Popular Culture Module - Interview Transcript

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Introductions

Interviewer:- To start off could you please tell me your name and age?
Interviewee:- My name is Matthew and I'm twenty-two
Interviewer:- Where abouts do you come from?
Interviewee:- I originally come from Luton, but I've been living in Somerset for the last nine years.
Interviewer:- Is that a fairly rural area?
Interviewee:- Taunton is an urban town, its in the town yeah, but its quite close to the country. Its quite a small town.
Interviewer:- How about Luton?
Interviewee:- Luton is a very very urban and built-up area.
Interviewer:- Could you tell me a little about your family background, for example what social class you consider yourself a member of and what kind of school you went to... whether it was fee-paying or not?
Interviewee:- My parents are both working class and I consider myself to be working class, um, and I've always gone to comprehensive schools.
Interviewer:- Have you worked at all to supplement your student grant?
Interviewee:- Yes. I worked in a toy shop during my second year.
Interviewer:- And last year?
Interviewee:- Last year was my industrial placement year and I was working for a construction firm.
Interviewer:- Would you describe yourself as British and Christian?
Interviewee:- Well, I'm British and I guess I'm sort of Christian, but actually I'm probably agnostic more than anything.

Familial Influence

Interviewer:- Okay. Did your parents play much music when you were young, and if so, do you think that music was an integral part of your upbringing?
Interviewee :- My parents have always played lots and lots of music. They're basically very into Classical music and I've been bombarded with that from a very early age - Stuff like Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Bach, Wagner - all that sort of thing. Its definitely played a large part in my upbringing because I absolutely hate the stuff now (laughs).
Interviewer:- And what's your earliest musical memory?
Interviewee:- What do you mean?
Interviewer:- Do you have any recollection of certain pieces or songs that were played to you when you were very young?
Interviewee:- Yeah, it's a song... I can't actually remember who it's by now, but the song's called 'Forty Shades of Green' and it's a folk song my Gran used to play.
Interviewer:- How old were you at the time?
Interviewee:- About four or five.
Interviewer:- Did your parents tastes and what they played you when you were young positively or negatively influence the development of your musical tastes?
Interviewee:- Very negatively! Basically I went in completely the opposite direction.
Interviewer:- So do you feel that your gravitation towards certain types of music was a direct reaction against your parents?
Interviewee:- I can safely say have no love of opera, or Classical music for that reason.
Interviewer:- Would you like to admit what the first single you ever bought was? Interviewee:- The first single I bought?
Interviewer:- Or CD, or record... Your first musical purchase?
Interviewee:- My first musical purchase? My first musical purchase was a record by Bryan Adams called 'Waking Up the Neighbours'.
Interviewer:- And how old were you?
Interviewee:- I was fourteen.
Interviewer:- Fourteen? That's a relatively late age for a first record. What are your personal non-musical tastes... your hobbies?

Hobbies and Social Involvement

Interviewer:- I'm a mountain biker, basically apart from that there's the stuff at the University. I'm a DJ and I'm involved with No Wave and GCR.
Interviewer:- What are No Wave and GCR?
Interviewee:- No Wave is the alternative music society at the University. GCR is Guildford Campus Radio 1602am, the student radio station.
Interviewer:- Is there a particular music scene attached to you mountain biking for example?
Interviewee:- With mountain biking the musical scene kind of overlaps quite heavily with skate culture but it hasn't got its own dedicated sort of music. Its a kind of crossover of skate bands, grunge, punk and metal.
Interviewer:- Are you a part of that scene?
Interviewee:- I've never really actively followed a scene. I enjoy the music but I've never really dressed up towards the whole fashion side of the scene. I never wear a chain wallet or anything like that.
Interviewer:-Away from your hobbies what is your current musical taste? What do you like and dislike, and what do you listen to most?
Interviewee:- My current musical taste is tending very much more towards hardcore, metal, goth, hip-hop, that style of thing. I still like indie, I mean, I went through an indie stage for a couple of years. I still like it, but don't listen to it as much as I used to.
Interviewer:- What's the reason you started listening to heavier music?
Interviewee:- I just kind of discovered metal and moved onto that.
Interviewer:- A kind of gradual transition then? What do you hate?
Interviewee:- Things I positively hate? I really dislike Classical music and probably always will. That's my choice basically because my parents have kind of shoved it down my throat all my life. So it's like, "No!", I'm going to go in completely the opposite direction.
Interviewer:- What about contemporary popular styles?
Interviewee:- I'm not a fan of dance at all, in fact mainstream commercial dance is utter crap as far as I'm concerned. It really is.
Interviewer:- Why?
Interviewee:- Basically because its some bloke kind of pushing three keys in his bedroom and he makes millions. It has absolutely no meaning. There's no soul to it at all. I mean, good dance is fine because it's more interesting and it pushes the boundaries a bit, but commercial dance is the same old crap time after time after time. Nothing ever changes and its just completely shallow and meaningless.
Interviewer:- Do you have a song that describes you best or that you most identify with?
Interviewee:- There are certain songs that I feel have summed up feelings at certain times in my life. Yes, It would probably be 'This Time' by Life of Agony.
Interviewer:- Why is that?
Interviewee:- It's a song that's basically about being lonely.
Interviewer:- So you relate music to events or personal circumstances?
Interviewee:- Not directly, but I tend to maybe later hear a song and remember something that happened, but the thought "I will play this song because it reminds me of that" doesn't sit in my memory.

