In Becoming Beautiful, Joanna Bosse explores the transformations undergone by the residents of a Midwestern town when they step out on the dance floor for the very first time. Bosse uses sensitive fieldwork as well as her own immersion in ballroom culture to lead readers into a community that springs up around ballroom dance. The result is a portrait of the real people who connect with others, change themselves, and join a world that foxtrots to its own rules, conventions, and rewards. Bosse...
Nothing typifies the national pride of the Americans as much as their determination to celebrate in song even the most mundane of their towns and cities. In this book, Mick Brown sets out on a musical journey from coast to coast to find out what such places as Chattanooga Choo-Choo, Memphis, Phoenix, El Paso, Nashville and St Louis are really like and how the myth that we are so familiar with differs from the reality. He also explores what they tell us about America today. Mick Brown is a journa...
Bands structured around western wind instruments are among the most widespread instrumental ensembles in the world. Although these ensembles draw upon European military traditions that spread globally through colonialism, militarism and missionary work, local musicians have adapted the brass band prototype to their home settings, and today these ensembles are found in religious processions and funerals, military manoeuvres and parades, and popular music genres throughout the world. Based on thei...
The Sociology of Wind Bands (Ashgate Popular and Folk Music)
by Vincent Dubois, Jean-Matthieu Meon, and Emmanuel Pierru
Despite the musical and social roles they play in many parts of the world, wind bands have not attracted much interest from sociologists. The Sociology of Wind Bands seeks to fill this gap in research by providing a sociological account of this musical universe as it stands now. Based on a qualitative and quantitative survey conducted in northeastern France, the authors present a vivid description of the orchestras, the backgrounds and practices of their musicians, and the repertoires they play....
Women's Bands in America is the first comprehensive exploration of women's bands across the three centuries in American history. Contributors trace women's emerging roles in society as seen through women's bands-concert and marching-spanning three centuries of American history. Authors explore town, immigrant,industry, family, school, suffrage, military, jazz, and rock bands, adopting a variety of methodologies and theoretical lenses in order to assemble and interrogate their findings within the...