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)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/181782 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Renzo, Adrian, University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, School of Communication Arts |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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