How musical is my valley: a comparative study of popular music making in two semi-rural towns

Cleaton, Anne (2023) How musical is my valley: a comparative study of popular music making in two semi-rural towns. Doctoral thesis, University of East Anglia.

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Abstract

Popular music-making in semi-rural settings has been largely overlooked in popular music scholarship in favour of cities and urban areas. The lack of scholarship generates assumptions that places outside of cities lack opportunities and the resources to make music and this research aimed to find out in what ways popular music-making is facilitated and sustained in semi-rural settings. Reviewing popular music scholarship led to the formulation of three main research questions; What kinds of resources do musicians draw on to make popular music-making in semi-rural settings? What kinds of networks and the dynamics therein help facilitate and sustain popular music-making in semi-rural settings? What are the motivations underpinning musicians’ involvement in making popular music in semi-rural settings?

To address these questions this study adopted a qualitative comparative approach drawing on two case studies in the form of the semi-rural towns of Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfil in the south Wales valleys in the UK. Through empirical observation and in-depth semi-structured interviews this study found differences between close-knit and more loosely knit networks in how they generate different kinds of approaches and attitudes to music-making and the findings in this study show that friendship and family network connections were critical for accessing particular resources and engendering musical activity. Furthermore, musicians’ attitudes, values and motivations played a vital role in how they viewed their music-making illustrated through the kinds of resources they draw upon, the approaches taken and the kinds of music they produced. This research argues that semi-rural settings are a rich source of academic interest and provide another perspective of popular music-making compared to accounts of cities and urban areas and illuminates the meaningful connections between resources, networks and motivations that help facilitate and sustain popular music-making in semi-rural locations.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Art, Media and American Studies (former - to 2024)
Depositing User:	Nicola Veasy
Date Deposited:	12 Nov 2024 11:12
Last Modified:	12 Nov 2024 11:12
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97636
DOI:

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