Share your Fieldwork
The primary aim of Outreach Ethnomusicology is to share fieldwork research. Below is a list of items that are included for view by members of the community.
Some of these articles are official documents of research which have been submitted to university departments, so they are set "not viewable" by the public, only registered members of outreach can view them. But, we welcome all sorts of articles within the interests of ethnomusicology, so please get in touch on outreachethnomusicology@gmail.com if you think you would like to contribute.
When we receive documents, we usually will have a full read through, and then reply with a formatted version for the internet, ready to publish. How much exposure or access you want for your work will depend on your own needs, and we will publish or unpublish anything upon request.
Thank you,
Patrick
Music and Recreational Drugs
Interesting are the accounts of Scott Hutson in the Journal of Anthropological
Quarterly:
Rave is thus seen as a more “direct” form of spirituality than organized religion. ( 2000: 38)
Because rave experience is so often described in religious and spiritual terms, and because the type of
healing is of the spirit as opposed to the body, I refer to the type of healing discussed above as
“spiritual healing”. (2000: 39)
A raver from the same article gives his own perspective concerning the music:
(2000:39)
It is through dance that I have found transcendence. Music has taught me to fly using wings I never
knew I had. It is through music and dance that my soul is free to soar among the heavens … allowing a
clearer vision of the world that I am creating.
An important element and characteristic of all the people participating in these gigs is
that they are united and they do not differentiate from one another. Interesting is the
title of one piece by Faithless: God is a DJ6 .
Faithless: God is a DJ
We all share a lot in common, regardless of age, gender, race , [ sexual] orientation, whatevah. We all
need other people. Though we may have differences, we all arise from the same source. ( Hutson 2000:
42)
My last part of the ethnography was in a club in Limerick for which I will use a false
name. We went there with my friend who is Irish. A famous DJ was on the decks that
night. There was one big screen above the stage with flashing graphs. The floor was
full of alcohol. I noticed later that in Limerick, they prefer to mix alcohol with drugs.
6 This is my church. This is where I heal my hurt… Enemies becoming friends. It's in the world I become content in the hum,
between voice and drum…
There were many people I know there from the University; mostly students. The
average age there was not more than 28 years old. When the DJ was playing a
sustained sound on the decks, everyone was screaming, with their hands in the air;
when the beat was coming back again, then everyone was jumping up and down while
moving their head slightly from left to right. Everybody seemed very happy there.
They would smile to you or feel more close to you.
Suddenly on the screen appeared a strange image. There were two hands full
of pills ready to be swallowed by the person who was on the screen. I found this
horrendous. After few seconds, all kinds of Ecstasy pills were flashing on the screen.
This lasted about one minute and it was repeated at least seven times. I did not like it
and my friend did not like it as well. I thought it was too much. It’s funny though,
because the next time I went again to the same club, there were almost similar images,
but without the E pills on the screen. It seems that these images with the pills were
censored.