Development of Musical Tastes

Interviewer:- How does your current taste differ to the music you listened to five or ten years ago?
Interviewee:- I was very middle-of-the-road...into American soft rock five years ago. Stuff like Bon Jovi, Bryan Adams, all right he's Canadian, big deal. Then I came to University and got into the indie scene quite a bit. I was into indie for about two years. I still buy indie now but not a huge amount. Then in my second year I started to head towards the metal and punk - Stuff like that. Since I've been at University my taste definitely became more alternative, more interesting and much more diverse. I listen to a lot of different styles now.
Interviewer:- Are there any particular songs or artists that remind you of your school days?
Interviewee:- I suppose the contemporary artists of the time. I always remember stuff like 'Walk Like an Egyptian' by the Bangles. 'Cars' by Gary Numan is one that really irritated me for years because I couldn't remember what it was but I recognised the tune. At high school there was nothing in particular that stands out.
Interviewer:- How did your taste develop? Did your friends influence you or did you listen to the radio much?
Interviewee:- My friends influenced me a little bit, yeah, but basically they listened to the radio as well as me. I really started listening to the radio at the age of eleven, and that was very commercial radio.
Interviewer:- What sort of thing did they play?
Interviewee:- Stuff like the Waterboys, Squeeze and Crowded House.
Interviewer:- Do you read the music press at all?
Interviewee:- No, I don't read the music press at all. Never have done, never will do.
Interviewer:- How do you rate your competence at music? Can you read music or play any instrument?
Interviewee:- Crap! I can't do anything! I'm musically inept
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How music is listened to

