Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Popular Culture

The subculture of jam bands is often publicly held to multiple stereotypical expectations. Participants in the subculture are expected to fall into one of two camps, coastal elites or “dirty hippies.” Members of the Northwest Ohio jam scene often do not have the kind of economic privilege that is assumed of them based on the larger jam subculture. Not only do these perceptions create difficulties for audience members of the Northwest Ohio scene, but there are added complications for the musicians in the scene. This research explores the challenges of class and belonging faced by participants in the Northwest Ohio jam scene. More specifically, this thesis focuses on the careful social negotiations scene members and musicians are required to navigate in order to maintain insider status while dealing with the working-class realities of life in the area. In this thesis, I argue that subcultural capital is one of the most significant factors for belonging to the larger subculture, and that its necessity, which requires sufficient economic support, demands more nuanced practices by local scenesters in order to maintain. I dissect the complexities of the concept of “family” in the jam scene, including its meaning for audiences and musicians, as well as how it intersects with class and public perceptions of class in the scene. Finally, I argue that musical forms and practices hold significance in establishing genre authenticity, but I maintain that class is a determining factor in the decisions bands make about whether or not they hold completely true to genre boundaries. This thesis attempts to address the complexities of class and how it functions in small, local rock scenes, specifically in the Northwest Ohio jam scene.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach (Advisor); Esther Clinton (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2023, American Culture Studies

Ska music—a genre that began in independent Jamaica in the late 1950s before reaching global fame in the mid-1990s—is often remembered in American popular culture as an embarrassing, implicitly white moment in popular music. Since ska's decline in mainstream popularity, a new generation of groups dubbed new tone push back against this construction and reposition the ska scene as a space for inclusion, activism, and DIY community. This dissertation uses a mixed qualitative methodology that puts ethnographic interviews in conversation with song analysis and social media texts to understand the scene's relationship to ska history and to social justice advocacy. I investigate activism in the scene via three case studies, which I categorize in three layers: the personal, the local, and the cultural. Drawing from interviews with new tone musicians, I use “dysphoria songs”—or songs that depict the lived experience of trans and non-binary musicians—to illustrate how personal narratives can serve as political statements in hetereopatriarchal societies. Next, the South Texas ska-themed concert “Skank for Choice” illustrates activism in local spaces, where the group L@s Skagaler@s tell stories of their home in the Rio Grande Valley to raise funds to benefit vulnerable local populations. Finally, some ska artists use the repeated lyric “Eat the Rich, Feed the Kids” to voice cultural critiques that link capitalism, colonialism, and racism in creating contemporary forms of inequality. Ultimately, I suggest that the new tone ska scene utilizes virtual scenes to recreate ska music as an overtly activist and inclusive space, thus resisting constructions of ska as embarrassing or rock in general as a white cis-male space.

Committee: Katherine Meizel Ph. D. (Committee Chair); Radhika Gajjala Ph. D. (Committee Member); Angela Nelson Ph. D. (Committee Member); Eric Worch Ph. D. (Other); Jeremy Wallach Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

DMA, University of Cincinnati, 2009, College-Conservatory of Music : Piano

This document examines the piano music of Canada's foremost contemporary art music composer Alexina Louie (b. 1949) who is repeatedly praised for drawing out virtuosic yet sonorous techniques and coloristic effects on the piano. The significance of investigating Louie's music is reflected in the extensive articles, surveys, and doctoral theses. However, these previous studies focus largely on her exotic Asian influences as they are written before Louie's new intentional stylistic changes in recent years which incorporate jazz and blues idioms. Therefore, by examining both early and new styles, this document will provide a thorough, up-to-date overview of Louie's music and also illustrate the eclectic and versatile nature of her compositional styles. Furthermore, comprehensive insight into the “New Style” will be achieved through an in-depth analysis of one of Louie's recent boogie-woogie piano pieces In a Flash. Regardless of the difference in styles, the presence of Alexina Louie's unique musical language will be explored through an investigation of wide-ranging piano, chamber, and orchestral literature. In addition, Louie's musical views and influences will be uncovered through her philosophy in music and biographical sketches. Most importantly, extensive interviews with Alexina Louie facilitated by the author and different articles and commentaries will provide direct access to understanding Louie's personal voice in music. Together with author's interviews with commissioned pianists and a fellow acclaimed composer who studied composition under Louie, the information garnered from Louie through these interviews will provide valuable insight into her work, including her own compositional processes and performance suggestions.

Committee: Joel Hoffman DMA (Committee Chair); Eugene Pridonoff (Committee Member); Elisabeth Pridonoff (Committee Member) Subjects: Music

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2005, Spanish and Portuguese

Scholars have long known the fact that Spanish Golden Age theatrical works are filled with musical references that contribute to the overall success of the plays. As a special effect, music was at the center of performances, both in the corrales and at court. Unfortunately, a large portion of music to which the theatrical texts allude has been lost due in part to poor record keeping and fires. Of the music that survives, a major part relates to works of Lope de Vega (1564-1635) and, especially, Calderon (1600-1681), both of whom have been the focus of significant research regarding the subject. Lope de Vega and Calderon, however, are not the only playwrights whose works contain music references. Because of scholars such as Jose Subira and Louise K. Stein, who have brought eighteenth-century music manuscripts to light, music references that appear in the works of other playwrights can be studied as well. I propose, therefore, to analyze the contribution and significance of music in a selected number minor, secular, and religious plays by the preeminent dramatist Agustin Moreto (1618-1669). The objective of my analysis is twofold. On the one hand, I analyze the way in which music fulfilled several practical, technical, and structural functions. On the other, I study, from semiotic and performance theories, ways in which music reflects and affirms, or, in a few cases, inverts and subverts a number of the ideals of Spanish seventeenth-century society. The kinds of instruments used, the various songs and dances performed, all contributed to the formation of musical scenes which create significant semiotic relationships that reveal the performance of social codes, comprising such matters as honor, religion, hierarchy, love, and class. In short, this research proposes to contextualize the extant music and song-texts in terms of their semiotic (musical, theatrical, and social) relationship with Moreto's theater and its reception.

Committee: Donald Larson (Advisor) Subjects: