classical music played to him by his parents, and the folk played to him by his grandmother assuming an important role throughout his childhood and adolescence. The interviewee got 'into' popular music at a relatively late age compared to many people I know, with his first actual purchase taking place at the age of fourteen. At this age he was listening to soft-rock artists such as John Bon Jovi and Bryan Adams (the style often being referred to as adult orientated rock (AOR) or middle-of-the-road rock (MOR) ). This liking for Americanised stadium rock developed and mutated once my subject reached University and began to mix with people with a broader range of musical tastes. He moved from rock towards the indie scene, perhaps being lured by its attractive facet of being more alternative, and later made the easy transition into gradually heavier and heavier musics whilst still retaining an interest in genres such as indie.

I was interested in the way my subject's tastes had appeared to have altered swiftly, having seemingly gone through three separate music 'scenes' over a relatively short space of time. Matthew interestingly chronologued his musical evolution from American MOR, through indie towards metal, but also the personal growth that took place alongside this musical development through his gaining new experiences and musically influential friends at university.

My subject had grown up in an urban environment, but moved to a rural one at an influential period during adolescence. It was seemingly within the fairly quiet constraints of Somerset life that Matthew's first independent musical tastes evolved, predominately through listening to the radio and talking to friends. Whilst my subject could recall certain tunes from his school days it appears that it was university that opened his eyes to the broader musical spectrum and educated him, leading to his obvious ability for the intelligent discussion of aesthetic issues. I was particularly surprised that whilst the interviewee refused to read any form of published music press he was actually on the music journalism team of the student newspaper 'Bare Facts'.

Whilst the age gap of two years between interviewer and interviewee seemed so small as to be irrelevant, it was noticeable that my subject had earlier musical memories than me, for example Gary Numan, the Waterboys and the Sisters of Mercy. Despite this, a generational difference in musical cognition was unsurprisingly not evident.

My subject's intensity of listening was also discussed and it became apparent that music was predominately used for venting emotions (a typically male usage according to sociologist/writer George H. Lewis), with more general uses of music being for background noise whether it be whilst working or relaxing. From comments made within the interview I gained the impression that my interviewee had been through some difficult emotional experiences involving feelings of depression and isolation and that music had been used within these circumstances to express more accurately exactly what he was feeling. He appeared to most identify with the band 'Life of Agony' which he used in a cathartic manner.

Whilst discussing musical usage Matthew also specified a dislike for those individuals who choose to dissect and analyse contemporary music. He stressed quite strongly his opinions on the importance of taking each song as an individual auditory experience not to be laboriously broken into its' component parts.

Casually conversing with my subject after the conclusion of the formal interview allowed me to probe into deeper lines of questioning greater than a mere fifteen minutes had allowed. I also found the interviewee far less reticent once the microphone had been switched off. This conversation enabled me to establish that Matthew's parents are particularly cultured, with his mother being a classical music-loving librarian and his father sharing similar interests. My subject also revealed than he is a twin, with an unidentical brother who could not be more unlike him musically in that he is a massive fan of Wagner operas and requiem masses. The interviewee then went on to demonstrate some knowledge of classical composers, compositions, operas, and surprisingly expressed that Monteverdi's opera 'Poppea' "wasn't as bad as some he'd heard", and explained how he thought Wagner operas should be staged traditionally in a grandiose manner rather than being modernised. He then went on to discuss several productions of Shakespeare plays he'd seen 'in the round' at certain Bedfordshire country houses with his parents. From these responses it can be seen that (perhaps through my lines of questioning evading these topics, or perhaps through the interviewee purposefully holding back on discussing cultural issues with a peer) my subject has in fact been exposed to culture, classical music and the arts. His parents provided him with considerable access to culture at early age but my subject appears to have chosen to reject these experiences in favour of a more independent and autonomous musical style to make his own. To speculate, I would state that the feeling of pressure placed upon my subject by his parents & brother to conform to their expectations most probably led to active rebellion and non-conformity musically. Surprisingly my subject claimed musical, cultural and codal incompetence despite his obvious knowledge of these matters. It was also interesting and somewhat contradictory that he then went on to discuss lack of depth in certain musics (notably dance), and the necessity for meaningful lyrical content. This lead me to suspect that Matthew is an intelligent and moderately cultured subject who was merely hiding or denying his family and cultural background from the interviewer. It is considerable that the interviewee stated that both he and his family were working class, whilst Lewis categorically states that "middle-class youth seem to be more concerned with lyrics and their meaning, whilst working-class youth are more into the beat and danceability".

The interview became particularly interesting when I moved onto the topic of my subject's involvement within 'No Wave'. Through a discussion designed to evaluate the interviewee's opinions on musical subcultures, fashion, tastes, ideals, his position within this offshoot of University society and his ideas on group music consumption a few interesting points were raised. Matthew's comments on politics within the music society (quote - "politics are irrelevant in No Wave") gave me an impression of his personal apathy and/or ambivalence towards political issues. I attempted to provoke a heated discussion on the subject of conformity amongst seemingly non-conformist people, but my subject counteracted this by stating that people's attitudes and styles are their own business and that within his particular music society a laissez-faire attitude had been adopted towards people's personal fashion and musical styles. As Hebdige states, "The communication of a significant difference is the 'point' behind the style of all spectacular subcultures". Matthew's statements did, however, appear to correlate with the following statement by Lewis, "The central fact is that we pretty much listen to, and enjoy, the same music that is listened to by other people we like or with whom we identify". Within the No Wave context the members identify with one another and hence find some socially shared meaning through the music played, especially as this seems to be predominately oppositional in nature (Lewisian terminology). Matthew seemed to consider himself as a member of No Wave but also very much as an individual, and was keen to stress that he felt no need to conform to certain musical scenes, for example his comments on the musical scene attached to mountain biking.

Hebdige states, "Different youths bring different degrees of commitment to a subculture. It can represent a major dimension in people's lives - an axis erected in the face of the family around which a secret and immaculate identity can be made to cohere - or it can be a slight distraction, a bit of light relief from the monotonous but nonetheless paramount realities of school, home and work. It can be used as a means of escape, of total detachment from the surrounding terrain, or as a way of fitting back into it and settling down after a weekend or evening spent letting off steam". I would agree with this argument, and I feel that my subject fits comfortably between these two groups. Whilst the No Wave subculture seems to play a major part in his social life, it is, on the grander scale, more of a distraction from his everyday life.

To conclude I feel that the interview and commentary process has been beneficial to both myself and my subject in that it forced us both to more actively consider our position within culture as a whole and our musical individuality. Whilst my subject would probably not want me to say it, I think that the majority of my preconceptions were justified and proven, but I was also interested and pleasantly surprised to find a deeper and more thoughtful side to Matthew. I believe whole-heartedly in a quote by anthropologist Clifford Geertz stating "people are animals suspended in webs of significance that they themselves spin". My subject has spun his web and seems happy and assured of his musical world and the usage of music within his life.

Last updated on Friday, 31-Oct-2003 10:32:59 GMT