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Youth Sub-Culture and Performer-Audience Relationships in Melbourne's Hip-Hop Scene

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Added on  2020-09-08

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This ethnographic study examines the music, venue, social influences on performer-audience relationships and social identity of youth sub-culture in Melbourne's hip-hop scene. The study focuses on two separate musical performances carried out on the same night at the two story bar, restaurant and venue Boney. The first performance was an open mic segment for rappers and emcees to get up and freestyle, while the second band's set was clearly of presentational nature. The observations illustrate both the way in a style of music as well as the performer-audience relationship dictate the behavioural traits of individuals within a youth subculture.

Youth Sub-Culture and Performer-Audience Relationships in Melbourne's Hip-Hop Scene

   Added on 2020-09-08

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The purpose of this ethnographic study is to focus on the music, venue, social influences on performer-audience relationships and social identity of youth sub-culture. Through field researchobservations I will examine the audience and performance participants from two separate musical performances carried out on the same night. The field research took place on thursday the 17th of March, 2016 at the two story bar, restaurant and venue Boney. I was influenced by the choice of venue for its hip-hop reputation, and the reason for carrying out my study on this particular night was based on the hip-hop Open-mic night that is supposedly held every second thursday.Venue:The venue is situated on a side street in the CBD of Melbourne close to nearby public transport.Immediately after entering the venue, it was obvious that it promoted predominantly a youth culture. The colourful neon lights behind the bar combined with the Dj playing electronic club music on the lower floor made it clear that the venue presented itself with an emphasis on a ‘party’ styled atmosphere. The lower floor was where the restaurant was located, with tables and chairs provided for eating patrons. Upstairs it was a relatively small room with a bar, low ceiling, posters on the wall and stage to one corner. The age bracket of patron within the venue appeared to be between 18-35. Throughout the night I noticed that majority of patrons were consuming alcohol and thought this worthy of noting due to its effects on social interactions.Open Mic Performance:The open mic performance started with three instrumental musicians comprising of a keys/synthplayer, a bass player and a drummer playing a hip-hop styled groove without introduction. First observation made was the choice of fashion influencing the instrumental performers. Not only were the musicians playing instrumental hip-hop orientated music, they also wore stereotypical hip-hop clothes similar to what you'd see in a modern day rap video (caps, NBA merchandise, hip-hop merchandise). After this first observation I immediately noticed a similar fashion trend with the members of the crowd. Much like the instrumentalists on stage approximately 70% of the audience members were wearing at least one item of hip-hop appropriate attire. This established communal attire can be linked to Shukar’s argument that members of youth subcultures “utilize symbolic elements to construct an identity outside the restraints of class and education, an identity that places them squarely outside of the conservative mainstream society”1Initially there seemed to be a segregation between band and crowd. The crowd were a few meters away from the stage and whilst aware of the performance a fraction of people were still mingling amongst their social circles. Once the band verbally introduced themselves as an openmic segment for rappers and emcees to get up and freestyle, the coordinator of the night immediately got behind the mic and started rapping. Its interesting to note here that as soon as the rapping began, the talking amongst the crowd diminished and the focus on the second floor of the venue became the performance onstage. As well as this I also observed that this particular individual was seen chatting amongst multiple social circles around the venue before the commencement of the band and appeared to be familiar with majority of the patrons within 1Shuker, Roy. Understanding Popular Music Culture, 4th edn. London: Routledge, 2013, 176.
Youth Sub-Culture and Performer-Audience Relationships in Melbourne's Hip-Hop Scene_1
the venue. As the first emcee was rapping he explained within his lyrical content who he was (Jono), who the band was (La Loops) and the purpose of the night: the band to provide live beats for emcees to freestyle over and have a good time, which was followed by a clapping and woo’s from the crowd. Jono then asked everyone to move to the front of the stage which was reciprocated by compliance amongst majority of the crowd, and in particular the compliance came from the social circles I had witnessed him associating with earlier in the night. He then handed the mic to the closest associate who immediately commenced rapping along to the music provided by the band. Emcee’s from here out would take a few minutes rapping before passing it onto the next emcee displaying interest near the front of the stage. This continued until the set ended.Throughout the band’s thirty minute set some interesting observations were made. The most interesting and obvious being the relationship between audience and performer. This relationship was not your ordinary clear cut segregation due to the nature of the performance. The relationship was blurred as to who is a performer and who is an audience member, however this resulted in an increased involvement amongst the venues patrons. This can be linked directly to Turinoand his definition of both participatory and presentational performance which is as followed: “Briefly defined, participatory performance is a special type of artistic practice in which there are no art-audience distinctions, only participants and potential participants performing different roles, and the primary goal is to involve the maximum number of people in some performance role. Presentational performance, in contrast, refers to situationswhere one group of people, the artists, prepare and provide music for another group, the audience, who do not participate in making the music or dancing.”2The behaviour of the crowd was consistent with the crowd closest to the stage who appeared to be dancing by bobbing their head to the pulse. At the outskirts of the room, that is, near the bar and on the walls, there were some patrons bobbing there and some simply observing. Corresponding to Turino2 we can analyse the first performance and conclude that it is both somewhat participatory and somewhat presentational because it is a group taking turns individually presenting a performance. No doubt, the overall objective of the performance was toget participants involved which was established through positive reinforcement from the audience when emcee would step up and step down to the stage. This objective was also promoted by particular emcees who would lyrically involve participants in the crowd through call-and response technique as well as specifically calling up friends. As Turino mentions “In participatory events everyone’s contribution to the performance is valued and in fact is considered essential for a performance to be deemed successful.”3In addition to this overall objective there also appeared to be the individual objective of the emcee/rapper to present their visturosic skills within the hip-hop genre. This objective was predominantly apparent amongst the more skilled and confident participants and was applaudedmore enthusiastically by the crowd. It is interesting to mention that this objective comes from a 2Turino, Thomas. Music as Social Life : The Politics of Participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008, 26.3Turino, Thomas. Music as Social Life : The Politics of Participation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008, 33.
Youth Sub-Culture and Performer-Audience Relationships in Melbourne's Hip-Hop Scene_2

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