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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Cultivating Identity and the Music of Ultimate Fighting

Davis, Luke R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1336752213

Abstract Details

2012, Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, Music Ethnomusicology.
In this project, I studied the music used in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events and connect it to greater themes and aspects of social study. By examining the events of the UFC and how music is used, I focused primarily on three issues that create a multi-layered understanding of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighters and the cultivation of identity. First, I examined ideas of identity formation and cultivation. Since each fighter in UFC events enters his fight to a specific, and self-chosen, musical piece, different aspects of identity including race, political views, gender ideologies, and class are outwardly projected to fans and other fighters with the choice of entrance music. This type of musical representation of identity has been discussed (although not always in relation to sports) in works by past scholars (Kun, 2005; Hamera, 2005; Garrett, 2008; Burton, 2010; Mcleod, 2011). Second, after establishing a deeper sense of socio-cultural fighter identity through entrance music, this project examined ideas of nationalism within the UFC. Although traces of nationalism fall within the purview of entrance music and identity, the UFC aids in the nationalistic representations of their fighters by utilizing different tactics of marketing and fighter branding. Lastly, this project built upon the above-mentioned issues of identity and nationality to appropriately discuss aspects of how the UFC attempts to depict fighter character to create a “good vs. bad” marketable binary. Although the UFC and its fighters vehemently craft and cultivate a specific projection of who and what they are, the ultimate goal is to convince and sell these projections to UFC fans. And as a result, fights often mark a conflict of not only two fighters, but two contrasting identities as well. In conclusion, it is my hope that the project I propose here will add to the canon of studies involving music and spectacle, and introduces to music scholarship a previously unexplored area within the greater field of Ethnomusicology.
Megan Rancier (Advisor)
Kara Attrep (Committee Member)
97 p.
Music
Ethnomusicology; Identity; Music; Ultimate Fighting; UFC; Mixed Martial Arts; MMA; Performativity; Blood Sport; Cage Fighting; American Identity; Music and Sports; Entrance Music; BJ Penn; Cain Velasquez; Randy Couture; Nationalism; Border Identity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Davis, L. R. (2012). Cultivating Identity and the Music of Ultimate Fighting [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1336752213

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Davis, Luke. Cultivating Identity and the Music of Ultimate Fighting. 2012. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1336752213.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Davis, Luke. "Cultivating Identity and the Music of Ultimate Fighting." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1336752213

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1336752213
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© 2012, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.