Posting #3

I haven't done a whole lot of research on this project yet. But, since I used to be a part of the music culture/subculture, I have a lot of insight on this particular culture.

I have not interviewed any informants in my subculture, but I will interview some within the next few weeks. Some of the questions I will ask them will be about things such as how music has changed over the years, why do typical music teachers have their students watch musicals, how is music distributed across the world, how do they think music is changing today, etc. These are just a few of the questions I want to ask my informants about how the music culture/subculture is portrayed today.

I plan on going to my cultural site within the next week or two, hopefully Friday or Saturday if possible. After some of the in-class discussions and exercises we have done, I have a bunch of expectations and questions about my culture/ subculture. I expect the choir room to be full of music, a piano in the corner of the room, a tv and vcr for when they watch musicals, costumes and props in the back room, the air smelling like febreeze, room decorated with things involving musical notes or music in general, music stand in front of the room, the music to have a sort of old and used up feeling to it because it's been used so much. These are just a few of the sensory details I expect to see and feel when I go back into the music culture/subculture.

I haven't really attempted any academic research as of yet. All I've really done is think about what culture I want to study and focus on what I want to learn about my particular culture since I know so much about it already from being an insider for so many years of my life.

I consider there to be a difference between academic and non-academic research. Academic research would be when you are doing research that relates to your assignment and benefits your learning, such as internet research, fieldnotes, magazine articles, interviews, etc. Non-academic research would be research that has nothing to do with the assignment and does not benefit your learning experience at all. Examples of this would be having someone interview for you, take fieldnotes and do internet research for you, read articles to you, etc. These types of things you can still learn things from, but you don't get the full experience and it is not considered academic because it is not benefiting you as a student because you're not the one doing the assignment or the work.

Questioning Your Fieldnotes

1. What surprised me?- Some of the things that surprised me was how torn up the magazine was. From a distance, it looked to be in pretty good shape. But as you got closer to the object, you could see how torn up it really was. Also, I was surprised to see a random book in there with other objects relating to music.I don't really know what that is suppose to mean, but I found that a little bit surprising.

2. What intrigued me?- Some of the things that intrigued me would probably be the strap, guitar pick, and the cd. This made think to myself. Is this particular person a fan of music in general or does the person also play music along with listening to music? What kind of music does this person like? Little things like that made me wonder. Also, the random book in the artifacts made me wonder if this particular culture or person is a fan of reading or just the arts in general? Also, the journal intrigued me a little bit. It made me think if this person was a writer along with being a musician or does this culture/person just like to write for fun?

3. What disturbed me?- One thing that disturbed me was the fact the cd was by John Mayer. I assumed by seeing the strap and pick that maybe this particular culture or person is a fan of heavier music rather than John Mayer. Also, the burnt cd disturbed me a little bit. It made me wonder what was on the cd. In addition, the magazine disturbed me a little bit. I wondered how the magazine got in that bad of shape when it's not real old.

Posting 2

My culture/subculture is going to be the music industry and I plan on going to places such as choir rooms, record studios, and band rooms to get a feel of the music world as it it portrayed today.

As for some of the sensory details, I can remember a lot of them from being in choir for eight years. The room was always covered with musical notes and stars. There was music and musical books all over the room. The room had this great smell to it, like it was spring or something. I remember the wooden piano that might as well be broken because it is such crappy condition. Besides that, all I can remember is chairs lined up in rows and a couch in the very back of the room.

By going to these particular field sites, I hope to learn about how music has changed today from when I was in school. I want to see how the music is taught, how the music is portrayed, how do the people behind the scenes handle music today, what it takes to prepare a music show, etc. I just want to be the outsider this time instead of the insider and look at how all of these things have either changed or stayed the same and why they have changed or stayed the same. I expect to learn the same stuff I have already as an insider, but I also want to learn things I didn't notice as an insider, such as how much time it takes a music teacher to prepare his lesson plans, how each song is suppose to be portrayed, how people in the business handle music copyrights and how they record music as compared to twenty or thirty years ago. I expect to learn a lot of the same stuff and a lot of new things as I prepare to do my field study on the music culture/subculture.

Jan 20 Box 11

The subculture I want to choose is the music industry and how different parts of music are taught and portrayed. The reasons I choose this subculture is because I was in the subculture for eight years and I want to take a look at the culture as an outsider instead of an insider. I want to look at certain things people do in the industry, how certain music is taught, how people portray different types of music, how music students act in the culture, what they tend to wear, and what they tend to like. Some fixed positions that might affect my view on the culture could be my age, my ethnicity, my education, etc. The fact I know a lot about the culture already and how it is taught could affect how I look at the subculture as an outsider. The fact I have a lot more education in music than a lot of people I would be interviewing could affect what types of questions I ask since I have lots of experience in the field. Some of my personal experiences, such as warming up, practicing after school, singing in concerts, doing plays every year, wearing choir outfits, and watching musicals all the time are just a few of the subjective positions I have going into looking at the music culture as an outsider instead of the insider I've been accustomed to for eight years.

