Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music
Based on my fieldwork experiences for a research I conducted in Manchester with the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus (MLGC) between 2003 and 2005, this article demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographical research when investigating issues surrounding music and sexuality. The article suggests that...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Éditions de l'EHESS
2013-03-01
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| Series: | Transposition |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/transposition/150 |
| _version_ | 1797707717364678656 |
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| author | Esperanza Miyake |
| author_facet | Esperanza Miyake |
| author_sort | Esperanza Miyake |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Based on my fieldwork experiences for a research I conducted in Manchester with the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus (MLGC) between 2003 and 2005, this article demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographical research when investigating issues surrounding music and sexuality. The article suggests that ethnographies can be used as a queer mode of analyzing music. To explore this idea, I begin by examining some of the practical research problems I faced at the onset of my fieldwork, and suggest how these reflect the possible reasons behind conceptual problems surrounding the study of music and sexuality. By discussing how I overcame these problems through joining the MLGC as a soprano engaged in participant observation and qualitative research methods, I argue that ethnographies can loosen what can be a restrictive theoretical connection between music and the idea of "queerness" as being about the subcultural consumption of sexuality/musicality through a form of erotic sociality. By studying the everyday and "mundane", I suggest that ethnographies can allow us to reconceptualise ways in which music connects the cultural and social politics of sexuality. Therefore, this article presents ethnographical research as a queer methodology for the analysis of music, one which moves beyond theoretical questions of gender and the erotic and instead, moves towards the practices of everyday life. The purpose of the piece is to urge more empirical research to be undertaken in studies of music and sexuality in order to bring queer theory and music closer together. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T06:11:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4b54cb1960e048a6a566be9774900e84 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2110-6134 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T06:11:34Z |
| publishDate | 2013-03-01 |
| publisher | Éditions de l'EHESS |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Transposition |
| spelling | doaj.art-4b54cb1960e048a6a566be9774900e842023-09-03T02:58:30ZengÉditions de l'EHESSTransposition2110-61342013-03-01310.4000/transposition.150Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and MusicEsperanza MiyakeBased on my fieldwork experiences for a research I conducted in Manchester with the Manchester Lesbian and Gay Chorus (MLGC) between 2003 and 2005, this article demonstrates the usefulness of ethnographical research when investigating issues surrounding music and sexuality. The article suggests that ethnographies can be used as a queer mode of analyzing music. To explore this idea, I begin by examining some of the practical research problems I faced at the onset of my fieldwork, and suggest how these reflect the possible reasons behind conceptual problems surrounding the study of music and sexuality. By discussing how I overcame these problems through joining the MLGC as a soprano engaged in participant observation and qualitative research methods, I argue that ethnographies can loosen what can be a restrictive theoretical connection between music and the idea of "queerness" as being about the subcultural consumption of sexuality/musicality through a form of erotic sociality. By studying the everyday and "mundane", I suggest that ethnographies can allow us to reconceptualise ways in which music connects the cultural and social politics of sexuality. Therefore, this article presents ethnographical research as a queer methodology for the analysis of music, one which moves beyond theoretical questions of gender and the erotic and instead, moves towards the practices of everyday life. The purpose of the piece is to urge more empirical research to be undertaken in studies of music and sexuality in order to bring queer theory and music closer together.http://journals.openedition.org/transposition/150ethnographyfeminismpopular musicracialitysexualityqueer theory |
| spellingShingle | Esperanza Miyake Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music Transposition ethnography feminism popular music raciality sexuality queer theory |
| title | Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music |
| title_full | Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music |
| title_fullStr | Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music |
| title_full_unstemmed | Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music |
| title_short | Understanding Music and Sexuality through Ethnography: Dialogues between Queer Studies and Music |
| title_sort | understanding music and sexuality through ethnography dialogues between queer studies and music |
| topic | ethnography feminism popular music raciality sexuality queer theory |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/transposition/150 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT esperanzamiyake understandingmusicandsexualitythroughethnographydialoguesbetweenqueerstudiesandmusic |