Musical Ethnography: Local Rock

I plan to do my musical ethnography over the different venues in and around the Deep Ellum area as my band begins to perform there. While my band will obviously be somewhat of a focus, I hope to focus more on the audience and time and space of the venues. I also hope to bring attention to the different expectations from both the audience and owners, and to the atmospheres in the different types of venues in an attempt to contrast the larger high paying venues with the smaller venues that run open mics.

These smaller venues, while having an emphasis on the types of music one hears on the radio and its quality, it is hugely different from the expectations of the mainstream version of this culture. One of the main differences comes from lack of audience knowledge of the music. In many rock concerts in popular music, audience participation such as jumping up and down, clapping, and singing along is highly encouraged. These local concerts usually have much less participation, and the bands are there more to increase the atmosphere in places like bars and some restaurants.

Since no blog post about ones band would not be complete without a plug, since my band currently has no music on the internet, here is a plug for one of my own songs with me on each instrument.