Thesis (Ph. D.--Music)--University of California, San Diego, 1997. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 357-367).

This thesis explores the links between handbag dance music and gay male culture. Handbag (colloquial British slang for ‘uplifting,’ ‘girly’ remixes of Top 40 songs and similar club material) is frequently derided within club culture for being predictable, formulaic, and ‘commercial.’ However, the same music is hugely popular within gay male clubs. Significantly, handbag tends to retain clear song structures, as opposed to the more open-ended instrumental ‘tracks’ which are the norm in electronic dance music. Why would a marginalised group adopt such a low-status music as its own? Why does handbag have such low status in the first place? This thesis argues that the field of ‘electronic dance music’ is rife with distinctions between ‘credible’ dance music and ‘commercial trash,’ and that these distinctions are frequently used to downplay song-based genres. The pleasures of handbag can be better understood if we pay attention to the ways that ‘songs’ (rather than instrumental ‘tracks’) have always played an important role in club music. Love in the First Degree questions an emerging orthodoxy in sociology and popular music studies: that issues of identity can only be approached ethnographically. By interrogating the music itself, the thesis explores the ways in which musical conventions can be deployed to arouse desire on the dance floor—and the reasons that these musical strategies are particularly useful in gay male clubs. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 309-313). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

From the dumpster-diving spiky haired dykes of the 1990s to the land-loving political lesbian folkies of the 1970s, queer women in Portland, OR have a long history of non-consumer-driven culture making, separatism and guitars. Remember Who You Are: The Story of Portland Dykecore explores the roots of the all-ages dyke-made music scene that exploded between 1990 and 2000.