Musical Ethnography

Scott Easum

Professor MaryAnn Young

Music 1306

3/11/2010

Musical Ethnography

Introduction

I am covering the open microphone culture in and around Irving, TX. In my research of this culture, I have found that the main focus of the culture is on setting that goes alongside the music. Rather than the ideas and activities music itself being important, it is the social setting in which they are performed. The music is there to add to the environment the audience is in, rather than the audience attending to hear the music that is being played.

Methodology

Throughout the last five or so years, I have participated in many different music cultures, participating in things like bands as often as possible. However, even with doing those things, I had never seen an open microphone type of event done outside of a school up until this point. What I did to go learn about how these events operated was go straight to the source. In this particular case, the even was held at ZuRoma’s Sicilian Kitchen. Even though that sounds odd, the restaurant stays open late and has an entirely different atmosphere for the open microphone nights every other Wednesday.

It was immediately obvious as I walked into the “Sicilian Kitchen” that the event had changed it. Smoke filled the air, and the bar was full with about twice as many people it should even be able to hold. This restaurant was quickly turned bar. My main method of research at the now transformed restaurant was just going up and talking to the people who were there. Most of the interviews were done more as casual conversation, such as with the 15-year jazz drummer, whose band frequents the event, which happens every two weeks. Even though others there were talked to, they were more of the audience than the performers, and the drummer had given me the same information already. However, I also did a more formal interview with my guitarist Jasen Wagner at his much calmer and quieter house. He has a huge amount of experience in different types of music performance, and was a perfect candidate for the interview about the culture as a whole rather than specifically.

Aspects of the Music-Culture

The ideas of the culture are not complex, nor are they set in stone. For the most part, the culture of the open microphone exists to bring people together in a social setting. Both the audience and the culture seem to define their music as needing at least one guitar and a singer, though other instruments are both widely accepted and encouraged. The songs are usually faster to please the audience, since everybody is “[t]here to have fun and just hang out”(A). The dress is very casual, and in this particular case, the crowd. The music is performed at the event on stage at nights that change depending on where you go to this type of event. Once it starts though, the music is almost nonstop outside of the different acts changing between each other.

The activities in the culture are very open to everyone. Neither the audience nor the people running the event are picky about who is playing the music at all. Immediately when we walked in, we were asked what we would be playing. Though the instruments were certainly a dead giveaway, it shows that this really was “open”. Being a new act, the band that I played with at this open microphone went fairly early on into the night. The reception was there but the noise died down to minimum during us playing (ZuRoma). Though I was worried about it, he assured me “they may not seem like it, but they’ll remember it later” (Wagner). Sure enough, his statement was proved later in the night as somebody got up on stage and then as he hit a high note the crowd wailed along with him (ZuRoma). The ideas about the purpose of music are hugely different. Some of the performers are obviously passionate about their music, while others are just playing as they hang out with their friends. The music is always played, but for the most part, the crowd is always talking and being loud as well. Though I was there in the middle of the semester, the jazz drummer I met there along with just about everybody I talked to me said that the event was “standing room only in the summer. Sometimes even over one hundred people”(A). This creates a conundrum for the more serious artists. Even though they risk a crowd being louder than them and not even paying attention, if they can win over that crowd, they have a possibility of a huge following. However, most of the performers there are just people with their friends in a social setting. This means that the music is not really preserved on the internet or CD most of the time. It exists only in the minds of the performers and the audience members who frequent a certain place for an event.

The repertoires of music in the culture are widely varying. This music culture most definitely fits into the rock genre, but it does have the pop music focus on vocal melodies, especially with acts that just use an acoustic guitar and singer. However, these genres are not the only ones that are present in the performances, with people just doing things as jokes. Parodies of slow rap songs, and at the event I attended there was even a prerecorded song using auto-tuning and R&B styling as a joke (ZuRoma). The repertoires also vary greatly between cover songs done by other artists and originals. The music is composed outside of the formal event itself, and if it is transmitted from one person to another, it is usually in smaller areas practicing for events like this. Movement can accompany the music, but it is not a choreographed movement. Rather, some people movie with the beat of the song, most often when there is a lot of energy or a fast tempo in the song. There are lyrics, but they are unimportant to the audience. Though at my particular event the audience did keep yelling for somebody to “play us a sex song”(ZuRoma).

On that note, the material culture doesn’t include too many things. However, it most definitely includes alcohol. And judging by a table of 8 wailing at as high of a pitch as possible, the culture includes copious amounts of it. There are other things like guitars necessary for purchase for some people to play. However, since the event has no music being purchased, the places running it need some way of making money, which is why there is so much alcohol being sold. This, of course, is why the event is such a social setting. The plan also obviously works since the particular restaurant I went to is Sicilian Kitchen by day, and loud music playing bar by night.

Conclusion

Even with the focus on the social aspect in this culture, the music is still very important to the culture in many ways. Whether just to play and mess around or to try and win over the crowd and gain a following for other places, there is always a reason for the music to be playing, and the crowd will always be wailing along with it.

Works Cited

Person A. Personal Interview. 17 Feb 2010.

Wagner, Jasen. Personal Interview. 20 Feb 2010.

ZuRoma Open Mic Night. ZuRoma’s Sicilian Kitchen, Grapevine. 17 Feb 2010. Performance.