Subculture

1. The culture/subculture I want to examine as of right now is the music industry. I will get my information through research on the web about certain industries in music, interview people that are in the music department, such as teachers and singers and people that are in the business today, books pertaining to music and different music cultures, etc.

2. Some methods that would be beneficial for my field study would be interviewing people that are in music today, such as teachers, record producers, singers, radio personalities, and owners of music businesses. Also, I would make up a survey and have people around me answer the questions to the best of their capabilities. The questions would pertain to the music industry. That way I could get a better opinion of how people feel about music.

3. I expect to find all sorts of things. I expect people to be busy all the time because they are too busy to talk to me because they are too busy making music. The people I will be interviewing will either be teaching music, making music deals,

My Daily Routine

I have a very simple daily routine. I get up, I take a shower, brush my teeth, get my clothes on, and go to class. Then, when I have free time from my next class, I either go down and get me some food at lafollette or I go straight to my dorm room and watch whatever is on ESPN. A lot of people might consider this habit to be a strange habit, but it is a habit I have. I am a person who loves sports and I feel like I need to keep myself updated on what is going on in sports on that particular. A lot of people might look at me as being crazy or I watch too much tv and love sports too much, but that is just my daily habit. I have to watch ESPN every day or else I feel like my life is not complete for the day because I don't know what is going on in the sports world. I usually go get food before I watch ESPN, but a lot of the time I just come straight to my dorm and watch ESPN right after class. It is a crazy habit of mine, but it is a habit I enjoy. People on the outside looking in see it as being obsessed with sports and having no life, but I just see it as keeping up to date with my sports knoweldge. It is a habit of mine and I don't plan on changing it any time soon.

Looking at Subcultures Box 1

Subcultures
Hoosier-live in Indiana
American-live in the U.S.
Spanish Club-take Spanish class, usually like Mexican food, events usually at night, members have to bring food for parties
Show Choir-great singers, love to learn music, watch lots of musicals, go to concerts all over, dress however they want, some can sight read music very well, most of the time practice in class and at nights if necessary
Basketball team-very athletic, good shooters, cocky, some think they're better than everyone else, usually wear letterman jackets, practice after school around 3

The main subculture I was apart of was the Show Choir subculture. I love to sing and act and show choir is a great way to show your talents. There are many things you would do when it comes to show choir. Obviously you have to be a good singer to begin. Most of the time people in show choir have to have some kind of dancing ability. They can't be terrible at it. Members of show choir have to have a general understanding of how harmony and tempo works and have to be able to sight read music fairly well. In addition to all of these characteristics, most members of show choir watch musicals all the time. It gets to the point to where a lot of members will watch every musical that comes out in theatres just to see if it's any good. Also, members of show choir always practice singing during class and if necessary hae evening practices so they can be the best they can be. One of the main things about members of show choir is they don't care how they dress or how they look. They are individuals and don't care what people think about them. They do their own thing and let other people do theirs.

My Past Writing

I remember when I wrote my ad essay for English 103 a few months ago. I was in my dorm room looking up research for my paper while listening to Staind, Three Days Grace, and Seether. I remember I was up all night writing my paper the night before it was due. I was also eating chips and drinking some vanilla coke to add to my music listening. Luckily for me, it was the final draft and not the whole paper, so I didn't have to work on the paper as much. Even though I stayed up all night working on the paper, I did get it done. I ended up doing good because of it too.

The type of paper I did was an ad essay. I was suppose to look at Mac PC ads and tell the meaning behind the ads. It was a very hard essay for me to do, but I did get it done. It took a lot of research and hard work for me to get it done, but I did get it done. The main thing that helped me with the essay was doing numerous drafts. I did a rough draft, a revised draft, and a final draft. I hated revising over and over again, but I feel like it was worth it. I ended up writing a better paper and I got a better grade on my paper because I wrote numerous drafts.

I feel like the difference between editing and revising is editing is more fixing a paper and making it better and revising is fixing all mistakes and making the paper a final product. When you edit a paper, you just try to make it better. You're not necessarily making it a perfect paper. You're just making it better than the last draft of your paper. When you revise a paper, however, you're trying to fix all mistakes in a paper. You read over each draft and you fix each mistake that is made in a given paper. This is how revising is different from editing. Revising is when you fix the paper to make it the best it can possibly be and editing is making a paper better but not necessarily a final product.