Thesis (M.A.)--California State University, Chico. / Includes abstract. "Located in the Chico Digital Repository." Includes bibliographical references (p. 138-145).

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Since rock became the subject of academic study, its attendant ideology has been scrutinised and its mythical and Romantic components exposed. Largely absent from this account has been a thorough analysis of the phenomenon of the ‘band’. The role of individual acts and the wider contexts in which they worked has been discussed at the expense of an examination of an important form of music-making. This thesis seeks to address that gap. Using a mixture of literary research and ethnography, I present an overall picture of the band as a modus operandum, charting its evolution during the emergence of rock and presenting evidence that it has become a key means by which people enter and engage with the field of popular music. I suggest that debates about ‘authenticity’ in rock, in seeking to see through industry rhetoric have overlooked the way in which creativity in bands is closely connected to social interaction. My historical analysis brings to light the way in which the group- identified band has become embedded into popular music practice through the power of narratives.Two case studies, contextualised with archival material and interviews, form the basis for a model for collective creativity. By demonstrating how social action and narrative myth feed into one another, I argue that the group identity of a band is the core of the industrially mediated texts to which audiences respond. Our understanding of how authenticity is ascribed in popular music, and rock in particular, has paid too much attention to genre-based arguments and not enough to musical and social methods. I propose a way of revising this to take better account of rock as an actual practice.

Using a distinctly and deliberately interdisciplinary approach to the subject of religion and spirituality as it presents itself within modern Western Societies today, this thesis argues that Straight Edge hardcore punk is a surrogate for religion. The term surrogate is used to denote the notion of a successor and a protector and provider of nourishment. It has been re-interpreted from Theodore Ziolkowski’s work on the same term in ‘Modes of Faith’, in which he examines surrogates for religion which emerged during the early part of the 20th century. An in-depth study, both theoretical and ethnographic in nature and presentation, of Straight Edge hardcore punk is provided to demonstrate that traditionally held categories of religion, secular, sacred and profane are being dismantled and re-built around ideas of authenticity, community, integrity, d.i.y and spirituality. Through the syncretic practices of the Straight Edge adherents they are de-essentialising religion and thus enabling us to re-consider the question of what religion is or could be. This thesis relies on theoretical ideas, interview quotes, informant quotes, researcher taken photographs, and interviewee created or utilised images, tattoos, graffiti and flyers. All of these are interspersed with song lyrics from various bands relevant to the time period under discussion and the themes being drawn out. Much like the adherents themselves, this thesis exists very much within the space of the ‘in-between’, which creates and reacts to necessary tensions throughout.

The following thesis is an exploration of some of the limits of subcultural theory. Beginning with an overview of British subcultural theory, it uses two examples of contemporary musical practice to provide alternative readings of cultural activity in a global cultural economy. Examining music scenes in Montreal as well as New Zealand music fans in North America, the following is a consideration of the construction of cultural communities across the globe it offers an analysis of the depth and scope of their interactions and how a range of cultural values and meanings are produced, distributed and consumed within those communities. Rather than seeing subcultures as geographically located in specific and discrete locales, I aim to illustrate how the various networks connecting them (whether they be affective alliances or computer-mediated communications) have in many ways realigned these communities along axes which differ from those proposed by earlier subcultural theories.

This thesis introduces the reader to rock music in Durban from 1963 to 1985, tracing the development of rock in Durban from rock'n'roll to hard core punk. Although the thesis is historically orientated, it also endeavours to show the relationship of rock music in Durban to three central themes, viz: the relationship of rock in Durban to the socio-political realities of apartheid in South Africa; the role of women in local rock, and the identity crisis experienced by white, English-speaking South Africans. Each of these themes is explored in a separate chapter, with Chapter Two providing the bulk of historical data on which the remaining chapters are based. Besides the important goal of documenting a forgotten and ignored rock history, one central concern pervades this work. In every chapter, the conclusions reached all point to the identity crisis experienced both by South African rock audiences and the rock musicians themselves. The constant hankering after international (and specifically British) rock music trends both by audiences and fans is symptomatic of a culture in crisis, and it is the search for the reasons for this identity crisis that dominate this work. The global/local debate and its relationship to rock in South Africa has been a useful theoretical tool in the unravelling of the identity crisis mentioned above. Chapter Four focusses on the role of women in the Durban rock scene and documents the difficulties experienced by women who were rock musicians in Durban. This is a small contribution to the increasing field of womens' studies, and I have attempted to relate the role of women in rock in Durban to other studies in this field. / Thesis (M.Mus.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1995.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 196-202). / vi, 202 leaves, bound music 29 cm

Thesis (M.A.)--Cincinnati Christian Seminary, 1985. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 182).

Dissertation (Ph.D.) -- The Institute for Clinical Social Work, 2001. / A dissertation submitted to the faculty of the Institute of Clinical Social Work in partial fulfillment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-260)