Making music in the radial mainstream: representations of creative practice in UK-based pop/rock

Minchella, Damon (2019). Making music in the radial mainstream: representations of creative practice in UK-based pop/rock. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Popular music is one of the United Kingdom’s most readily engaged with and exported cultural forms. Commensurate with such a positioning, there exists a wealth of academic literature on the subject across a breadth of interests and research focus. However, there also appears to be a somewhat lower level of attention to the experience of the professional practitioners who are engaged in creating this cultural form. An attention to creators’ discourses and how they may represent their experiences of practice will then be of value in adding some additional ‘real world’ context and content to existing thought on popular music.

Drawing on an original data set from interviews with leading practitioners, this thesis is the production of such a work. Through the application of relevant sociological models, the study forms a participant-based characterization of creative practice in UK-‐‑based pop/rock in an area that I have termed the ‘radial mainstream’. Themes drawn from the research participants and my own experiences of professional practice characterize creative work as being an assemblage of activities that are informed by the lived environment, mediating forces, musical influences, and creators’ ideals of practice.

Underpinned by tenets of phenomenology and ethnographic inquiry, this is also a multi.. .voiced representation of how specific professionals think and feel about their practice and the contexts within which they operate. The wider study of popular music may benefit from the production of a ‘micro’ representation of creative practice, wherein subsequent thought can be more properly attentive to the depictions and preoccupations that emerge in this discourse on creating UK-‐‑based pop/rock in the ‘radial mainstream’.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):