Interviewer:- In that case, do you understand the intricacies what you hear and pick out individual lines, or do you hear music as a whole?
Interviewee:- I can appreciate the individual lines but I honestly think you're meant to hear it as a whole. You're not meant to dissect it into the different instruments. All right, fine, you get a guitar solo or a drum solo or a bass solo in a song where you're obviously meant to hear just the guitar or whatever, but it's a product that's been produced as a whole. Its been put together for a whole purpose, and it's actually meant to work as a whole, so I don't think you should dissect it and I listen to it as a whole myself.br> Interviewer:- How do you rate or evaluate good or bad music? Is it a matter of the technical ability of the artist, the song-writing skill, danceability, lyrics, or the feeling and mood behind it?
Interviewee:- It varies. There are some songs that are technically absolutely superb but they're boring. They just don't interest or engage me at all. Other things are not so technically correct but they're far more interesting. Lyrics have a lot to do with it. I like lyrics to mean something, tell a little story along the way and get from A to B without wallowing in aimless nothingness. Things like Oasis...some of their early songs are totally aimless and pointless and musically they're not that good but they're popular, whereas with things like the Deftones you can hardly make out the lyrics most of the time and they're not musically technically correct but they're far more interesting to listen to.
Interviewer:- If you feel your technical knowledge is fairly low, how do you rate your cultural knowledge. Do you have a large store of trivia surrounding your favourite bands?
Interviewee:- No. I've never been a trivia king for bands. I've never bothered simply because I've never read the music press. I'm not interested in the band but more the music they produce.
Interviewer:- How do you use music? As a background to everyday activities, as a means of relaxing, venting emotions or listening closely for the music's sake?
Interviewee:- It can be background music, but a lot of the time it is definitely used for venting emotions. Some of the stuff I've got is very good for venting anger and other ones are very good when I'm depressed.
Interviewer:- Do you go to many gigs or festivals, go clubbing much, or is your consumption mainly restricted to cd's, radio & tv?
Interviewee:- I've only been to a handful of gigs and I've never been to a festival in my life. I mainly hear stuff on the radio. I mean I'm listening to XFM now which is a bit more alternative.
Interviewer:- Hardly?!
Interviewee:- Well not as much since it was taken over by Capitol. I mean I just go out and but cd's I like, or friends will tell me "this is cool" and I'll borrow a copy of it. If I actually really like it I'll go and buy it, but if I'm not that bothered then I'll just tape it. A lot of things I buy are on the off-chance, for example a few years ago I got really into the Sisters of Mercy. Basically because a few years ago I bought a Sisters of Mercy album in a second-hand shop, looked at it and thought 'this looks interesting', listened to it and actually really liked it.
Interviewer:- You mentioned earlier that you DJ within No Wave. Could you explain how music is used within the club atmosphere?
Interviewee:-It depends how the night has been put together but it can be used to definitely create an atmosphere and most of the time the prime objectives are to enjoy playing the music and inflicting your musical tastes on the crowd, and actually getting people on the dance floor. You can't play anything too obscure. As long as a someone recognises and enjoys it that's fine, whereas if everybody hates it and its crap and no-one knows what the fuck it is then you can't really play it.
Interviewer:- Is there a particular 'scene' or subculture going on? For example a dress code, hairstyles, shared attitudes etc.?
Interviewee:- I think it is definitely tending towards the metal at the moment. There's Tray Scrape who are a metal-crossover band made entirely of No Wave members. I think some of the hairstyles are going a bit more 'skater'...political attitudes are no different from anywhere else...its irrelevant in No Wave.
Interviewer:- So does the music played down there have a kind of socially shared meaning amongst the crowd?
Interviewee:- It has meaning to everyone down there but probably for very different reasons. Obviously some people identify with songs and other people identify with them completely differently. A lot of the stuff played down there has very intense lyrics that mean a lot to a lot of different people.

Conformity within the Alternative

Interviewer:- Do you ever consider that within this 'alternative' music society the individual members are actually confirming en masse in their non-conformity? Its not quite as subversive as they think?
Interviewee:- Perhaps, yeah, but I think No Wave is a lot more... A lot of the people in No Wave have already done what they've done to themselves - their haircuts or piercings - before they came to University. It's the people who dress alike that that tend to like more or less the same sorts of music and they've all kind of clubbed together. I don't think everyone's doing it to try and fit in with everyone else. I think No Wave is liberal enough that you can do basically whatever you want and basically no-one is going to give you any serious hassle over it. People just do what they want and as long as they're happy with it everyone else doesn't really mind.
Interviewer:- Are you an individual or a member?
Interviewee:- I'm definitely a member most of the time, but I'm also an individual some of the time.
Interviewer:- (Jokingly) What's your 'sheep -factor' from 1 to 100.
Interviewee:- (Laughing) What's a sheep-factor!!!
Interviewer:- Well, a 100% sheep-factor would imply that you had no mind of your own whereas a 1% sheep-factor would suggest that you are independent and without influence in your musical tastes.
Interviewee:- I'd say about 25%
Interviewer:- One final question...What song would you want to be played at your funeral? Have you ever thought about this?
Interviewee:- Yes, I have thought about it. It's a song by Life of Agony called 'Words and Music' and at the last couple of lines of the song go something along the lines of, "As I stared down at his grave I knew someday I'd end up that way"- Which is just to make everyone else feel shit basically! (laughs)
Interviewer:- Thank you very much.
Interviewee:- No problem. Cheers.

Last updated on Friday, 31-Oct-2003 11:21:57 GMT